Roof lift without planning permission

[gritt]

Hi I hope someone could help and give a little advice on this matter.

Our neighbours was having a loft conversion and they somehow managed to miss calculate things or were trying to get extra head hight who knows, but they ended up raising their roof on their semi-detached house by several inches.

Because damage was caused to our roof and the people next door weren't bothered we contacted the council to tell them about the ridge now being higher than ours. After over 4 weeks the man from the local authority came and this is what his reply was.

"As the work is being overseen by an Approved Building Inspector, the Council have no authority to inspect the work for compliance with the Building Regulations.

In its capacity as Local Planning Authority, the Council cannot take issue with the standard of workmanship. The slight increase in ridge height does amount to a technical breach of planning control, but this breach causes no material harm to the street scene or wider area and it would not be expedient for the Council to take planning enforcement action in this case."

He said it was a civil mater and to take it to court.

Is this kind of response common practise for all the council's?

The the gap between the 2 roofs has just been filled with cement and is peeing in on our side.

Thanks

 

[gritt]

View attachment 279543

 

[gritt]

.

 

[^woody^]

Yes, both responses are correct, and the planning response is normal.

However you may like to pursue the planning response with a formal complaint if you feel it to be inappropriate or wrong.

 

[jeds]

Did they serve a party wall notice? If not you may be able to apply for an injunction to stop work. This would depend on whether they have breached a PWA condition, so you need advice on that. Contact a local PWA surveyor and ask for a site visit.

On the other matters, the local authority have no jurisdiction over the standard of building works unless they breach regulations or become dangerous. They have also decided that enforcement is not reasonable, so that's it on that. Apart from that it is a civil matter between you and the neighbour.

 

[gritt]

Thanks for the reply, There was no party wall notice and only 3 days notice before the work started. We didnt have the work stopped as we didnt know any of this at the time.

We tried to tell our neighbours but they just told us to get over it and didn't want to listen they made us jump through hoops saying they wanted proof of the damage so we got our own surveyor who came out. My solicitor sent them the report and now they're saying that our surveyor is lying and they dispute everything that's been said in the report. I tried to smooth it over with them before all of this and as soon a i left they rang the police on me. Looks like court is the way forward we have a part 35 report so i guess thats all that is left to do.

Thanks again for the replys

 

[kingandy2nd]

Check your home insurance for legal expense cover…it should help with exactly this sort of stuff

 

[gritt]

We Didnt have home insurance annoyingly.

 

[jeds]

In a weird twist, not having served a PW notice may work in your favour. The courts have limited power when a PW award is in place because the surveyors deal with issues arising. But in the absence of an award, the courts can find anything they feel appropriate. PWA cases where no notice was served tend to lead to much higher awards of costs to adjoining owners.

 

[mrrusty]

@jeds - you beat me to it part way through my post, but I've started so I'll finish.....The good news, in some ways is that you don't have a PW agreement as this will tend to reverse the obligation to prove. who caused the damage. With a PWA in place, you would have to prove damage was caused by them, without one, they will now most likely have to prove they did not!

Get heavy quickly - you have a surveyors report - make sure your solicitor is properly familiar with this subject (you don't really want a family law and conveyancing solicitor doing specialised building claims) and go for it. You may also need a quote for remedial work. I think you will win without too much hassle, simply because there are two indisputable facts 1) there is no PWA and 2) there is damage.

You could even try and claim loss of value due to it looking **** on a semi - not sure how that would fly though as it's more subjective. Here's a case I found quickly. https://www.morrlaw.com/party-wall/...ezon1*_ga*NzM1MzQ0MzI4LjE2NjMxNzAxODc.*_up*MQ..

 

[gritt]

@mrrusty our solicitor deals with property litigation (we fell foul the first time as we got the wrong type of solicitor but we live and learn )

The report our surveyor provided had a breakdown of all costs and damage that been caused and a breakdown of cost to fix (its the expert report that you can take to court)

We tried to settle out of court but they said we were lying once we were proved right.

Even if we win getting any money off them will be a drag, its cost a small fortune so far and they've not had to pay a penny out.

Cheers

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

What is the damage?

 

[mrrusty]

Even if we win getting any money off them will be a drag

You have no option really, but to take to court. Sounds like you will win, and getting the money should be possible after a court case, because there are various "heavy" tactics you can use, including sheriffs.

 

[gritt]

A brick has feel out in our the loft on the party wall and we can see their new timber. The roof has no bonding gutter they raised the roof by a good few inches so water is pouring in when its rains.
The builders couldn't access part of the roof via their side so accessing the roof on our side and the slates have disloged on both roofs and some have fallen off into our garden. And we have 2 holes in our roof and damaged the flashing. There is more but thats the bones of it.

 

[^woody^]

You can't injunct on PW issues for work that is completed. Also, if you could claim on PW issues you are limited to the specific PW works, not any old building works that you want to chance.

If a claim does head to court, you should have a single joint expert report agreed by both parties. Or if you are going to rely on your own surveyor, ensure he is actually an expert and can comment (via experience and qualification) on the things he is commenting on. If the othert side has a better single expert, you are at a big disadvantage

It looks to me that this is a normal property damage claim under negligence, not a PW matter. Your legal advisor will advise on choosing the appropriate route to prevent any claim being struck out, but you may also want to include the builders and designer(s) as joint defendants.