Farah Jones

Thank you for your response it’s the local authority who need to sign the build off im worried the local authority will require us to do work we can’t afford ( including removing walls to put in insulation), apart from the cost, we just can’t have the disruption for my parents. The room is their bedroom and wetroom. unfortunately there is no hatch. It’s obvious he has done this on purpose to us as he put in plastic bags to hold in place the “visible” insulation in the cavity walls. In the room he has stuffed something in told is not appropriate and left the rest empty. these builder hasn’t been paid in full ( he continues to threaten us saying he completed the job). This latest revelation looks like it was his contractor - he pretended to be our saviour when the relationship broke down with the builder and took further sums from us to complete the work ( we had wrongly thought at the time he was competent) and he has money on account. these are the pictures taken by friends when we investigated this week . honestly I could cry. A simple 4 week (urgent) project for disabled premises and the nightmare goes on my further query is - will insulation via foam be accepted by the local authority? I know that it has a lot of negative press

We have been trying to complete a small ground floor extension ( with a wetroom) for my parents who are both disabled and seriously unwell. it has been a nightmare that seems never ending. Today our suspicions were confirmed that they did not insulate the cavity walls (save what would have been the visible bits around window and door) or the roof at all. We removed a breeze blocks in an external wall and accessed tgd roof from the front. The inside has been completed ( tiles/ fixtures/painted etc) now by us as we were unaware of the issues. Only the first visit for building control has taken place to date. weve also noticed a crack that has appears outside on the upper corner of the extension as the placement of the breeze blocks was not correct. what can we do? Our desperation to give my parents some dignity with the use of these facilities is overriding. Can we fill cavity walls and roof now with the heat insulation or is this impossible? how do we get past building regs on this? Should we tell them (!) Should we get a surveyor in or is money best spent elsewhere. Any advice gratefully received.

So the risk is if he goes to court claiming trespass / damage? Can you please explain what you meant in the last sentence. He says we will have to pay for his surveyor as I’m confused by what is online. is it because you say the TWA dosent now apply ( presumably because we’ve now started the works?) thank you so much

I would be grateful for any views and advice on the below We have just started work on a small extension for urgently needed ground floor disabled facilities. It is a semi detached house and this small extension will result in both houses extensions being the same length (ie we are not going beyond the neighbours existing extension) There is a gap between the two extensions (ie there is NO shared wall). We were told that we did not need a Party Wall Agreement by our SE and builders. Our neighbour (who has been awful over the years) has turned up on day 1 of the dig to say it requires a party wall agreement and indicating he expects us to pay for him to have his own surveyor. Whilst the dig is within 3 metres of the neighbours building, we are NOT intending to go lower than his foundations and he has been told this. The work is being done carefully (and manually) by our builders and not by machinery. Given his behaviour in the past, we are concerned he will rack up our costs and seek to cause delay. My questions are..... - Is a TWA a necessity? Are we wrong? - What happens when one side says a TWA is needed and the other says it isn't? - If a TWA is needed can we impose one joint surveyor (instead of two separate surveyors). - If a TWA if not needed should I still get my own surveyor? - Apart from bore holes by the builders to ensure they do not go beyond the depth of the neighbours foundations (and taking lots of photographs of the work as it progresses) what else should we be doing to protect ourselves? - Should we just crack on?