Bobby Dazzler

Thanks Buzz. Are you saying that if we use this raft foundation method we can go closer than 3 metres without invoking PWA ? I still fear the fact we are on a substantially lower level than them may prove to be an issue. We're trying to get the builder over to hopefully answer a few issues.

Funnily enough the original plan was for just that, a 600 mm gap I think but we had a plan B done as well at 800 mm gap. Mrs BD has just confirmed that their excuse is that they need to check the guttering. And yes they are bullying us, I'm hopping mad but they're very good at it and they're so much more sussed than us. We're seemingly having circles run around us. It's a trade off between standing up for yourself and how much stress and uncertainty you can take. I'm still taking all the fantastic advice on board as well, can't thank you all enough.

The houses are early 70's. There's also the guttering to consider which is quite high up so may use that to justify scaffolding. I'm just playing devils advocate for the inevitable obfuscation they'll be throwing at us.

Thanks Peter, the plot thickens. They're as slippery as a barrel of greased ferrets. How would a surveyor normally inspect a wall in a situation like this and is there any recent legislation Health and Safety wise they could use to attempt to justify using scaffolding.

A small update..... Mrs Bobby Dazzler has just got back from speaking to her. I'm banned from speaking to her as diplomacy is definitely not my middle name. Nothing constructive particularly, mostly entirely irrelevant stuff trying to persuade her we didn't need it !! although she did mention she wanted to get people around with scaffolding to check her wall etc. Sounds highly suspect to me being as they didn't use scaffolding in the two previous visits (in 23 years). Setting a precedent perhaps ? I daresay they'll site Health and Safety as a reason. Trouble is we can't really refuse as they do have a right to inspect and can (currently) erect scaffolding quite easily.

thanks Saveasteading. That sounds like a very reasonable approach.

Agreed thanks. I suspect that their ground level being higher than ours will not be good news in terms of avoiding the party wall issue.

Indeed Joe, she really is a control freak. What I really need is someone who could simply sit in a machine with whirly things going around and absorb the world knowledge on housing law.

Thanks Jimbo. We just need to be as sure as possible that they couldn't enforce a demolition order if we did build. Solicitors who specialise in this field are extremely hard to locate (even tried Law Society website) and presumably eye wateringly expensive and we're on a rather tight budget. We read that boundary disputes are one of the most lucrative fields for the legal profession.

Hi all. Here's a rough sketch and a couple of snips from the architect plans. Thanks again!

hi Peter, it's a single storey kitchen.

Thanks so much everyone for all the good ideas. I'll try and get a rough sketch sorted today and post it. Our biggest worry and the thing holding us back is the (possibly incorrect) fear that the worst case scenario is we could build our extension then they manage to get a court injunction forcing us to demolish it.

Vert true Mike, though I doubt they would take that view point.

Yes that's right. Also they are on a higher ground level than us as the entire street is on a slope with us near the top and them one higher. I suppose this would make triggering the 45 degree rule more likely ??. (i'm pretending to know what I'm talking about here).

Hi Saveasteading The QS is the neighbours relative, so yes a rather biased view. The neighbour did let slip that she feared it would devalue her property, this I suspect is the real cause of the rigorous opposition. The wall in question is the north wall of their house so we'd be in big trouble if we strayed into their living room..

Thanks Jimbo, your previous post made me laugh for the first time today !

@Peter W many thanks for that Peter. We have lived there 23 years and in that time they have fixed a leaky gutter once and later replaced the guttering possibly both in the last 10 years. They didn't use scaffolding for either as far as I can remember although i suppose they could argue with only 0.8 metres to play with they would then need to use scaffolding. That was one of the many excuses offered, that it would cost them more money to get specialist scaffolding.

Hi Big Jimbo and thanks for the reply. Yes we realise about the excavation aspects and think we know what we need to do in that respect. we're really surprised the Architect didn't mention it, even if just to give us a heads up. We suspect it's going to be either the far inferior plan B or no plan at all. As for the deeds (we're assuming ours are the same generic ones as next door, but we may apply to land registry for theirs to be sure), they say listed in the land rights under the property register "full right and liberty to enter from time to time upon the the land hereby conveyed with or without workmen to repair the Southern wall of the dwelling house erected on the adjoining property". It sounds like something Chaucer would write.

Hello all. We're based in West Yorksire and had hoped to start our kitchen extension building sideways from our small detached house. The planned build goes to within 0.8 metres of the party wall of our neighbours house which runs along one side of our driveway. We weren't informed of the party wall act by our Architect despite voicing concerns about how close we were building to the wall. We only found out when the builder delivered some preliminary materials and the neighbour came out creating a fuss, despite seeming OK when we had mentioned it to her earlier. Her relative is a Quantity Surveyor and he sent us a very abrupt letter outlining Party Wall act and also stated we couldn't build within 1.5m of the wall due to a paragraph in the house deeds stating "access to inspect the wall to be allowed from time to time". They claim this is the minimum space they would require to erect scaffolding to enforce their right of access. We know he is well heeled and they have previous history of seeing legal disputes to the end. Our only other option would be to build backwards but the space would be extremely cramped, problematic and probably not really worthwhile. We already have a Conservatory and the cost to demolish and rebuild there would be way out of our price range. A few years ago the same neighbour built a conservatoy, the last three feet or so are alongside the wall of our standalone brick garage that runs along the boundary between the two gardens at the back of the house. I'm not sure if the garage would constitute a party wall but they certainly didn't send us a notification under the PWA 96. This is very stressful and we're not really sure what to do. We've even read the builder could try to recoup the entire estimated cost of the build if we cancel, we've so far paid him a fairly significant deposit. From what we've seen he does seem like a decent guy but we're fearing the worst now. Thanks for any wise words.