Party Wall Casebook

 Garage Roofs Built into a Neighbouring Wall Party Wall Implications when converting the garage into an infill extension. Party Wall Advice Creating an L-shaped extension is often proposed where a house is semi-detached and there is an existing garage.  In the pictures below we see a typical example. The roof of the garage slopes down to the house to the right and the roof rafters are built into the the neighbour's flank wall (the front door of the garage is visible to the right side of the two photos).  You may well assume that the owner of the house on the left (the Building Owner) has rights over the neighbour's flank wall to the right (the Adjoining Owner's property) given that the house was built in this manner such that it enclosed on the Adjoining Owner's property, but you would be only partially correct.  In fact, from a legal perspective, the neighbour's flank wall is not a Party Wall because it is built wholly on the neighbour's own land. Rather, the w...

Can you afford a cheap Party Wall Surveyor? If not, I recommend you appoint a more expensive one. Actually, there is no guarantee that spending more will get you a better service. Nor is it a given that spending less will result in a bad service. But you should be suspicious of a surveyor charging significantly below the going rate as they may well have a high output low quality approach to their work.  So what can go wrong. Isn't a Party Wall Award just a formality, just one more hoop to jump through on the way to getting permission to commence building works? In a word 'no'.  Let's assume that Dick is your surveyor of choice as he undercut your next lowest bid by £100. You send him an appointment letter and he proceeds to send out notices. Next thing you know the neighbours are complaining about him and are refusing to accept him as the one agreed surveyor and each is demanding to have their own. Add £3K to your costs.  Then Dick gets into unnec...

It may seem counter-intuitive that the Party Wall Act should allow a building owner to construct a wall for his own use (e.g. in order to enclose on his ground floor extension) partly on his neighbour's land. If you are an adjoining owner reading this, you my be pleased to hear that the Act only allows it in only very specific situations and then only with certain caveats. It is worth noting that even where the building owner does not have the right to build a wall straddling the boundary line, there is nothing to stop him from sending the adjoining owner a notice requesting permission to build such a wall. Where the right does not exist, the adjoining owner need not even reply as there is deemed dissent. So when, you may ask, does the building owner have the right to construct such a wall (following notice) even with the dissent of the adjoining owner? The answer is - 'where there was a pre-existing wall in that position'. For example, there is an existing garde...

So what are the rights of an adjoining owner who has just received a Notice with regards proposed works to be undertaken by his neighbour ('the building owner)'? Can he simply refuse to allow the works to go ahead? The answer to that is not as straightforward as it may first appear. Listed below are various possibilities: Q 1) The building owner has served notice to build an extension with the wall to be built wholly on the building owner's land but has stated in his notice that the foundations will straddle the boundary line. The adjoining owner is concerned about damage to the lawn of his back garden should the proposed wall be built. A 1) The adjoining owner cannot prevent the wall being built wholly in the building owner's land, however he can usually insist that the foundations do not straddle the boundary line but rather, are constructed as 'eccentric' ones wholly on the land of the building owner. Only where the building owner can show ...

Ground Floor Extension - Repairing Damage to a Party Wall Party Wall Connects Extension with House 'Damage' can take a number of forms and the following is just one slightly non-obvious example which involve a ground floor rear extension. The adjoining owner had already built a rear extension partly utilizing an existing party wall. which had previously served as an enclosing wall of a rear garden lavatory. When the lavatory was removed all the walls were removed except the party section. The adjoining owner (as per the picture) had built his extension flank wall enclosing on this party wall and connected a new wall to it which formed the remainder of the flank wall. When you look closely at the party wall you see a vertical line of yellow insulation showing in gaps along the rough brickwork. These gaps in the brickwork no doubt occurred when the rear lavatory walls were removed on both sides.  . The building owner was intending to build his new extension in exact...

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 ...