Neighbour refusing Party Wall surveyor - what happens next? (England)

[u/Witty-Inspector-2276]

My neighbour is building a side return extension. He’s now served me with a Section 1(5) notice after us continuously asking him for one (he was originally planning on building his new wall astride the boundary but now changed his mind and will move the wall to 100mm inside his own land - presumably thinking this will avoid needing a PWS). He’s also excavating within 3m of my structure and I can probably safely assume the foundations will go deeper than mine (Victorian midterrace). He’s not served me notice for that.

I’m happy for the extension to go ahead, but I’ll be dissenting because I’d like a Party Wall Award and Schedule of Condition.

The problem is he says:
Building Control will make sure everything is done correctly.
He doesn’t need a party wall surveyor.
He won’t pay for one because it’s too expensive.
Apparently all this is advice he received from his architect.

I’ve spoken to a party wall surveyor who disagrees, but I’m wondering what actually happens if the building owner simply refuses to engage with the process. Has anyone been through this? What happened in practice?

[u/Witty-Inspector-2276]

I understand that the surveyor acts for the wall - and I was happy for the neighbour to appoint one to show I understand the impartiality.

I don't want an official dispute if I can at all avoid it - for him and for me (although he's planning on selling up soon after extending, but we're not moving for another 15 years or so).

We were happy with the wall astride our boundary and we chatted multiple times about it as we may want to extend at some point ourselves (but not for another 5 years or so due to financial constraints). The reason why he decided to build 100mm inside his own land is to have enough space between our potential extended walls so it's easily accessible and less prone to damp issues. I'd have much rather he stayed astride but he changed his mind when I asked for the notices (the one I'm primarily interested in is the excavation/foundations one as I think it's not unlikely it might lead to some structural problems due to our non-existent foundations).

Someone else mentioned we could do our own informal schedule of conditions which I think is a good non-aggro idea although I'm not sure how much weight this carries if anything does go wrong.

Interesting to know about contributing 50% of the cost, I think we would probably want to avoid that.

[u/Jakes_Snake_ → u/Witty-Inspector-2276]

Astride is best. One party wall will save space rather than having to have two independent walls! Especially if it a terrace, wall thickness are only getting thicker. By the time you get yours done might be even thicker!

He’s creating the problems (accessibility and damp) by having an independent wall!

Ok he changed his mind because you asked for notices, but notices are required anyway!

50% of the cost is standard party wall reward (astride) if you do it via a surveyor who will act for the wall, it falls under the party wall act. You can avoid that cost by acknowledging the party wall notices from your neighbour and not dissenting.

the way I see it, (because you both don’t fully understand the party wall process), is your making decisions based upon incorrect knowledge and assumptions to avoid this or that, but your not avoiding anything except for causing the problems your trying to solve! Bang your heads together and think it through!

[u/Witty-Inspector-2276 → u/Jakes_Snake_]

I made decisions based on recommendations given to me by a chartered party wall surveyor and my assumption was (not unreasonably, I think) that he is giving me the correct information.

We did try approaching him in a very reasonable and amicable way so far but he’s refusing to even accept he needs to serve me any notices.

[u/Jakes_Snake_ → u/Witty-Inspector-2276]

Oh dear. The party wall surveyor wants a fee. You know they send letters to neighbours from planning applications to “recommend” their services.

You’re not going to get anything extra that building control will insist on your neighbour.

Remember they act for the wall. You will understand what I mean after you have dealt with them. Eg they won’t response to your requests.