Single story extension and PWA dispute.

[Notch7]

Of course I haven’t asked to dig a hole on her property. We have dug a trial hole on our side of the boundary to ascertain the depth of her foundations, when if course her head appeared over the fence, and the builder explained to her what we were doing. (no deeper than her foundations) and a surveyor from Building Control is coming today to see if this would suffice.

we have had a letter through the door from solicitors this morning. She acts quick! They’ve accused us of submitting plans, her contesting them, is withdrawing them and cracking on anyway. This isn’t the case, we did submit plans, for the 4m extension however when builders quotes were coming back, we realised we wouldn’t have a contingency so reduced the build to 3m which falls under permitted development. I’ve spoken to the council who confirm that the plans never went live and there were no contests, so it seems she is feeding this solicitors a pack of lies.

I guess we’ll wait to see the outcome from the building control officer with regards to the foundations.

Thanks!

no win no fee liars probably.

your neighbour is a nasty POS….you must avoid any party wall notice at all costs.

 

[rh122]

Thankfully the building control officer has been on site this morning and has confirmed she is more than happy for us to dig to the same level, which is a win for us.

do we still have to serve notice to begin excavations? There’s that much contradicting information out there!

thanks all

 

[^woody^]

No notice under section 6 required.

Also, reply to the solicitor with a simple question or small request for more info. Then they spend time dealing with that, getting back to their client and hopefully getting back to you. All this at over £100 per hour billed to their client. Repeat as necessary.

 

[wessex101]

Of course I haven’t asked to dig a hole on her property. We have dug a trial hole on our side of the boundary to ascertain the depth of her foundations, when if course her head appeared over the fence, and the builder explained to her what we were doing. (no deeper than her foundations) and a surveyor from Building Control is coming today to see if this would suffice.

This is rather confusing. So you dug a trial hole on your property to expose your neighbour's foundations? That would suggest that the neighbours wall is directly abutting the boundary?

So rather than saying you will be "excavating within 3m", exactly how close will the proposed new extension be? Are we getting into "line of junction" territory?

 

[rh122]

This is rather confusing. So you dug a trial hole on your property to expose your neighbour's foundations? That would suggest that the neighbours wall is directly abutting the boundary?

So rather than saying you will be "excavating within 3m", exactly how close will the proposed new extension be? Are we getting into "line of junction" territory?

The shared fence line which establishes the boundary stops just after her extension, so yes her brick wall is visible from my garden. We are leaving a 400mm gap between the build so we are building completely within our, not any shared boundary line which should keep us out of the line of junction territory.

 

[^woody^]

1mm will keep you out of LoJ territory.

So that's 3m out, and 400mm in. Best use of space, or crap design advice?

 

[wessex101]

The shared fence line which establishes the boundary stops just after her extension, so yes her brick wall is visible from my garden. We are leaving a 400mm gap between the build so we are building completely within our, not any shared boundary line which should keep us out of the line of junction territory.

In that case it would seem to be very clear. The PWA does not apply so you do not need to serve notice and can start work at your convenience.

 

[rh122]

1mm will keep you out of LoJ territory.

So that's 3m out, and 400mm in. Best use of space, or crap design advice?

hers is 200mm off the boundary so we have done the same, hence 400mm inbetween builds to account for guttering etc

 

[rh122]

In that case it would seem to be very clear. The PWA does not apply so you do not need to serve notice and can start work at your convenience.

thanks!