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

Sinbad Skullhead said:
Being in the building game myself i can understand what you mean. There is this whole scam of someone being able to use CAD calling themselves an architect or at least the client believes they are (theyre cheap) hand over to the builder and you have no padstone sizes, steel sizes etc. How many of these are RIBA qualified? Or do you even need to be to get some drawings passed by the council?
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Padstone and steelwork design is the domain of the structural engineer , not the architect.
 
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Sinbad Skullhead said:
Being in the building game myself i can understand what you mean. There is this whole scam of someone being able to use CAD calling themselves an architect or at least the client believes they are (theyre cheap) hand over to the builder and you have no padstone sizes, steel sizes etc. How many of these are RIBA qualified? Or do you even need to be to get some drawings passed by the council?
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I'm a draughtsman and I've been doing extension plans for years now. You don't have to be an architect to do extension plans and it's actually illegal to call yourself an architect if you aren't qualified as one.
 
WHD said:
I'm a draughtsman and I've been doing extension plans for years now. You don't have to be an architect to do extension plans and it's actually illegal to call yourself an architect if you aren't qualified as one.
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Quite right you should be doing plans.

As long as they work and get through planning ( ho ho !) and Building Control it matters not.

There’s no monopoly on design and I am an Architect.
 
Pnematic said:
Quite right you should be doing plans.

As long as they work and get through planning ( ho ho !) and Building Control it matters not.

There’s no monopoly on design and I am an Architect.
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I also should add, in the scenario @Sinbad Skullhead states, the plans could not have been passed by building control (or maybe just conditionally). I always point out to people that they will also need a structural engineer and usually put them in touch with someone.
 
WHD said:
I also should add, in the scenario @Sinbad Skullhead states, the plans could not have been passed by building control (or maybe just conditionally). I always point out to people that they will also need a structural engineer and usually put them in touch with someone.
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Spot on . As designers it’s our responsibility to assess if structural solutions are necessary - and a note the drawings should cover this.

Building Control will condition this on the approval .

I ve a pile of architectural specifications and CAD symbols if you need them mate -PM me if you want them but your probably well set up anyway.

🙂
 
In my experience you have clients saying they have drawings. Hand over whatever theyve gave to building control and it doesnt add up. Must be just scraping through planning. Some friend of a friend, even one time some guy in south korea. Take the money off the client for getting it through planning and never seen again. Then when the builder needs working drawings they pay again.
 
Working drawings!!!! What's wrong with back of a fag packet sketches?
When I start a job now I photograph the drawings because you know somewhere down the line someone will magically produce "Revision 5" which no one has ever seen before while you are working to "Final revision 3" while the sparkies and plumbers are using Revision 4.
......
Have you ever sold your party wall to a neighbour Danny?
 
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Tuono said:
Working drawings!!!! What's wrong with back of a fag packet sketches?
When I start a job now I photograph the drawings because you know somewhere down the line someone will magically produce "Revision 5" which no one has ever seen before while you are working to "Final revision 3" while the sparkies and plumbers are using Revision 4.
......
Have you ever sold your party wall to a neighbour Danny?
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Looks like you need doc control and a good QS.
 
Mind I always had the OP down as a true socialist.
Surprised he is trying to make a few quid from his neighbours !
 
WHD said:
They can, it is upto the boundary.
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Up to the boundary doesn't mean "straddling the boundary". Its entirely on your land. IIRC, a party wall straddled the boundary and you both own it equally. Your wall doesn't match that definition.
You need to speak to a solicitor if you want to be ahead of this potential issue.

Also, did you have PP for your build? I'm sure there are extra rules about building close to a boundary. There could be rules that stop this exact situation happening - for example, there could be an automatic easement that gives rights to use your wall if you build right up to the boundary. Just guessing here of course, but that's why you need legal advice imo.
 
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PTR said:
Up to the boundary doesn't mean "straddling the boundary". Its entirely on your land. IIRC, a party wall straddled the boundary and you both own it equally. Your wall doesn't match that definition.
You need to speak to a solicitor if you want to be ahead of this potential issue.

Also, did you have PP for your build? I'm sure there are extra rules about building close to a boundary. There could be rules that stop this exact situation happening - for example, there could be an automatic easement that gives rights to use your wall if you build right up to the boundary. Just guessing here of course, but that's why you need legal advice imo.
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Most of the rules are set out in the party wall act legislation I’ve referred to in my posts, this covers party fence walls, party walls and foundations within prescribed distances (3m or 6m rule) from existing. There are no automatic easements, any easements if they exist would be in title deeds
 
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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I’m just reading this now because I have a similar situation, in particular with a party fence wall. We’ve gone through planning and at this stage talked it over with our neighbours. We live in semi detached houses with connecting garages between and at the back, between gardens there’s a short single course wall about 6-7ft tall. We are building across the back of our house to our boundary which this wall is part of however it’s not in the best condition. We are starting work tomorrow and the builder said given the condition of the wall it would be best that this gets rebuilt, I’ve been to see the neighbours tonight and although the old chap is fine with this(it was him who came to us during planning and asked all the questions and was ok about it), his wife is having none of it because of the change of use of the wall from a garden fence wall to what would now be our gable end. We could possibly step our wall in a bit but given the condition of the existing wall I’d be worried this would get damaged/fall over anyway.
I know it’s a bit f***ing late for them to be throwing up objections now but still, it creates problems for us.
 
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5underland said:
I’m just reading this now because I have a similar situation, in particular with a party fence wall. We’ve gone through planning and at this stage talked it over with our neighbours. We live in semi detached houses with connecting garages between and at the back, between gardens there’s a short single course wall about 6-7ft tall. We are building across the back of our house to our boundary which this wall is part of however it’s not in the best condition. We are starting work tomorrow and the builder said given the condition of the wall it would be best that this gets rebuilt, I’ve been to see the neighbours tonight and although the old chap is fine with this(it was him who came to us during planning and asked all the questions and was ok about it), his wife is having none of it because of the change of use of the wall from a garden fence wall to what would now be our gable end. We could possibly step our wall in a bit but given the condition of the existing wall I’d be worried this would get damaged/fall over anyway.
I know it’s a bit f***ing late for them to be throwing up objections now but still, it creates problems for us.
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If you are building on your land but up to the boundary line you’ll need to serve notice on your neighbour at least one month prior to commencement and you should be fine. The difficulty will be if you are within 3m of your neighbours house wall and your foundations are potentially lower than his, then you are in a world of pain I’m afraid, you’ll need to serve notice but if they don’t respond or object then ‘a dispute is deemed to have arisen’ and you are into time and money.

Party wall act is complicated piece of legislation even for surveyors unless they use it all the time ( I don’t). It’s also expensive to employ a surveyor, I see disputes all the time because house owners just build things that the neighbours end up objecting to. A lot think they are OK once they have building regs and planning and don’t realise boundaries can come into it.
 
Hardyman's Yugo said:
If you are building on your land but up to the boundary line you’ll need to serve notice on your neighbour at least one month prior to commencement and you should be fine. The difficulty will be if you are within 3m of your neighbours house wall and your foundations are potentially lower than his, then you are in a world of pain I’m afraid, you’ll need to serve notice but if they don’t respond or object then ‘a dispute is deemed to have arisen’ and you are into time and money.

Party wall act is complicated piece of legislation even for surveyors unless they use it all the time ( I don’t). It’s also expensive to employ a surveyor, I see disputes all the time because house owners just build things that the neighbours end up objecting to. A lot think they are OK once they have building regs and planning and don’t realise boundaries can come into it.
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that’s just it, the wall fence at the back appears the straddle the boundary so we both own it and I’m guessing that means they are well within their rights to refuse us working on/next to it?
 
5underland said:
that’s just it, the wall fence at the back appears the straddle the boundary so we both own it and I’m guessing that means they are well within their rights to refuse us working on/next to it?
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If you are on your land they can’t stop you, but there is a notice procedure to go through and if the foundations are an issue someone needs to produce an indemnified design statement that says either:

You aren’t undermining their foundations

or

You are potentially undermining their foundations and how you are going to compensate for that, I.e. underpinning

Complicated subject and not easy to explain on a message board. It involves law, interpreting who owns what, technical design, negotiation. I do a few of these at work and each one is a little different

This might help
https://images.app.tracking code removed/HB3fKzraQJxRFrGj7

Building on your land up to the boundary line is Section 1, the bit I explained about foundations (3m and 6m rules) is Section 6.
 
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Hardyman's Yugo said:
If you are on your land they can’t stop you, but there is a notice procedure to go through and if the foundations are an issue someone needs to produce an indemnified design statement that says either:

You aren’t undermining their foundations

or

You are potentially undermining their foundations and how you are going to compensate for that, I.e. underpinning

Complicated subject and not easy to explain on a message board. It involves law, interpreting who owns what, technical design, negotiation. I do a few of these at work and each one is a little different
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yes I see where your coming from, this legal shit wasn’t scribbled down on the back of a fag packet was it.
They are an old couple that we’ve always got on with and I don’t want to be the bullying twat who pushed around some old people so I’m happy to negotiate and work around them to an extent but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to go up to our boundaries, as many other neighbours have done already.
 

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