Owning your own home

Now now, no need to dox PW surveyors. Everyone’s gotta make a buck.

£7k in fee's for two (I assume) relatively simple awards is crazy. Are they getting a kick-back?

There's nothing wrong with someone using a third party surveyor for party wall awards, frustrating though it maybe. Why would you trust someone else's surveyor?

The surveyor they chose has fucked you over though - £3,500 a pop sounds completely unreasonable.

You could just refuse to pay them on that basis.

The surveyor they chose has fucked you over though - £3,500 a pop sounds completely unreasonable.

Agreed. 25hrs work seems way OTT for a loft. Ask for a breakdown of fees.

@TW yes I would trust someone else's surveyor, as I expect them to be impartial professionals, and thats the last I will say on that boring subject.

It's 2x PW agreements (two different bits of work over 4 years) so 2 x 1.5K (our surveyor) and 2 x 1.75K (her surveyor).

Why didn't you just use their surveyor?

Then wait until you've almost completed the sale and drop your offer back to 90%... because UK :)

Not sure if you have had party wall stuff done before, but there are basically 4 options.

1. WHATEVER! WE COOL! (not wise for anyone IMO)
   
2. I'm not worried, but lets be sensible... (you hire a surveyor)
   
3. I'm not into this, I want a professional to look at this thoroughly (full surveyor inspection)
   
4. Fuck you and fuck your surveyor, I don't think you should be allowed to do this and I will try to stop you. (2x 3).
   
   

FWIW I tried to use her surveyor as she instructed them before we had even instructed our own but they refused. All a bit fishy IMO.

I'm aware of the options. 4 is not really a thing, though, is it? You cannot prevent someone from doing work on their own property. All the adjacent owner can do is dissent, and employ their own surveyor.

Either way " I tried to use her surveyor as she instructed them before we had even instructed our own but they refused." - Amir-Siddique v Kowaliw suggets that they could be liable for some of your ow surveyor's fees (IANAL though, so pinch of salt).

We went for option 1 bc we were worried our neighbours would write negative posts about us on internet fora.

I hope our house does not slide into the road.

The house with the big tree is still the frontrunner at the moment.

The downstairs ceiling tiles are making me nervous though (see below), and under the wallpaper in an upstairs bedroom was what looked like polystyrene.

Chances of one or both being asbestos?

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My grandparents had these. Aah memories of my grandad sticking his foot through the ceiling while I was dicking around in their loft.
No idea if they have asbestos though I would be surprised, they seemed to be pure fire hazard.

We’ve had new carpets fitted - which looks like it was done as quickly as possible. It wasn’t cheap but as well as this I can now feel the floorboards below in each bedroom, there are squeaks and floor doesn’t feel level. They also didn’t fit any of the doors back so we had to do that. Am I wrong to suggest that I don’t pay the 2nd half of the money until it is completed to a satisfactory outcome? Also the underlay the removed was thick kinda rubber material and think they’ve whacked in something much less dense - would that seem likely?

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That’s pretty shit TBH

Did you buy good underlay if not they will have probs put a cheaper one in.

I always stick a more expensive underlay in always.

Aren’t they just polystyrene? Favoured dad decorating upgrade of the 1970’s

As per
http://paintedstyle.blogspot.com/2014/01/not-for-those-of-nervous-disposition.html

If there was thick underlay I doubt they’d bother pulling it all out and fitting cheaper stuff. It’s shit, but unless door fitting and making good of skirting was agreed on or in the quote they could easily argue that. They’ll probably also say they didn’t touch the floorboards, not my job m8.

If there are realistic things they could come back and fix, or you might get some money back, defo complain.

Nice carpet btw 😉

Probably just polystyrene (but test it). Beware though, it’s there for a reason, probably hiding big (aesthetic) cracks and a shitty ceiling that’ll need skimmed or overboarded.

Yeah that’s what I’m thinking. They’ve said they will come back and look at it after I sent photos. There’s 50% of balance outstanding so we won’t settle that until we’re happy with the outcome just wanting to get a guide on what’s reasonable.

Would be interested to know what carpet that is, it’s nice.

can now feel the floorboards below in each bedroom,

That sounds like you have cheap underlay. I noticed this when we had ours replaced. I was that thick rubber stuff and we opted for the next level down which was the thick foam. Noticeably worse even though we went from old to new.

Also the underlay the removed was thick kinda rubber material and think they’ve whacked in something much less dense

Sounds about right. Do you know they removed it? Eg did you see it, or see the skip? You can just lift up a discreet corner to check. But unfortunately if you didn't spec a specific underlay I'm not sure you have much recourse there.

Also worth pointing out that in pic2 it looks like this carpet is lower than your old carpet. This could be because a. The underlay is thinner, b. The carpet is thinner, c. a. and b.

On the actual laying job, TBH it looks fine to me.

To be honest, I expected that they'd be asbestos and we'd be paying >£100/m for removal, so if they 'just' need skimming that's a plus.

The upstairs ceilings are all cracked and need doing anyway.

Is it too much to ask to be able to afford a nicely finished place that we could move straight into? (Not that they're coming up for sale) (First world problem).

Is it too much to ask to be able to afford a nicely finished place that we could move straight into?

Not without making other compromises.

I’ll let @dbr tell you (think he’s on commission)

We weren’t given a choice of underlay and if they had done a better job and taken more care I might not have noticed/been bothered. If it means paying a bit more for underlay then fine but let us know that or if there were issues with the floor then let us know as we have builders on site etc. they came in and smashed it out as quick as possible, did a poor job imo.