Extension with Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

D

doogo

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Any advice on the following issue -

we are currently in process of finalising plans for an extension at the back of our terraced house - we have a neighbour on one side who has put an extension on their house already (not making use of shared party wall) and neighbour on the other side that has not extended.

We would like to push our extension walls right the way out to the boundaries of the shared party wall

- on the side of the house where the neighbour has already done his extension, i can see no logical reason why he might be dismayed that we would be using the party wall line as the place for the start of extension (we would make good any guttering/flashing issues that might arise out of building the new wall next to his extension)
- on the side of the house where there is no extension done, we would not be blocking light of that neighbour (aspect is in our favour), with a new wall, the neighbour would be in an advantageous position should they wish to do an extension themselves

question is twofold:
  • can they make an official objection to what we plan to do; or can they just be very unhappy about the situation and tell us that they do not want us to go ahead with our plans vis-a-vis the shared wall (we will not get pushy on this - if they say no, we will back off)
  • if we are allowed to go ahead with this - should we get written permission from both parties that this is OK and would this be sufficient if a problem arose at any future point in time when there may be questions raised should any of the houses be sold?
thanks for reading this tome -if you can shed any light, i'd be grateful - i've googled for an answer - there is plenty of UK advice but precious little Irish advice
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

Don't know for sure but I'd say you could try asking the planning dept of the county council to get an answer. Make sure you talk to an actual planner as from my experience "whoever answers the phone" may offer an answer that might not be accurate. My inclination if I were you would be to get their ok in writing just to be safe. Do they have any windows facing your house that will be in shade as a result of your extension?
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

I'd agree with Toby - especially where neighbours are involved, get it in writing.
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

A boundary is a boundary. Neither party is free to make use of it without mutual agreement.

While it may make perfect sense to effectively use the boundary space as the point at which your extension commences, you would require agreement.

The fact that they chose to build wholly inside it may colour their thinking i.e. if they didn't see fit to include it, they may not consider it appropriate for you to do so either.
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

If you go ahead and do it without written permission you could a) end up in court and subsequently enforced to demolish, b)encounter complications should you ever decide to sell, c) have a very poor relationship with your neighbours.


Technically, unless agreement is provided in writing you need to keep your whole extension, including overhanging gutters inside the imaginary centre line of the boundary wall.


Normally, what i advise is that you approach your neighbour, offer to install oversized foundations to allow them to use the wall for future extensions. You will need to give this in writing.
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

I'm pretty sure I read an AAM thread recently that was similar to this. The main point was to get any agreement in writing, because whatever your current neighbour thinks, your future neighbour might get stroppy unless you've got that agreement in writing.

Note to Mods (& suellen!) - searched AAM for 'shared party walls' and 'shared walls' but couldn't find it. Can anyone help?
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

I think you cannot use boundary wall anymore as part of extension you must build new wall against it, ring planning but I think that is the case now,
 
Re: Shared Party Walls? Permission - verbal or written

sluice44 said:
I'm pretty sure I read an AAM thread recently that was similar to this. The main point was to get any agreement in writing, because whatever your current neighbour thinks, your future neighbour might get stroppy unless you've got that agreement in writing.

Note to Mods (& suellen!) - searched AAM for 'shared party walls' and 'shared walls' but couldn't find it. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

Hi Sluice,

Sorry I missed this post - must have dozed off then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)

I think this thread from Mortgages Forum might be the one you are thinking of Party Wall (this new search facility is great - I'll be out of this highly paid job yet!)
 
Guys,

thanks for all your help - we've decided to forgo the foot-ish space either side of the extension and stay inside the existing boundary walls - much less hassle in the long-term and hopefully will not impact upon neighbours too much - as we are just new to the house, last thing we want to do is p@ss off the folks around us
 
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