Selling House with Party Wall Ext Next Door

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lucyeve

Guest
We am currently trying to sell a house which we bought 3 years ago and have been at final stages 3 times now and it has fallen through! Mainly this has been due to lack of funds on the buyers part (banks getting sticky) but the last was due to the fact that the guy next door has an ext which is built up from the parity wall. This ext was there when we bought the house (our surveryor saw no problem with this - we were clueless and didnt realise it might be an issue). The estate agent is now saying that it is going to be impossible to sell the house like this as anyone buying who wants to build an ext wont be able too, due to damp issues?? My question is, what is the situation here re a new buyer, is the neighbours ext illegal and should our surveyor have picked this up?? Any advice very gratefully received as we need to sell this house!
 
Hi LucyEve

Whether your neighbours' extension was built illegally or not depends upon what marked the boundary prior to it being built. If it was just a garden fence then your neighbour would have required the permission of the former owner of your property to build astride the boundary. If it was a wall then it was probably a 'Party Fence Wall' and your neighbours would have had the right to re-build it as a new Party Wall under the Party Wall Act forming the side of their extension.

Anyway the answer to that is irrelevant now as if the side wall of your neighbours' extension is built astride the boundary it is a Party Wall and as such you have the right to enclose it as part of any extension to your property. So, far from it being impossible for you or any subsequent owner to extend, having a party wall will be beneficial. Your extension will have a greater floor area than if you had to build a new wall on your side of the boundary and you will have one wall already built.

The one bit of bad news is that under the Act your neighbour would be entitled to 50% of the current cost of building the wall in compensation.
 
DavyJones said:
Can you explain that please, sounds a bit mad.
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Hi Davy

Section 11 (11) of the Party Wall Act deals with this situation. It states that where a property owner later makes use of work paid for by their neighbour, or their neigbour's predecessor, they must pay the appropriate share of the current cost of the work to that neighbour. For rear extensions of a similar size that share will be 50%.
 
lucyeve said:
The estate agent is now saying that it is going to be impossible to sell the house like this as anyone buying who wants to build an ext wont be able too, due to damp issues??
Click to expand...

I don't understand why an extension can't be built. Is there a window in the party wall?
 
Well Lucyeve.
This is not an unusual or unsurmountable situation and you should not be getting so upset on this aspect of the failure to sell your house. Selling is a bit difficult at the moment, you will sell it just takes a little longer. Your so called 'Estate Agent' to say the least 'would not fill me with confidence' and you should consider changing. The 3 buyers who were introduced should have been checked out to see if they had loan approval before they were introduced to you. Now the agent is getting worried and maybe anxious about not getting any fees, Is it possible that he is attempting to devalue your house so that you may be more willing to reduce the price of your house below that which is reasonable at this time and thereby make it easier for him to sell.
Unless this extension is like the house that 'Jack' built then he does not know what he talking about,the mention of 'dampness' is meant to put the fear of God into us. I can see no reason for this unless for some reason it is causing dampness to your house at the moment. It should not be a problem to any new work.
1. You say this ext 'is built up from the party wall',does this mean that you can still see the old party wall and his wall is ontop of it, or would you know if the old wall was removed, in which event the wall was possibly built on the party line.
2. Are any parts of the adjoining extension, gutter, facia and soffit, or pipes oversailing your property or is it a straight wall with a capping on top which would be the best situation.
3. Do you know how long this ext, is built, not that it makes much difference but it could be a factor.
 
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