Schedule of Condition - Loft Space

Most surveyors dread them, those long ago closed-down projects that rise up during the busy work week with a vengeance. Usually, it is in the form of an email from an adjoining owner indignantly claiming damages caused as a result of works to the party wall.

Chimney breast supported on gallows brackets

Generally speaking, the smaller the amount of alleged reported damage the more potentially troublesome this can be for the surveyor whose job it is to trawl through his schedule of conditions and pictures in the valiant hope that he has sufficient records on which to entertain or reject the claim.

With larger claims for damages it is much more likely the surveyor has sufficient records to show that the badly cracked wall reported was either already noted at the time the schedule was undertaken or was not and is therefore a new development resulting from the works potentially. 

But where the surveyor neglects to bring along a ladder to the schedule of condition in order to access the loft space there is the potential that the surveyor will have little records on which to base or reject a claim when it relates to the loft space.

The above is a picture of a chimney breast terminated in the loft space and supported on gallows brackets. It was photographed in the loft space of the adjoining owner. 

The trained eye will spot a number of problems with this setup. The brickwork is in poor condition, there are missing screws on the top right and top left (top left is not showing in the picture). Luckily, the breast is relatively short, narrow and not overly thick and so there is not too much loading on this flimsy brackets arrangement. 

However, this was not a static situation. The building owner was about to start works that involved the hacking out of the chimney breast on the opposite side. Chances were not good that this arrangement would survive the operation.

Thankfully, the building owner never got the chance to find out one way or the other as we included a clause in the award requiring him to add support to the neighbour's chimney breast before commencing works. (In the end he decided to remove the breast and chimneys on top instead).

A panicked phone call from an adjoining owner describing the moment one tonne of chimney breast came tumbling down into their living space below is not high up on any surveyor's wish list.

It is central to the party wall surveyor's role to protect the adjoining owner from this risk in the wording of the Award.


BH Party Wall Surveyors is a London-based party wall surveying company offering advice and party wall services to building owners and adjoining owners. Readers should always take their own professional advice and not rely on the information provided here particularly given that no two situations are identical. www.bhpwsurveyors.co.uk


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