Case Study 1
Mr and Mrs Evans’s neighbours were removing the chimney breast to their house, which was against the Party Wall. Their surveyor served a Party Wall Notice under Section 2
During the works Mr and Mrs Evans noted some cracks had appeared on their side of the party wall. We inspected the cracks with the neighbour’s surveyor and agreed that the removal of the chimney breast had caused the cracks. So the neighbours had to pay for repairing the cracks and redecorate the area
Case Study 2
Mr Jones's neighbours were forming an extension to the rear of their house. The new foundations fell under Section 6 of and the new wall under Section 1
Under Section 1 of the Act the neighbour can construct a wall astride the boundary line with Mr Jones’ permission. Otherwise it would need to be constructed wholly on their own land
Mr Jones did not like the idea of the wall on his land so permission was refused
Mr Jones was also very proud of his garden and was worried about his plants next to the new wall. A Party Wall Award can allow for such occurrences and we included a clause in the Party Wall Award for a specialist gardener to be brought in to protect the plants. A small number of plants were killed during the works so the specialist was brought in to replace them, all at the expense of the neighbour
Case Study 3
Mr and Mrs Smith’s neighbours were constructing a basement next door and forming a room in their roof. The basement works fell under Section 6 of the Act and the new beams in connection with the loft works fell under Section 2 Accordingly their Party Wall Surveyor served Party Wall Notices
Mr and Mrs Smith appointed us and we duly agreed the schedule of condition and agreed the Award
During a routine inspection, to our horror, we noted the neighbours had completely gutted their house leaving the party wall dangerously unstable. This was certainly not agreed in the Party Wall Award so as Party Wall Surveyor we acted swiftly to get Mr and Mrs Smith to install propping immediately to prevent to risk of collapse
CWC PARTY WALLS chartered surveyors
22 Highview Road, London W13 0HB email: PartyWallsWestLondon@gmail.com
Tel: 020 8997 5276 or 07432 848 438
