Hi
Apologies if this post is confusing but I'm beyond confused by the Party Wall Act and am looking for some advice. We have planning permission to build a single-storey extension on the lower ground floor of our flat, going back about 3 metres. The flat is a converted flat in a row of Victorian terraces. The houses date back to about 1860 so probably don't have very deep foundations.
I think I've worked out that we would need to serve notices as follows:
1) Upstairs neighbours – Party Structure notice; and
2) Notice of Adjacent Excavations for the two next-door neighbours.
My question comes about because two of the neighbours (upstairs included) are leaseholders with the council being the freeholder, and the other neighbour is a council tenant. So I understand that I need to serve the council in all three cases, both leaseholders and the tenant. I was thinking that I could serve the notices myself using the templates that are available on line but when I contacted the council to ask them who to send these to they said I would need to appoint a surveyor and they recommended the surveyor they use. I guess given the state some of the walls may be in being an 1860s property it probably makes sense to use a surveyor anyway but my questions are, should I use their recommendation or appoint my own? Will it keep the cost down if I use theirs? Also, do they have to appoint a surveyor or can they just sign the agreement and consent to not appointing one?
The initial quote I got from their surveyor was £2800 + VAT to serve all notices. Does that seem reasonable or steep?
Also, one last question - we are starting the process of buying the freehold along with our upstairs neighbours. This process can take 6 weeks. Are we better to wait till that has gone through before we serve the notices?
Hope all of that makes sense and sorry for the long post - I just can't figure this whole thing out.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
CET
Apologies if this post is confusing but I'm beyond confused by the Party Wall Act and am looking for some advice. We have planning permission to build a single-storey extension on the lower ground floor of our flat, going back about 3 metres. The flat is a converted flat in a row of Victorian terraces. The houses date back to about 1860 so probably don't have very deep foundations.
I think I've worked out that we would need to serve notices as follows:
1) Upstairs neighbours – Party Structure notice; and
2) Notice of Adjacent Excavations for the two next-door neighbours.
My question comes about because two of the neighbours (upstairs included) are leaseholders with the council being the freeholder, and the other neighbour is a council tenant. So I understand that I need to serve the council in all three cases, both leaseholders and the tenant. I was thinking that I could serve the notices myself using the templates that are available on line but when I contacted the council to ask them who to send these to they said I would need to appoint a surveyor and they recommended the surveyor they use. I guess given the state some of the walls may be in being an 1860s property it probably makes sense to use a surveyor anyway but my questions are, should I use their recommendation or appoint my own? Will it keep the cost down if I use theirs? Also, do they have to appoint a surveyor or can they just sign the agreement and consent to not appointing one?
The initial quote I got from their surveyor was £2800 + VAT to serve all notices. Does that seem reasonable or steep?
Also, one last question - we are starting the process of buying the freehold along with our upstairs neighbours. This process can take 6 weeks. Are we better to wait till that has gone through before we serve the notices?
Hope all of that makes sense and sorry for the long post - I just can't figure this whole thing out.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
CET
