Party Wall Advice - Surveyor Refusing to Act

[welshboy166]

Hi,

I'm planning an internal remodeling of my home and loft conversion.
For such I'll need a party wall notice to be served to the owner of
the adjoining property (it's currently let). I have learned from the
letting agent that the owner plans on dissenting the party wall notice
regardless and he has given me the contact details of the surveyor who
he will appoint.

So as to keep costs and delays to a minimum I have contacted this
surveyor asking him to act as the Agreed Surveyor (as per the Act) and to prepare the notice that I need. This means there would be no contention with the notice and he can go ahead and prepare the Schedule of Condition and Award. He has refused to prepare the notices, will not act as an Agreed Surveyor evn though it is encouraged in the Act and RICS guidelines and is only interested in acting for the neighbour.

From my reading of the Party Wall Act and RICS guidelines, the
surveyors should be impartial and therefore acting for both parties is
not a problem. From his response I am concerned that he will not be
impartial at all. What can I do about this?

Help greatly appreciated
Lee

 

[king100]

I am going to be stupid but under what section of the PWA have you sent him?

 

[welshboy166]

We've not served notice yet as we are waiting on the structural drawings to be completed. i was hoping that the same surveyor could do Notice through to Award (as the neighbour will dissent whatever).

I believe the section would be Section 2 of the Act.

 

[king100]

From my dealings with the PWA, I believe

that by appointing an agreed surveyor would be in best interest, as he has come back and stated that he you need to speak to his surveyor I personally wouldent use him.

I would get my own surveyor, you will have to pay for his anyway but it cannot be deamed as excessive fees. I would ask him what his fees are going to be to deal with this matter.

I got quoted to deal with a PWA dispute around the £500 mark. So I would be looking around that mark.

 

[welshboy166]

He has quoted £125 + vat per hour and on average it would take him 6 hours to act on the neighbours behalf i.e. £900. Plus the £1000 or so I have to pay for my own. I just feel it's a bit excessive to pay twice for the same thing and are hoping I can come to some agreement with the owner in advance though I doubt this will happen.

 

[jeds]

Unfortunately you can't force a surveyor to take your instruction. If the adjoining owners surveyor won't act you will have to appoint your own.

It does annoy me because you are trying to follow the sensible route only to be blocked by a surveyor - who I would have hoped would be a bit more helpful.

 

[welshboy166]

This surveyor is even a Fellow of RICS so you would have expected a modicum of integrity and follow the guidelines.

The whole things seems like a farce to me. Why the adjoining owner doesn't have to pay at least some of the fees is beyond me.

 

[king100]

He has quoted £125 + vat per hour and on average it would take him 6 hours to act on the neighbours behalf i.e. £900. Plus the £1000 or so I have to pay for my own. I just feel it's a bit excessive to pay twice for the same thing and are hoping I can come to some agreement with the owner in advance though I doubt this will happen.

Well I managed to get a surveyor to come over for free in regards to PWA, sort of free consultation.

Does that 6 hours involve him having a nap for 5 hours. I cant see how it would take it that long, but hey Im not a surveyor.

 

[king100]

This surveyor is even a Fellow of RICS so you would have expected a modicum of integrity and follow the guidelines.

The whole things seems like a farce to me. Why the adjoining owner doesn't have to pay at least some of the fees is beyond me.

It would be great if somewhere it said if you want your own surveyor you pay for it, if you dont we use a mutual surveyor and I will pay for it.

 

[^woody^]

Exactly what work are you planning which will invoke the Act?

If you don't need the Act for gaining access, and if the work content will take a brief period of time (eg placing a beam in to the party wall) then I'd be inclined to ignore the Act, and by the time the work is done the adjoining owner can't do anything about it

And you would be wise to give no further information to the neighbours or letting agents regarding your proposed work. Don't say a word, and just get the builders in, and if asked, just say that you are doing some internal work

 

[paulandfrodo]

If it looks like a PWA might be needed and I'm the one doing the work. I offer the person it is likely to effect £xxx worth of work/man power to do whatever they might want doing on their house. I would rather do that than give it to a surveyor. I've used one ONCE and never again... Just go take photo's, give each party a digital copy, job done !

 

[welshboy166]

Unfortunately we've already told them about the work we plan to do and there's no going back. The builders I've talked to also weren't keen on doing work without the PWA in place.

FYI the work is removing a couple of chimney breasts (so inserting a steel in the loft) and possible a full loft conversion which includes building up the party wall.

No going back I'm afraid and I've resigned myself to shelling out a couple of grand for something which is basically a piece of paper saying "I promise not to damage your house and if I do I'll pay for it's repair"

 

[paulandfrodo]

Well, I suppose you can satisfy yourself by making a hell of a lot of noise ! I assure you, it really does make yourself feel better - perhaps not £1,000 better - but it does help !

I know, it's a waste of money ! Can't help any more !

 

[bu1ld1ng51]

Hi,
While investigating your question i came across a site that might help clear things up.http://www.partywallsurveyors.co.uk/