retrospective party wall dispute
 

I would like to build a side extention to my property. The next door
neighbour built a side extention, about eight years ago.They built
upto and just past ( by a couple of inches ) the party wal lline. They
didn't ask us and to be honest at the time I wasn't aware of the party
wall act. At the time i only asked the council about planning
permission. So now I want to build a side extension adjoining his. He
verbally agreed a couple of weeks ago , subject to looking at the
plans.Today we ( not the royal we . me and the builder) met him today
and he said he was still 'considering'. Does anyone have any info if
there is a time limit to issusing him with a dispute over his
infringement of the party wall act, albeit 8 years ago from when his
was built.

nthng2snet (replacename) wrote:

and he said he was still 'considering'. Does anyone have any info if
there is a time limit to issusing him with a dispute over his
infringement of the party wall act, albeit 8 years ago from when his
was built.

what would you hope to achieve by doing that?

NT

and he said he was still 'considering'.

AIUI, you don't need his permission. If he didn't want you using "his" wall,
then he shouldn't have built it as a party one, but set it back 30cm from
the boundary line. You are required to pay for his surveyor, though, if he
wishes to employ one.

Christian.

I'd be surprised if they got planning permission to build up to and on top of the party wall/boundary line. My council would never have granted this, I know because I asked them.

Can you describe it better? is this in what was previously a garden? what sort of boundary wall did you have before? and now presumably nextdoors extension protrudes a few inches onto your side beyond the wall/fence that was there previously.

I'm sure you can come to an agreement with him to agree for you to tie in to his extension. If you can't you could go down the route of getting nasty with him, solicitors letters telling him he is trespassing on your property and asking him to remove the offending structure. (this is why planning authorities do not allow building on top of the boundary).

Wig

In article , Wig wrote:
I'd be surprised if they got planning permission to build up to and
on top of the party wall/boundary line. My council would never have
granted this, I know because I asked them.

The fact that what is proposed is not on your own land is not a reason
for refusing PP. You can apply for permission to do something on a site
that you do not own any part of - most usually done as a prospective
purchaser, but I have known a local environmental group do this to
establish the fact that site x could be used for y, and not turned into
flats.

The only restriction is that if your application is for, or includes,
land which you do not own, you have to serve a notice on the owner of
said land. The fact that such as notice has not been served will not
generally invalidate any permission that has been granted (except in the
case of fraud), but it does render you liable to being prosecuted, and
of course the fact that you have PP does not give you any rights to
build over your boundary.

In this case if the wall has been built over the boundary then ISTM
(IANAL) that the adjoining owner has two choices: rebuild it on his side
of the boundary, or accept it as a party wall.

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