PartyWallNotice

[cloggs]

Hi, hope someone out there can help me with the following:

We are extending our current rear extension, the new wall & foundations will be build within our boundary but within 3m of neighbours (detached house) rear of property. Normally this would mean we need to provide neighbours with party wall excavation notice, however when neighbours did rear extension they excavated and ground-to-ground differential is 0.9m for which they have build a retaining wall (without our permission of course) .

Bearing in mind our foundations will be 1.2m depth and given the heavy excavation that has taken place @ No. 42, are we right in thinking that strictly speaking no notice / party wall agreement is required to be given to them? Seems to be a bit of a grey area and would like clarification on the issue. Thank you.

 

[^woody^]

There is no grey area. If you want to excavate within 3m horizontally of a neighbour’s foundations and to a depth below the level of the bottom of their foundations, then you should serve notice.

Further its not just house foundations but those of any “structure” too. So if not the house foundations then you might be caught by the retaining wall foundation depth.

Or within 6m horizontally of their foundation and crossing a 45 degree line the bottom of their foundation.

If you assume (or the designer assumes) that you foundations wont be deeper than theirs, then no notice needs to be served. But if it does when being dug out, then the builder needs to concrete the trench pretty quickly.

 

[cloggs]

Thank you for your comments. Better look into more detail on what "structure" actually entails and whether it includes the retaining wall, which only is as high as our ground differential.

I don't like assumptions at the best of time and maybe that's where the grey area is for us as the depth of the neighbours foundations are not known.

 

[^woody^]

Structure is not defined and cab include many things, but a wall is a structure.

 

[tony1851]

If you don't know how deep your neighbour's foundations are, why should you be expected to serve a Notice?

 

[Footsoldier888]

Tony this is exactly it.

I was on the other side a few years back, next door were 1m away and were intending to excavate. I looked into it and found that there is no enforcement action available had they not served me a PWA notice. There is a myth about saying you have to issue a notice but the reality is you don't due to the lack of enforcement available to the other party.

But the thing is if you don't issue a PWA notice and the other party suffers damage the burden of proof is reversed and it falls on you to prove their damage was not a result of your building works.

So given the seriousness of the works it is in the OP's interest to issue a PWA notice despite the potential cost (you can hardly blame the other side for appointing their own surveyor).

It might cost some money but it does contain your liability in that it the burden of proof is still on the other party.

If something really bad happens there is a resolution process as opposed to a hugely expensive high court case.