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Hi all!
I'm sure this is not the first time a party wall agreement question has come up, but I'm looking for advice on whether one should be in place for some work that is happening on my neighbour's houses.
I am a homeowner of a mid-terrace house and the houses either side of me are owned by a social housing group. In August 2022 we were informed by letter that the houses both sides of us would be having solar panels and external insulation installed. We had 14 days to object and at the time we did not foresee any issues. After a month or so we started to think about it more and wondered if we needed a party wall agreement, as we weren't sure if rear and front elevations of the house (where the external cladding was to be applied) would need a party wall agreement. We asked the social housing company this and were told that we did not need one, so took their word for it and we let it be.
Fast-forward a couple of months and they begin the work on one of the two properties, and they have in fact had to touch our property to carry out works. The contractors had to remove roof tiles to apply insulation panels, including removing some of ours, which they they put back haphazardly and applied silicone (?!) to stick them down. We discovered this when our roofer came to check (for another issue we had with our neighbours house causing a leak, but that's unrelated) and found the badly placed tiles and still-wet silicone. The contractors denied it was them, but nobody else had been working there. In addition to this, where the insulation has been sealed with a cement-like material, the contractors have got this on the paintwork of our house, and our extension roof. We asked them to clean it up and since then some of our paintwork has come off with the cement material. I have also witnessed a scaffolder stand on our extension roof to access scaffolding (which they denied when I questioned them immediately after).
The social housing company told us we did not need a party wall agreement as they wouldn't be touching our house, however this has since proved to be untrue. We do have a letter to say that 'pending investigation' they would put right any issues caused to our property, however we are now questioning the validity of this and whether they could turn around and deny that they caused any issues. We have already had contractors deny their bad practices and the social housing company appears to believe them over us. We are aware that it will be our word against theirs and do not trust that they will put anything right.
We were wondering if, prior to the second house having work done to it, we should seek a party wall agreement. I can't find much information online as to whether front and rear-facing elevations are subject to this, but with prior evidence of the contractors touching our property, should we seek one anyway?
Apologies for the really long post, thought as much background info as possible might help.
I'm sure this is not the first time a party wall agreement question has come up, but I'm looking for advice on whether one should be in place for some work that is happening on my neighbour's houses.
I am a homeowner of a mid-terrace house and the houses either side of me are owned by a social housing group. In August 2022 we were informed by letter that the houses both sides of us would be having solar panels and external insulation installed. We had 14 days to object and at the time we did not foresee any issues. After a month or so we started to think about it more and wondered if we needed a party wall agreement, as we weren't sure if rear and front elevations of the house (where the external cladding was to be applied) would need a party wall agreement. We asked the social housing company this and were told that we did not need one, so took their word for it and we let it be.
Fast-forward a couple of months and they begin the work on one of the two properties, and they have in fact had to touch our property to carry out works. The contractors had to remove roof tiles to apply insulation panels, including removing some of ours, which they they put back haphazardly and applied silicone (?!) to stick them down. We discovered this when our roofer came to check (for another issue we had with our neighbours house causing a leak, but that's unrelated) and found the badly placed tiles and still-wet silicone. The contractors denied it was them, but nobody else had been working there. In addition to this, where the insulation has been sealed with a cement-like material, the contractors have got this on the paintwork of our house, and our extension roof. We asked them to clean it up and since then some of our paintwork has come off with the cement material. I have also witnessed a scaffolder stand on our extension roof to access scaffolding (which they denied when I questioned them immediately after).
The social housing company told us we did not need a party wall agreement as they wouldn't be touching our house, however this has since proved to be untrue. We do have a letter to say that 'pending investigation' they would put right any issues caused to our property, however we are now questioning the validity of this and whether they could turn around and deny that they caused any issues. We have already had contractors deny their bad practices and the social housing company appears to believe them over us. We are aware that it will be our word against theirs and do not trust that they will put anything right.
We were wondering if, prior to the second house having work done to it, we should seek a party wall agreement. I can't find much information online as to whether front and rear-facing elevations are subject to this, but with prior evidence of the contractors touching our property, should we seek one anyway?
Apologies for the really long post, thought as much background info as possible might help.
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