Party Wall Act. Can I ignore it?

[Rach392]

I live in a red brick semi detached property. My neighbour has a single storey extension to the rear. I want to do the same. When I had plans drawn up it became apparent that the neighbours have crossed the party wall line by approx a brick and a half with their extension. Ok, well I'm a reasonable person, it was there years previous to me living here. Bit annoying but....anyway spoke to neighbour and asked if I could tie our brickwork in with his when we do the extension. Also having a gap between properties is not good due to damp etc so he was fine. Since then I have given him plans and told him I was keen to get started asap and informed him my builder was free to do job asap. I said I'd serve PWN, he'd never heard of one before, although I didn't give him two months notice, reason being he'd been ok and I thought he'd just sign it Tbh. It was at this point he started to get funny, saying he wasn't happy with us digging near to his foundations. He wants another skin of breeze blocks against party wall which I'm not prepared to do because I'm losing even more space, the builder said he would put some kingspan against wall for noise reduction as he was wittering about that too. He seemed ok(ish) at that. Said he'd sign PWN after he got back from holiday. He said we could start the build but not build against his wall until he comes back, which although annoying we did as asked. Anyway building control came, apparently we cannot tie our bricks in with his extension as his isn't even straight. So we will be building next to it. Anyway he's back from holiday and we have knocked on his door etc to ask how we move forward but he seems to be avoiding us. What will happen if we just go ahead and build our extension. It's so frustrating especially as his wall is on our property. It's a cheek and a joke now, the guys extension isn't the best, building control guy said it's not even straight, leans forward at the top. His bricks don't even match his house, Can we be made to take it down what will happen if I go ahead and build??

 

[Rach392]

View attachment 102129

 

[mattylad]

Just in case anyone else also has a problem reading a long diatribe without spaces or line breaks. (buy a KB with a space bar and enter key)

Yes you can ignore the PWA.
It's been said many times on here.

If his wall is not good enough to tie into then you are probably better off using your own.

I live in a red brick semi detached property.
My neighbour has a single storey extension to the rear. I want to do the same.
When I had plans drawn up it became apparent that the neighbours have crossed the party wall line by approx a brick and a half with their extension. Ok, well I'm a reasonable person, it was there years previous to me living here.
Bit annoying but....anyway spoke to neighbour and asked if I could tie our brickwork in with his when we do the extension. Also having a gap between properties is not good due to damp etc so he was fine.

Since then I have given him plans and told him I was keen to get started asap and informed him my builder was free to do job asap.
I said I'd serve PWN, he'd never heard of one before, although I didn't give him two months notice, reason being he'd been ok and I thought he'd just sign it Tbh. It was at this point he started to get funny, saying he wasn't happy with us digging near to his foundations.
He wants another skin of breeze blocks against party wall which I'm not prepared to do because I'm losing even more space, the builder said he would put some kingspan against wall for noise reduction as he was wittering about that too. He seemed ok(ish) at that.

Said he'd sign PWN after he got back from holiday. He said we could start the build but not build against his wall until he comes back, which although annoying we did as asked.
Anyway building control came, apparently we cannot tie our bricks in with his extension as his isn't even straight. So we will be building next to it.

Anyway he's back from holiday and we have knocked on his door etc to ask how we move forward but he seems to be avoiding us. What will happen if we just go ahead and build our extension. It's so frustrating especially as his wall is on our property.
It's a cheek and a joke now, the guys extension isn't the best, building control guy said it's not even straight, leans forward at the top. His bricks don't even match his house, Can we be made to take it down what will happen if I go ahead and build??

 

[jeds]

Can we be made to take it down...

No.

...what will happen if I go ahead and build??

Nothing, unless you cause some damage, so Just make sure you don't cause any damage. The way you might cause some damage is by seriously undermining foundations or vibrations. Don't do any of those and you'll be ok.

Get your foundation dug and poured quickly. The PWA cannot be applied retrospectively so doesn't apply once the foundations are in.

 

[wessex101]

Yes you can ignore the Party Wall Act but obviously it carries a risk. You will be responsible for any damage caused and of course without a party wall award you have no way of proving what damage may have been pre-existing. If the neighbour decides to get all legal you will probably have to pay their legal bills, the courts don't like people who willfully ignore statutory legislation. However demolition of your extension is not a possibility.

Having said that the Party Wall Act can be your friend. If the neighbour has built the wall astride the boundary it automatically becomes a party wall, you have rights over half so you can use it. Strictly speaking you should pay half the cost of building the wall but if the build quality is dubious you could probably negotiate.