Party Wall Advice – Sorry!

Realise I need proper legal advice but just seeing what the Singletrack mind knows.

New neighbour has bought the nextdoor house and started building an extension – just had a friend ask if I’d consented to it under the party wall act? Never heard of that before the question – a quick google and it seems he dug his foundations deeper than mine and within 3m of my house so at first glance looks like he should have been obliged to serve a notice on me, except he didn’t.

What’s my position on this? Does his failure to serve a notice cause me any risk? Don’t want to be an arse about this but do want to protect my house if there’s any risk.

Cheers.

He should have served a Notice of Adjacent Excavation on you. You would have been able to ‘consent’ or ‘dissent” and appoint a Surveyor (who your neighbour would have paid for). As he didn’t it gets a little difficult.  You could write to him pointing out the error of his ways and asking him to serve notice but it’s a bit late now he has dug the foundations. Under common law (ie not the Party Wall etc Act) you can seek redress from him for any damage his work has caused, but you would need to be able to prove it.

I am not a party wall surveyor.. but my understanding is that the act is there to protect you and facilitate redress if needed. If nothing goes wrong it’s not needed.

First port of call for me would be to have a chat with the neighbour. Then off that possibly building control to see if you’ve got anything to be concerned about. But mostly if they aren’t being dicks then don’t sweat it.

And I’d make sure you get some pics of the work / excavation before the foundations go in etc. Very unlikely to be needed, but hard to show how much was excavated etc once it’s got a big extension sat on it!

First case would be to pop over and have a chat though – he may be in total ignorance, but I’d certainly want a quick look from a professional to confirm it wasn’t going to cause me any problems.

Thanks for the thoughts – will wander round and have a friendly word.

Cheers