Owning your own home

Not sure about planning permissions.

It’s a Victorian terrace that was divided into two flats in the 80s. We’ve had some of our floors up and it’s just rubble and rock wool between the joists.

Hackney is the local authority.

His flat is tenanted just now, by lovely people that we want to keep as neighbours.

We don’t wear shoes in the flat. Our kitchen is above their bedroom but they’ve always said it’s pretty ok noise wise. We get on well, they’d mention if it was an issue.

Thanks for the PIR advice. It seems like it’s easier to reduce airborne sound going up than impact sound going down.

The property looks like a flat in a Victorian house that has been carved up, so it would need to have been submitted as a Planning Application rather than Permitted Development.

Assuming the plans have been approved then I am not aware of anything that you can do as a neighbour to stop works from happening. There are ways you can make life difficult/expensive such as insisting on your own Party Wall Surveyor who your neighbour would need to pick up the bill for, but it really is a fruitless exercise (the Party Wall Act is in place to enable rather than stop works). Saying that, this could become an expensive procedure should all adjoining dwellings/property owners whom an award needs to be agreed with all insist on their own independent surveyors as your legal right.

If the application is yet to be submitted then the freehold owner could refuse your neighbours plans which would put a stop to the proposed works (I believe).

The best thing would be to voice your concerns with your neighbour and negotiate that they look to improve the existing acoustic separation/noise issues along with define noisy working hours (weekends, early mornings etc.) I would also insist that a detailed photographic survey is undertaken (this should take place as part of the party wall process), the proposed works include quite a lot of structural works including large steel beams, and this has the potential risk to be quite invasive to your property.

I imagine the freeholder undertook the works pre-your purchase (?) and I would ask them if the works were signed off by a building control inspector, and if so if you could see a copy of the works including specified buildups. It sounds like the separation between the properties does not comply with elements of the Building Regulations.

It’s a Victorian terrace that was divided into two flats in the 80s.

Would have put money on this being the case.

I've never worked in Hackney so have no experience dealing with them.

If you can get the tennents to feedback the sound transmission issues to their landlord and work at him from the other side you may achieve something. At the end of the day he is likely to have an easier life going forward if he has to re-let the flat by sorting this now.

the proposed works include quite a lot of structural works including large steel beams, and this has the potential risk to be quite invasive to your property.

Estelle raises a valid point here to put it bluntly I would have serious concerns letting my family stay in a property that had this type of work going on within the building.

Byredo? Ugh. I'm all about MONTAMONTA x Lanark.

I'd have a check in your lease, you may have the right to refuse any works.

Realistically you won't get that far objecting to it through council planning unless they're planning on doing something out of the ordinary. Talking to downstairs would be the best way to get any changes through, the earlier the better.

Yeah that’s our plan. We don’t want to stop it, just make sure we don’t agree to everything while missing any big obvious pitfalls that’ll bite us in the bum later.

It seems like it’s easier to reduce airborne sound going up than impact sound going down.

I can tell you loads about noise insulation when you get back from your hols!

But in short that ^ is very true and it's pretty easy and cheap to stop airborne noise going up. Just be glad you don't have neighbours above your bedroom.

Can’t wait! 😉

Alright 2Wheels, did you end up in Cambridge? Just dredging up some old convos from about 4 year back

Anyone had to use the 'access to neighboring land act'?

Just had a conversation with a very twitchy landlord neighbor about access to her garden to re-render my side elevation (boundary wall).

She is talking about drawing up a contract outlining liability (fair enough), and holding a deposit to cover damages (as far as I know she has no right to this and can get to fuck). She was talking about drawing up a contract herself (said she has a vague background in law, though obviously not property law), but I should probably get one drawn up myself, or at least get hers looked over if it ever emerges right?

Beware the person who has a little law knowledge, they wield it like a chainsaw in a nursery

I went through this with my neighbour, they produced the contractor's insurance documents and that was good enough for me.. He then left us without a garden fence for the best part of a year, wanker... Just found out they're selling up, can't wait for them to fuck off...

You silly savage!! Sorry, couldn't resist... 😉🙏

It's almost funny how ill informed she is, whilst trying to give the impression of someone who knew more than I did about houses and law. Tried to tell me that I didn't need to do anything unless I had damp problems. The worst kind of capitalist landlord, minimum input, maximum extraction.

Yeah, i can see how she's be anxious about me fucking up her patio to be fair. I think she'll be bought round with a contract saying I have liability for any damages, but like fuck is she holding any of my cash in the meantime.

Tried to say my gutter had fallen off and was in her garden, it's a gable end and all my gutters are where they should be (if a bit raggedy).

Ironically it'll make her garden much nicer as there won't be a crumbling mess of render at the end of it.

If I go with k-rend I'll have the fun of getting her to sign something saying she won't paint over it and hence screw the breathability.

I was wondering about party walls facing onto other properties and stuff and who can do what to them the other day.

Taking this as an example:

if you were next door to it would you be allowed to paint it, screw things in so you could put a trellis or shelves or something up and that kind of jazz or does it belong 100% to the person who has the extension?

Also, how does building such a thing work? I assume they need a fair bit of access to do that kind of work. Is there any right to dictate the terms of that access or is it like the party wall act where you can delay stuff but realistically it's going to happen. I assume you wouldn't want someone building a big extension in your garden in the middle of summer.

Are you silly_savage's neighbour?

Does anyone have any experience of integrated blinds (ie ones that sit inside the pane of glass)?

Positives / negatives / company recommendations?

As far as I know: if it's within their boundary it's not a party wall, so you shouldn't touch it, including paint. They have rights to access for maintenance, but not for building new.

If they were building new I think they'd need a party wall agreement anyway for the footings, not sure on the technicalities of whether this then classes the above ground section as a party wall.

If it straddles the boundary, then it's a party wall. As far as I know you don't need a PWA for painting and drilling an interior PW, but I don't know about exterior, where it could have ramifications for weather proofing etc. I think there's a whole forum somewhere dedicated to this stuff. A PWA or an access for maintenance contract will have a time window attached which could be used to minimise disruption.

Like my prick next door neighbour that just cost me 2k for no reason.
Shit fileld sausages are currently in the freezer ready to be deployed...

Is that how much your party wall survey/contract cost?

Sssh, I'm just drawing them in before I use my legal knowledge on them.

@Silly_Savage Cheers. It's not something that impacts me at the moment but I'm curious how it all works. Having a massive wall like that in your garden but not being able to do anything with it would be a bit annoying.

When I did my loft extension the party wall surveyors came to well over £2k (one for me and then each building either side wanted their own and one of them was way more expensive than the others).

Yeah because the prick wanted her own surveyor, so it was max price x2.
Worth noting she’s not on the side of the side return - her party wall will be untouched.

Party wall costs are a sliding scale depending on the option your neighbour chooses.

1. All good BRO I don’t care what ya do = £150
   
2. Something something
   
3. As above
   
4. Hell no and I’m getting my own surveyor - £900 + own surveyor cost (£900).
   
   

So if you’re lucky you’ll be looking at 300 quid, if you’re not 3000. We expected 2000 but the other way round neighbour wise but the guy whom we’ve just put up a 3m wall in front of his kitchen wall does not care.

Reg ownership of the wall it’s our wall so he can’t paint it or owt but as he’s so nice we are getting it finished anyway he fancies.

Shite, I hope the 2nd surveyor thing doesn't apply to access for maintenance. As far as I can tell the survey is just to have an official record of the state of things before work in the case it comes to arbitration in the case of damage to her property.