Neighbour complaint - damaged party wall - advice please

[Damselindistress999]

Hello.

I need some advice please. A while back we stripped off the old lime render in our house - it was crumbling and not up to much! As part of this work we removed the render on our party wall as gently as we could...

Clearly not gently enough Our neighbours have complained we've damaged their lime render on their side of the party wall. Ive been to see and yes there are some cracks on two of their walls upstairs and downstairs.

We've apologised and offered to pay for repairs. However our neighbours have now gotten quotes for the complete stripping back and plastering of both walls. At a cost of over £2000. We just can't afford this.

It seems unfair to have to pay for the whole walls to be redone - especially as this is a job that should have been done when their house was modernised (it wasn't - the lime render was just skimmed over).

So I guess I'm looking for any advise. Anyone been in this situation? Anyone here a plasterer who can advice on the right course if action. Anyone who can advise from a level POV? I really want to remain friendly with our neighbours but I feel pushed into a corner. So worried.

Please help!

 

[phatboy]

If the render on your side was so deteriorated, would be reasonable to assume theirs was the same and could simply have failed of its own accord?

If you have acted reasonably, then I cannot see how they can blame you. Could the same damage have occurred if you had pushed a sofa against the wall? After all, removal of loose plaster doesn't take much force....

 

[geraldthehamster]

I don't know how extensive the damage is but it's not unlikely that some of it is down to the idiocy of skimming over flexible, breathable lime render with rigid gypsum plaster. So maybe part of the responsibility lies with whoever did that.

If it can be done amicably, one approach might be to get a quote for the necessary localised repair and redecoration, offer to pay that, then if they want to take the opportunity to strip it all back and redo it properly, they could pay for the rest.

The less charitable approach would be to ask them to prove it wasn't like that before, which they couldn't, and pay nothing. But personally I really wouldn't do that. Good relations with one's neighbours are worth maintaining.

Cheers
Richard

 

[stevethespreader]

2000 seems excessive for 2 walls how big are the walls? And what materials are being specified in the quote? Ask to have a look at the quote and post it on here, you may or may not be responsible for the cracks , what I can tell you is old walls with lime mortar won't take much knocking to produce cracks , also though there may have been something wrong with their walls to have it reskimmed which may have already had cracks in and was just skimmed over , lime render shouldent be skimmed with multi but quite often is with no Ill effects go in their house and take some pics of the damage if u want people on here to help

 

[Agile]

Obviously to me their lime plaster. just like yours, was in poor condition and the cracking was almost certainly pre existing.

My view would be to offer to repair JUST the new cracking! BUT not to redo the whole wall.

Whilst its nice to be on good terms with neighbours, yours are chancers who want to take advantage of you in a serious way.

They are NOT nice people and you will not have lost anything in my opinion if you totally refuse to be taken advantage of like this!

Nasty people like that should die of painful illnesses!

Tony

 

[geraldthehamster]

They are NOT nice people and you will not have lost anything in my opinion if you totally refuse to be taken advantage of like this!

I don't think we can jump to the conclusion that they're nasty people. Maybe they just don't know a lot about building and construction.

It's worth putting effort into neighbourly relations. The alternative can be a really nasty atmosphere, not to mention future issues getting blown out of proportion.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Agile]

To me anyone who rushes to claim a £2000 job from a very minor mishap is a very nasty person!

I had a slightly similar problem. There was a burst pipe in my terrace house and the water caused a little dampness and discolouration of the party wall in the house next door. But they refused to let me see it!

They wanted my to pay them £900 to fully decorate their through lounge, a job in that cheap area which would usually be about £300-£400.

As I did not respond they told me they would be claiming from their insurance and next wanted me to pay their excess of £300.

Their insurance also wrote to me suggesting that I pay their excess of £200.

So they had hoped to make £100 by fraudently claiming that their excess was higher than it was.

I was totally prepared to pay for a reasonable price but ended up paying nothing at all. I expect they also had a cash back from the decorator.

It seems quite common for repairers of cars to give a cashback of the insurance excess, or at least it used to be.