Has anyone ever "sold" half their party wall to their neighbour?

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WHD said:
I reckon a new wall would cost around £10k

About £5k


The foundations are adequate

No

All the houses on the estate are extended like that.
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If they don’t have a legal right, then a £5k saving may be attractive.
You will have costs, both administrative and the foundations will need a structural assessment. You don’t know what the plan is for their extension so the imparted loadings will need assessment.
 
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Sir Lancelot said:
Are you sure? Think about it, the neighbour still would need a skin of bricks to form his side of the wall and tie it in to the original wall. Plus he needs to give half the cost of the new wall to the neighbour and pay for any legal stuff that needs doing. It makes far more sense to just stick to his own land and build his own wall. Bricks are cheap enough.
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Bricks may be cheap, but then you have to figure in labour, digging foundations, scaffolding etc.
I know for an absolute certainty it would save them a significant amount of money and give them more space (which is at a premium).
 
WHD said:
Bricks may be cheap, but then you have to figure in labour, digging foundations, scaffolding etc.
I know for an absolute certainty it would save them a significant amount of money and give them more space (which is at a premium).
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It would be just as easy to build a continuous trench for the foundations rather than two separate ones. Once they are out of the ground then the majority of extra expense is negligible and they have the satisfaction of knowing they haven’t had their eyes took out by you.
 
When I design extensions the outer leaf brick face is on the boundary line . That wall has a cavity and a block inner leaf. It is not a party wall and is owned by the person who has extended.

If I extend against a previously built extension then I set the new extension cavity wall 100mm off the existing facework. This is to avoid a nasty roof junction- it might be a bigger or smaller extension - even a different roof pitch. That new wall is not a party wall.

Sometimes neighbours will both extend at the same time / single planning application. Only then do I extend the existing party wall centreline on boundary for the depth of the extension. This does now become a true party wall and has to comply with sound and fire Building Regulations.

On the odd occasion that I tie in or utilise an existing party wall as part of the new design - then an agreement under the Party Wall Act comes into play.
 
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Pnematic said:
When I design extensions the outer leaf brick face is on the boundary line . That wall has a cavity and a block inner leaf. It is not a party wall and is owned by the person who has extended.

If I extend against a previously built extension then I set the new extension cavity wall 100mm off the existing facework. This is to avoid a nasty roof junction- it might be a bigger or smaller extension - even a different roof pitch. That new wall is not a party wall.

Sometimes neighbours will both extend at the same time / single planning application. Only then do I extend the existing party wall centreline on boundary for the depth of the extension. This does now become a true party wall and has to comply with sound and fire Building Regulations.

On the odd occasion that I tie in or utilise an existing party wall as part of the new design - then an agreement under the Party Wall Act comes into play.
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Typical architect. You don’t give us structural engineers an easy life when it comes to designing the foundations. They want to overturn if the load path is on the extremity of the found.
 
Kevj said:
Typical architect. You don’t give us structural engineers an easy life when it comes to designing the foundations. They want to overturn if the load path is on the extremity of the found.
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It’s a team effort mate - I do my best.
😀✏️📐
 
WHD said:
The house next door to me has come up for sale which was owned by an old woman and the asking price is fairly low. I thought about buying it with a view to doing it up and selling, as it could be extended easily by building on to the gable end of my extension (which is a party wall), but when I viewed it I decided too much needed doing to the existing house before an extension could be considered.

So now whoever buys it could build themselves a cheap two storey extension by utilising my wall (it is the party wall, but wholly on my land) and after looking into the party wall act it appears that I would be within my rights to ask for half of the (current) build cost of the wall in this scenario.

Has anyone ever done this?
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Not entirely sure from your explanation what you mean by asking for half of the cost of the wall? The PWA Act 1996 doesn’t work like that. Anyhow, if the wall is wholly on your land and isn’t a shared structure (you describe it as a gable wall) why do you think it is a Party Wall?

I do this for a living btw
Pnematic said:
When I design extensions the outer leaf brick face is on the boundary line . That wall has a cavity and a block inner leaf. It is not a party wall and is owned by the person who has extended.

If I extend against a previously built extension then I set the new extension cavity wall 100mm off the existing facework. This is to avoid a nasty roof junction- it might be a bigger or smaller extension - even a different roof pitch. That new wall is not a party wall.

Sometimes neighbours will both extend at the same time / single planning application. Only then do I extend the existing party wall centreline on boundary for the depth of the extension. This does now become a true party wall and has to comply with sound and fire Building Regulations.

On the odd occasion that I tie in or utilise an existing party wall as part of the new design - then an agreement under the Party Wall Act comes into play.
Click to expand...
Sometimes foundations fall under the PWA Act as well, section 6(1) the 3m rule and section 6(2) the 6m and 45 degree rule
 
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Vindaloo Man said:
If your party wall is wholly on your side, how could they then use your wall? Surely their build would then be encroaching over your boundary line?
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That was my first thoughts, they're have to build on his land. If the ops extension wall went right to the boundary his neighbour could build right up to it without having to pay him anything.
 
zinedine said:
That was my first thoughts, they're have to build on his land. If the ops extension wall went right to the boundary his neighbour could build right up to it without having to pay him anything.
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One side doesn’t pay the other. The way it works is the side doing the building (the building owner) pays all of the costs including any works needed to stabilise the other side (adjoining owners) property. That might include the cost to underpin the adjoining owners property if new foundations are lower and within a distance of 3m. The only time the adjoining owner may need to contribute towards the costs are if works are needed to repair a party wall.

It’s a complicated piece of legislation that covers party fence walls, party walls and new foundations within prescribed distances
 
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Hardyman's Yugo said:
One side doesn’t pay the other. The way it works is the side doing the building (the building owner) pays all of the costs including any works needed to stabilise the other side (adjoining owners) property. That might include the cost to underpin the adjoining owners property if new foundations are lower and within a distance of 3m. The only time the adjoining owner may need to contribute towards the costs are if works are needed to repair a party wall.

It’s a complicated piece of legislation that covers party fence walls, party walls and new foundations within prescribed distances
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What happens if you build an extension right up to the edge of your properties boundary, with a wall running down the boundary? It would mean the edge of the foundations would possibly have to extend over onto a neighbors land by a few inches. Are you allowed to do that without their permission? The founds are underground so wouldn't be depriving the neighbour of his land.
 
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Hardyman's Yugo said:
Not entirely sure from your explanation what you mean by asking for half of the cost of the wall? The PWA Act 1996 doesn’t work like that. Anyhow, if the wall is wholly on your land and isn’t a shared structure (you describe it as a gable wall) why do you think it is a Party Wall?
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A wall up to the boundary, but not astride it is still a party wall, or so I believe. Are you saying a party wall has to sit astride the boundary?
 
A lot of people seem to be getting the wrong end of the stick.
Seems to me the OP owns the wall wholly, but for a cost is willing to make it a party wall.

Got a question for the actual knowledgeable people on this thread, actually I'll start a new one lol.
WHD said:
A wall up to the boundary, but not astride it is still a party wall, or so I believe. Are you saying a party wall has to sit astride the boundary?
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A party wall is jointly used and therefore owned by two parties was my understanding.
 
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