Just signed for a royal mail letter and its from a Chartered Surveyor (essentially a Legal letter 'Party Wall Structure Notice' and 'Three Metre Building Notice') telling me that I have 14 days to give my consent to some major building work on London flat walls which I share with my neighbour. If I don't do anything within 14 days apparently it goes to automatic dispute and I have to get a surveyor to back my complaint or I can enter a dispute before those 14 days is up.
The Surveyor who sent me the Legal Notice is obviously working on behalf of the owner next door and he has kindly sent me a 'draft letter' of appointment for me to sign just in case I wish to enter into a dispute and surprise, surprise it has absolutely no quote for the cost of his services if I wished to require him for this task.
I don't like the smell of this ... there are no diagrams of the proposed work, the legal document doesn't detail which walls will be affected (there are 4 storeys in the building) and it seems to imply some heavy work involved just read the following quote from the legal document stating the work involved:
"proposed work to cut into the wall in order to support new steel beams, concrete padstones, floor beams etc. to create a new internal layout, to cut away projecting foundation and underpin party wall using either mass concrete or reinforced concrete",
2nd quote from Legal Notice "The proposed works are to excavate out for a lift pit"
At the end of the day if my wall/flat collapses or develops cracks I just need to make sure that the building insurance covers it (need video evidence of the flat condition before building commences), so I'm guessing its best to get an independent surveyor in (not the one who wrote the legal letter), I have a building maintenance / service company that we pay money into (5 neighbours in total) but I'm not sure what they are obliged to do exactly.
Has anyone had any experience of this situation before ? what steps actions did you take ? did your service charge / building maintenance company sort anything out for you ? In fact its the building maintenance company that deals with the building insurance ....
any tips and advice are much appreciated ..
The Surveyor who sent me the Legal Notice is obviously working on behalf of the owner next door and he has kindly sent me a 'draft letter' of appointment for me to sign just in case I wish to enter into a dispute and surprise, surprise it has absolutely no quote for the cost of his services if I wished to require him for this task.
I don't like the smell of this ... there are no diagrams of the proposed work, the legal document doesn't detail which walls will be affected (there are 4 storeys in the building) and it seems to imply some heavy work involved just read the following quote from the legal document stating the work involved:
"proposed work to cut into the wall in order to support new steel beams, concrete padstones, floor beams etc. to create a new internal layout, to cut away projecting foundation and underpin party wall using either mass concrete or reinforced concrete",
2nd quote from Legal Notice "The proposed works are to excavate out for a lift pit"
At the end of the day if my wall/flat collapses or develops cracks I just need to make sure that the building insurance covers it (need video evidence of the flat condition before building commences), so I'm guessing its best to get an independent surveyor in (not the one who wrote the legal letter), I have a building maintenance / service company that we pay money into (5 neighbours in total) but I'm not sure what they are obliged to do exactly.
Has anyone had any experience of this situation before ? what steps actions did you take ? did your service charge / building maintenance company sort anything out for you ? In fact its the building maintenance company that deals with the building insurance ....
any tips and advice are much appreciated ..
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