Property boundary

[kwicky]

A relative of mine lives in a terraced house with a party wall. His neighbour has put in for planning permission to add an extension. They intend to use the full width of the house and take it from the party wall. They do not own or maintain the garden fence as this is done by my relative.
The problem is how are they expected to render their new wall without first removing the fence? Have they any right to do this? Should they be made to allow room on their side so this can be carried out?

[buildersmate]

You need to tell him about the Party Wall Act 1996. See here.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=113 1402
There are obligations on both parties each side of the wall, but in summary he must do certain tasks before he will be allowed to build. He should not start to build befor connecting your neighbour - so just mention Party Wall Act if he tries to.

[kwicky]

Is it sufficient for him if the local council gives you notice of his intentions saying that the plans can be inspected at their office rather than him speaking to you direct. Or does he have to provide written warning of his intentions to you.
The problem is that the plans only ask for planning approval when what is required is more detailed info usually under the Building Regs.

[buildersmate]

He may well get Planning Permission, but that in itself doesn't entitle him to build the thing on the Plan. The Party Wall Act thing will kick it at Building Regulations approval time - the BR people will ask questions about it.
If he wants to come onto your relative's land during the course of the build, he would use the PWA to enable it, the PWA does enable him to remove the fence temporarily to build, then he has to put it back again the same as before.
Bear in mind he has no right to excavate into your relative's land for his foundations - foundations are generally wider than the waal they support.

[Peter Pedant]

Yeah this sort of happened to me

Don't sit there and say, he must come to me, get down there and look at the plans....and then object
You may be allowed to turn up to the planning meeteing and object in person (Manchester)

Footings as above - make sure they dont come onto your property

and Party Wall act

Get out and Kick arse !

My neighbour wouldnt restore (before the party wall act) and then said he would only restore negligent damage {that is anything that was not negligent was our conern} - and ev en the judge said, excuse me.....

anyway good luck

PP

[kwicky]

Buildersmate thanks for the reference to that government leaflet..it is very useful. It departs slightly from what you say about putting foundations into the adjoining property but it must not be reinforced concrete. Somebody mentioned that if they put a wall directly on the boundary it would not allow room for the roof overhang.
The fence panel would only need to be removed when doing the rendering. Can they be prevented from moving the panel until this needs to be carried out because of the dog getting out?
This PWA act seems to favour the person building an extension and seems to ride roughshod on his neighbour especially as they allow footings under your property and also allow scaffolding to be erected on what could be your cultivated garden.

[buildersmate]

Glad the leaflet is useful. Sorry if I got the foundations bit wrong - must be possible using the auspices of the PWA then.
No he can't run the wall up the boundary then expect the roof or guttering or anything else to be able overhang into the next-door's garden - should be something about it in the leaflet?. He'll have to redesign to move the whole wall back.

PWA will give them the right to temporarily remove the fence to render the wall then re-instate.

[EBsonicBoom]

Party Wall Act or not the neighbour cannot build on your relatives land without their permission.

(1) Tell your relative to make their objections know at the Planning stage: and
(2) Ensure the necessary notices are received with regards to the PWA.

They could always speak to a chartered surveyor for advice.

My advice would be to speak with the neighbour now and try to sort any problems out face to face, before things get out of hand. Boundary disputes often turn nasty and end up being very expensive!