Party Wall Rules ( A bit random..! )

[GingerMagic]

Good evening fellows, I was just wondering if anyone on the forum has ever had any issues in dealing with a party wall?

My two faced and untrustworthy neighbour wants to put an extension up at the back of her house ( she is the other half of the semi ) to which I don't have a problem with. My potential problem is her saying that at a later date I will have her permission to use the party wall to build off for my own extension should I want to, however she will not put this in writing.

I have 2 choices ( I believe ) which are as follows;

1) Let her have the party wall, it will benefit me later on and will be a nice wall for me to hang stuff on in the garden, although with an overhanging gutter - but risk her being a bitch later down the line and saying no I can't use the wall.
2) Say no to the party wall and make her build the extension inside her boundary which means I still have a dividing fence off the back of the house, but if I want an extension in a few years I will need to build 3 new walls, not 2 new walls with 1 being her wall to build off of.

The party wall is good for me, but as she is an evil poisonous old trout then part of me want to say no, just out of spite as me and the neighbour have not always got on anyway.

Any wisdom passed will be appreciated, I am torn between spite, doubt, peace, benefit, mistrust, hope and loathing all at the same time..

[Welly]

I'm in the middle of something similar but less important; at the end of my garden there is a similar poisonous old trout whom I hate with a passion (an I don't hate anybody normally). A few years ago she had a lovely tree cut down on the boundary claiming that the tree surgeon said it was 'diseased' and could fall down and hurt her shed, or something, all bollocks, she just wanted it gone. This is the same tree that used to drop large fruity berries on my lawn and looked lovely, I never did get around to finding out what breed it was but it'd been there a long time....I digress.

Two weeks ago she started having work done to landscape her garden, the 'fence' between us is a very old twisted Hawthorn natural hedgerow and cannot be destroyed, over the years someone added an old farmers gate, some twisted logs/trunks and it looked rustic - I liked it but 'she' didn't. She asked MY WIFE if she could have the 'tops' cut from the Hawthorn but the chaps will need to come around our side to gain access which we thought would be OK (she's done this before).......I get home from work and they've f*cking massacred the hedge and now there's BIG gaps and I can see straight into her shitty house, they basically left 'stumps' with a few measly twiggs poking out - NOT HAPPY.

She's now put Trellis panels there which look absolute sh*t and has compromised the security.....THEN she asked if I could redirect the beam of light from my nifty LED floodlight which she hadn't previously seen....which is now causing HER a problem I did this ok.

Sorry, I've not told anyone this yet, you've born the brunt, my point is I wish I'd have said no in the first place; people like this do things to suit THEM only and there's almost always an underlying case of 'doing one over' on you or 'getting what I want'. I understand that a party wall must have an agreement between both parties, this has to be drawn up by an independent specialist surveyor (at your neighbours cost) and I also think you can insist on YOUR OWN surveyor and SHE will have to pay for that too (imagine the fun now). Be worth doing lots of research before you commit, also consider whether this 'ere wall will be of any use to you in the future, if you do build off it then you're connected again to her house (noise flanking etc) I suspect the only reason she wants to barge over a bit into yours is to gain a few inches of floor space or to save on cost.

Something else to consider is if this goes ahead now and you want to build close to or connected to her wall later then SHE might get all shirty about it and cause you a lot of cost in resolving disputes, like I said this is likely to have been suggested to you to suit what SHE wants at the moment. If you fall out after your kids have spent two summers kicking a ball against her new wall it could turn a bit tasty.

Have you seen this: https://www.gov.uk/party-wall-etc-act-1 ... troduction

[steve_earwig]

This is the same tree that used to drop large fruity berries on my lawn and looked lovely, I never did get around to finding out what breed it was but it'd been there a long time....

Mulberry? Them's rare them is.

I can't comment on the party wall thing, you'd hope people would be have like human beings but I guess not everyone has a full set of brain cells. I have a strong feeling there are lots of legal implications involved with anything that spans 2 properties. What you really need to do is go and drop your trousers at your nearest thieving bast.. sorry, solicitor's but I can understand if you're sane enough not to do this.

[Welly]

This was the tree in question, now it's probably part of a pallet:
It was interesting because it had two kinda trunks, one went horizontal for about a metre first so I had it down as a 'survivor' I used to water it myself. The bushy green stuff to the left is the Hawthorn (try crawling through that stuff ) the flowery creepy thing is a Russian Vine, this photo was about two years after we moved in and I didn't realise what a Russian Vine does it still comes back but it much more in control.

The hedgerow gave us a nice cover from the house at the back and didn't bother us but the neighbour said it blocked 'her' sunlight in the afternoon (don't buy a f*cking West-facing garden then twat) so has been a constant sticking point.


Sorry Ginger, not trying to highjack you.

[DaiRees]

My house is also a semi and I'm planning small conservatory soon which would have the same issue. I haven't really thought too hard about it, just kinda assumed we'd take down the existing garden wall then build the conservatory right up to the boundary line, the side wall of the conservatory would be solid anyway (don't really want windows overlooking next-door's back yard, I'm sure they wouldn't either! Besides, we need somewhere to hang a mahoosive telly lol!). The garden wall is on next doors property anyway, so my plan would give them a bit more yard space but thinking about, it I could ask for a party wall which would give us a few more inches of space in the conservatory, and wouldn't rob next door of any yard space.... hmmm, interesting.

Relating to Welly's bit, our back garden backs onto ground that used to belong to the NHS. The hospital was knocked down years ago and the site is being redeveloped for housing, but it's been going on for years and the developers keep going bust. Anyway, now I digress. The boundary is badly overgrown with brambles and there are some huge Scots Pine trees there which overhang our property, a lot! They're horrible bloody things, pine cones and pine needles everywhere, blocked gutters etc. They also have a Tree Preservation Order on them, so getting them removed is proving to be a bit of a challenge, at one point I got the developer to agree to cut them down if the LA would raise the TPO, and the LA agreed to raise the TPO if the developer would agree to the cost of cutting them down, but neither party would speak to each other officially about it and neither would put it in writing, so it was stale mate. Then the developer in question went bust and the bloke I was dealing with in the planning department retired, so back to square one. The latest idiotic scheme I've heard is that one of the neighbours down the street (where there are nice hedgerows instead of brambles and huge trees) has asked for a "boundary zone" between our back fences and the new neighbours back fences to preserve their privacy, which means that the crap wont be cleared and the trees will effectively end up in no-mans land, so who's responsible for their maintenance then?

[benczuk]

Ah yes, neighbors. Don't you just love them. I count myself lucky I have one set I can talk to. the other side, indeed the others down the rutted lane we call a road...nevermind..

I would say for the cost of a few more blocks when / if you want to build your own extension get her to shift it onto her land. It's just not worth the potential hassle.

[mjb]

1) Let her have the party wall, it will benefit me later on and will be a nice wall for me to hang stuff on in the garden, although with an overhanging gutter - but risk her being a bitch later down the line and saying no I can't use the wall.

Translation: Let her have the party wall, it won't benefit me later on and will be a nasty wall encroaching on my property which I can't hang anything on with an overhanging gutter which is permanently blocked spewing sh*t into my garden. She won't let me use the wall later down the line.

You MUST assume she doesn't intend for allow you to use it - why else won't she put it in writing?

[annie10]

if its not too late id oppose the planning permission until the neighbour sighns a legal document giving you permission to use the party wall any time you see fit.
if it cost her money in extra fees etc to get her planning permission she will soon change her mind about getting the document and agreement drawn up quicky.

[GingerMagic]

Thank you everyone for your honest replies.

Annie ( ladies first..! ) I don't really want to oppose the plan, I have no problem with the extension at all - its just the nagging feeling of having the wool pulled over your eyes that bugs me - its only a wall at the end of the day.
P.S. Your car looks nice, great work indeed.

Welly, I feel your pain. The slimy wench next door paid good money for an old Ford Fiesta to park outside 'her' house so we couldn't park there. This meant when we had our small extension done 5 years ago the builders / deliveries had nowhere to park. She denied the car was hers but I know who she got it from - my neighbour doesn't even drive ffs....She is retarded, ooops I mean retired, so has time and money to burn.
I didn't even think about my boys kicking a ball against the wall all summer long, I guess this could cause ( more ) friction.
I hope you resolve the problems with your neighbour but some people you can't reason with for love nor money...

Steve, I don't think I can bear to be royally shafted by a lawyer, I'll probably just say phuck it you can keep it on your side, avoiding future raised eyebrows and curtain twitching...

Dai, just be up-front with your neighbours about the conservatory - I hope you get on with them better than I do with mine.. Is it possible to accidently spill shed loads of salt / lime / rusty nails etc at the base of the offending trees..??

MJB and Benczuk - you are spot on. Thanks for the frankness...

No party wall.

Cheers, Kelv.