On Fri, 4 May 2007 11:58:12 +0100 Andy Hall wrote :
Which does beg the question of whether this is yet another piece of
legislation which attempts to address a problem that doesn't really
exist, does so poorly and ineffectively because people don't know how
to use it, and therefore achieves little or nothing.

I don't recall hearing horror stories of houses falling down prior to
1986 because of this.....

It's one of those cases where most of the time there is no apparent
benefit, just cost. But without the PWA if your neighbour sets about doing
works that are likely to be problematic you can do nothing until actual
damage is caused. At which point he will say that the cracks in your wall
were there before he started work.

Operated sensibly, you give notice to the AO who gets his surveyor (who
sensibly could be your surveyor on a small job) to review what is
proposed, ensure there are no issues to be addressed agrees a schedule of
condition of the wall on his side. That, inter alia, gives you protection
against false claims of damage.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk