On 23/07/2017 17:01, Bert Coules wrote:
"Robin" wrote:

a. did you serve notice in accordance with the Party Wall Act?

Unfortunately, this wasn't done, initially because the neighbour
declared that "we shouldn't be bothered with all that" and latterly
(when I fully intended to send him at least an informal letter outlining
my intentions) because it was simply overlooked.


You are not the first to have done that. And you can't serve a notice
after the work has been done.

Where work has caused physical damage to a neighbour's property the
Party Wall Act process can be used by agreement among the parties to
sort it out. But I don't think that's much use to you at this stage -
the more so as I assume that if you have encroached then a physical
solution (ie rebuilding) is something you'd only want to contemplate
after exploring legal routes such as a acquiring a "flying freehold".

The only suggestions I feel able to offer a

a. if you seek a surveyor's advice on whether or not the work has
encroached it might be worth engaging one who also works as a party wall
surveyor; and

b. if you phone the RICS helpline (024 7686 8555) you should get some
free advice - albeit of course advice which might involve engaging a
RICS surveyor in addition to, if not instead of, a solicitor


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid