Just trying to draft a party wall agreement for a loft extension and removal of chimney breast on our side of a semi detached house. In the bit where you have to describe the proposed works I’ve got

• a loft conversion incorporating steel beams which will be placed onto the party wall

• the removal of chimney breasts and support of chimney stack via steel work

Do you think that’s ok, oh wise forum? Anything else I should add/change the wording etc?

Guessing your using “Gallow Brackets” – best check with local building regs inspector as some areas there banned eg – All of Wandsworth in London. There banned as the old brick work can not support the UDL loads.
Seek advice from a Chartered Structural Engineer.

What you’ve written seems ok. There are templates online for the bulk of it but I’d keep the specifics fairly vague so it doesn’t come back to bite you. As above make sure the chimney is properly supported. Not a fan of gallows brackets if you are thinking of going that way.

Party Wall legislation is not straightforward. If I were in the OP’s position I’d be looking for advice from a Party Wall Surveyor, ideally one who was also a Chartered Structural Engineer.

Thanks all.

Just looked at the structural engineers report and it seems that Beam A, holds up the stack

BEAM A – Span 1.4m Chimney Wall – Dead = 2KN/m2 x 1.6m 3.2KN/m

Whatever that actually means There are pages and pages of calculations after this.

Party Wall legislation is not straightforward. If I were in the OP’s position I’d be looking for advice from a Party Wall Surveyor, ideally one who was also a Chartered Structural Engineer

That’s what we were lead to believe, and we engaged a Party Wall Surveyor, when we saw his report and the possible costings of £3k (£180/hr) – although tbf much of this is due to the more complicated nature of the ground floor extension we’re also doing – we found out that most party wall agreements are not that complicated really. It’s only if the other party dissents that things get a little more complicated and expensive, natch.

It’s only if the other party dissents that things get a little more complicated

That’s the issue. No point paying for party wall surveys and the like at this stage. If the neighbour gets fussy they will insist on their own surveyor at your cost anyway. If they are happy then just go with a good structural engineer for the actual work.

I did this a couple of years back – for pretty much the same works.
I just referenced the construction drawings –
“works in accordance with Drawing XXX + XXX”
and included a copy of each drawing with the letter.

worked ok for us…

We are Chartered Building Surveyors and our hourly rate is 110 pounds. We would expect to charge around 700 for a fairly straightforward party wall job. Shop around.

A good surveyor can be worth his weight in gold to avoid any disagreement with neighbours. Ours was in the range of squirrel above, saved a lot of time.

Golly – don’t keep it vague. First principle of contract law IIRC from the paper I dropped at Uni – if you are vague that will benefit the other party in the case of dispute. So vagueness will come back to bite you.

If you get on well with your neighbour it’s irrelevant what you put as they’ll sign it and hand it back without reading it. If they want to be an arse it will cost you £ks regardless…