Can neighbours builder knocked out the partition breeze block in loft?

[Hootie01]

Hi..new to this forum and would love some advice. Trying to sell our house and now this has happened.

Our neighbours have just started a loft conversion. The wife told us they where having it done 3 weeks ago and they don't need planning permission. That's fine.
We have not had anything in writing from them or the council and we are wondering if all is at it should be.
They started work on Friday. I could hear them going through some brick work and loads of rubble fell between the two houses. I stood in the front bedroom and listened to this happening
The builders left early as rain set in.
Before they went I overheard there conversation with my neighbours.
The builder said he had to cut a small hole in a breeze block and laughed it off saying it fine and my neighbour thought this was hilarious
He also said loads of stuff had fallen down between but no one would know about this and that would be ok.

I wanted to call the council but hubs said to leave it until he had been up in the loft at weekend.
So at the front right hand side of the loft a whole breeze block has been smashed through and rubble everywhere and you can see in next doors loft. We've taken piccies.
My neighbours have not told us or informed us of this and when I heard them talking with the builders the husband next door was laughing about it.
Is this ok?
Do we call the council building regs department.. I over heard two builders laughing about not needing building regs for something.
We have our house on the market and I should think if someone gets a survey it will come up on that.
Help!

 

[footprints]

Even without building consent I would have expected a party wall agreement as they have to cut into the party wall and Building regs apply even if planning is not required.
A call to the council building dept would be the first step for you.

Any items in the loft damaged by the rubble would be the builders responsibility.

 

[^woody^]

You've got dodgy crap builders, and a major fire risk.

They should have followed the Party Wall Act, and if you want to, can apply for an injunction to stop work and engage surveyors to look after your interests. All this at your neighbours expense. But initially you will need to pay for the solicitor to sort this out for you - but your home insurance should cover this.

All this has nothing to do with building regulations, and whilst you may want to check those with the council, they are not there for your interests, and it wont help one bit with these cowboys.

Check your insurance policy and get the work stopped. That will certainly stop the laughing.

 

[Hootie01]

Thanks Woody. I will call the insurance company. We will struggle to find money for this initially. Is there anything they can do that will cost us more money as in terms of solicitors.
Is there a part of the council that will be interested like fire safety Woody. ??

 

[^woody^]

The building control team will only really be interested in the building works and compliance on completion. They may advise the neighbour on how to do things safely when building, but that's all it will be.

The environmental health team could get involved with this as it does have wider public health issues, but I suspect that they will just refer you to the building control team, or try and say that it's a private matter. If you are persistent then you should be able to get them to come out. But the bottom line will be that they will just make the neighbour take precautions whilst building. Not much else, and not much help.

The Party Wall Act normally applies to loft conversions. This is because beams invariably need to be placed into the party wall. It is possible that they have other plans and wont need to touch the party wall, but that is rare. The fact that you heard rubble drop and there is a hole seems to imply that the Act will apply. The councils building control officer should be able to tell you what they are going to do.

This Act is is a private matter between property owners, but is a legal requirement and is enforced via the civil court. All the costs of the Act (ie surveyors costs, special precautions when building, and other fees) are payable by the person doing the work. In pursuing an injunction, you can recover all legal costs from the other person, but you or your insurers will be responsible for them initially. But you need to ensure that the Act does apply - ie from the deposited plans or asking how the work is to be done. The court will grant an injunction and costs if the Act applies, but not if it does not.

The best thing would be for you to reach a compromise with the neighbour.

If you put it to the neighbour that an injunction and instigation of the full Party Wall procedure could cost him as much as his loft conversion, then he may be willing to listen.

Otherwise, check your home policy to see if you are covered for legal action to protect the property.

www.gov.uk/party-wall-etc-act-1996-guidance

www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/consumer-guides/party-walls-guide/

You say that you are selling, but this procedure should not impact on that. However if during the party wall procedure you get a buyer, then that could rack up even more costs for the neighbour.

 

[big-all]

one point to note
you must declare any disputes when selling a house
so its worth going the extra mile to come to an amicable agreement

 

[^woody^]

Using the PWA won't be a dispute in the sale context.

 

[big-all]

Using the PWA won't be a dispute in the sale context.

yes i understand that bit its more iff they refuse to go the correct route

 

[Hootie01]

I have just found out from council they are using a private approved inspector called JHAI Limited and the council can do nothing.
We can put a letter through there door asking them to stop as they have not served the party wall notice.
Going to call this comp at nine. There's probably a legal loop that means they can do what they want.
My neighbours are arrogant and pretentious so I'm sure they would stitch us up good and proper.

Thanks : Hootie

 

[Stingray13]

If they are breaking into the party wall then they should of notified you under the PWA, you will need a PWA Surveyor and probably a solicitor as you will need to get yourself am injunction. you can find more information here

You can find a suitable party-wall surveyor here

With this sort of stuff it is really important its done correctly

 

[^woody^]

You can phone that private inspector and ask them the questions regarding what's being done to the party wall.

You can also [casually] ask the inspector if they have reminded their customer of their duty to serve a PW notice if it applies - because you will mention that professional obligation when you apply for your inunction.

 

[Nakajo]

Irritatingly, the PWA includes no provision for failure of implementation. But the courts have previously taken an extremely dim view of parties who have not enacted/complied with the provisions of the Act when they should.

 

[endecotp]

Take photos of everything and make sure you have detailed written notes of what you overheard.

 

[Hootie01]

An update: we contacted our insurers who put us onto legal department. Hubs then wrote a letter stating that work should stop as they had broken the party wall agreement.
That if they hadn't sorted the issues stated out within seven days then our insurers legal team would be taking it on.
It worked and the company will not be doing the same the other side. The builders will be at our house tmrw morning at ten to remedy the problem.
My neighbours in my opinion are disingenuous and were hoping we wouldn't notice a missing breeze block and the rubble all over the place.
So if we hadn't of took action they would have just carried on.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well done, let's see what happens now .......