And Its Smith Posted October 19, 2016 Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 Hoping someone can assist me with a problem.... I'm hoping to start an extension next week and the only bridge left to cross is the party wall agreement with our neighbours. They received the initial letter whilst on holiday and didn't do anything with it before the 14 day deadline. Our surveyor now seems them to have disputed and has proceeded to the next phase. They would have signed the agreement and fees would have been nominal, but now he will be charging us £1200+ to get the agreement done. Can we exit the 'act' and then re-enter with another surveyor to save ourselves huge fees? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted October 19, 2016 Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 9 hours ago, RedDave said: Hoping someone can assist me with a problem.... I'm hoping to start an extension next week and the only bridge left to cross is the party wall agreement with our neighbours. They received the initial letter whilst on holiday and didn't do anything with it before the 14 day deadline. Our surveyor now seems them to have disputed and has proceeded to the next phase. They would have signed the agreement and fees would have been nominal, but now he will be charging us £1200+ to get the agreement done. Can we exit the 'act' and then re-enter with another surveyor to save ourselves huge fees? Evening Dave, I'm a Quantity Surveyor. Did your Surveyor act on your instruction to proceed to the next phase ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrs Court Red Posted October 19, 2016 Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 Do you have a contract? If so it will say. If it appears watertight, was it written by Nick Higgs as this makes the agreement easily breakable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted October 19, 2016 Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 FYI According to the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, if an adjoining owner does not consent within 14 days of receiving notice of the proposed works then the parties are deemed to be "in dispute". What this actually means is that a Party Wall Agreement or Party Wall Award will have to be drawn up by a Party Wall Surveyor. Party Wall Surveyors have a duty to be impartial and so there should not be any disagreement per se although there are often misunderstandings as to what the Act means. Basically by not consenting and hence instigating a dispute the adjoining owner is stating that they would like to have their interests protected by an independent person who understands construction matters and Party Wall issues. Section 6(7) of the Act states that if an owner on whom a notice has been served does not serve a notice indicating his consent to it within a period of fourteen days from the date the notice was served he shall be deemed to have dissented from the notice and a dispute shall be deemed to have arisen between the parties. If the adjoining owner does not appoint a surveyor, or concur in the appointment of an agreed surveyor, within the 14 day period they will receive a follow-up letter asking them to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor within 10 days otherwise one will be appointed on their behalf by the building owner. If it ends up that the building owner appoints a surveyor on behalf of the adjoining owner this does not mean it will be an "agreed" surveyor but rather a separate qualified person who will fulfill the role. A surveyor may serve notice on behalf of their client but as soon as a dispute arises the owners switch from being 'clients' to 'appointing owners'. The term appointing owner re-enforces the surveyor's duty to be impartial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
And Its Smith Posted October 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2016 4 hours ago, BigTone said: Evening Dave, I'm a Quantity Surveyor. Did your Surveyor act on your instruction to proceed to the next phase ? Thanks for replying Tone. He proceeded to next stage but we didn't instruct that. Seems that I can't get rid of this surveyor now that I've instructed him. Frustrating as he has created conflict with neighbour due to his initial errored letter. Next phase, as you will know, costs a lot more. Anything I can do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted October 20, 2016 Report Share Posted October 20, 2016 8 hours ago, RedDave said: Thanks for replying Tone. He proceeded to next stage but we didn't instruct that. Seems that I can't get rid of this surveyor now that I've instructed him. Frustrating as he has created conflict with neighbour due to his initial errored letter. Next phase, as you will know, costs a lot more. Anything I can do? Yes, you can terminate this Surveyor. He should not proceed with anything without being instructed by you. Did he write to your neighbours after the initial 14 days with a follow up letter as he is required to do ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
And Its Smith Posted October 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2016 2 hours ago, BigTone said: Yes, you can terminate this Surveyor. He should not proceed with anything without being instructed by you. Did he write to your neighbours after the initial 14 days with a follow up letter as he is required to do ? Yes he did. She is now in agreement with original letter but he's saying she was too late as missed 14 days. He's saying you can't go back to first stage which means we are going to spend £1500 ish quid getting a formality agreed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
... Posted October 20, 2016 Report Share Posted October 20, 2016 22 hours ago, BigTone said: Evening Dave, I'm a Quantity Surveyor. Did your Surveyor act on your instruction to proceed to the next phase ? Tone? You are giving out way too much information about yourself. There are also many, many jokes about quantity surveying that could be used against you. Be careful out there - you can rely on me to limit any damage you might suffer as a result of this disclosure. Uncle TFR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Party Wall Posted October 21, 2016 Report Share Posted October 21, 2016 On 10/19/2016 at 09:27, RedDave said: Hoping someone can assist me with a problem.... I'm hoping to start an extension next week and the only bridge left to cross is the party wall agreement with our neighbours. They received the initial letter whilst on holiday and didn't do anything with it before the 14 day deadline. Our surveyor now seems them to have disputed and has proceeded to the next phase. They would have signed the agreement and fees would have been nominal, but now he will be charging us £1200+ to get the agreement done. Can we exit the 'act' and then re-enter with another surveyor to save ourselves huge fees? Hi Dave, I'm a party wall surveyor at Mr Party Wall. Firstly I'd say your surveyor's fees are on the high side. The next point in question - Send me a copy of the notice your surveyor served on the adjoining owner - I tend to come across around 2 notices a week on average which are INVALID. They can have the wrong time frames or other errors. A section 6 notice must be accompanied by a sectional drawing of the proposed foundation - often surveyors send the planning drawings to accompany the notice. This makes the notice invalid. A surveyor can only be appointed after a valid notice is served and dissented to, so it may well be your surveyor is not even appointed, send me the paperwork and I'll go through it. Only a party wall surveyor can deem himself unfit, his appointment can not be taken from him, even if you are unhappy with his actions or fees. If your neighbour has dissented or there is a deemed dissent, a 10 day letter is sent - after this time YOU can choose a surveyor for your neighbour. Put it in writing to your appointed surveyor that you will do this, not him - that you will choose the adjoining owners surveyor, if the neighbour does not want to do it. Even if there is a dissent to a notice - it does not mean an award has to be written and served. A party wall Award is for dispute resolution. Two neighbours can come to agreement at any point - then the dispute is over and the surveyors are just paid for the work already completed. If you and adjoining owner have come to agreement - both of you put it in writing and send it to your surveyor - after this point, the surveyor should not book any more time. Send me your paperwork and I'll gladly take a look, my contact details are on the site Best regards Waynehttps://www.mrpartywall.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 On 20/10/2016 at 17:21, Taxi for Rennie said: There are also many, many jokes about quantity surveying that could be used against you. What, like "my penis is exactly 12 inches long but I never use it as a rule" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Up The City! Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 I know of someone who may be able to help, he has a particular interest in boundary walls. He will even get your neighbour to pay for it!! His name is Donald Trump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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