Hello,
I am hoping that the collective experience of PPUK will help me with some advice and clarification of a potential dispute with works undertaken by our neighbour. Our house is an end of terrace and the building next door is a small 1920s former industrial building. One wall of the building forms the boundary of our properties (ie. rather than a garden wall there is this building). The building was divided internally into two properties in the 90s and each property has a different owner.
Last week while we were away the owner of one half of the building undertook roofing work and removed the original Welsh slate roof and replaced it with modern tiles that are completely different from the original covering and not in keeping with the character of the building. The roof level has been raised by several inches and so is now at a different height to the shared roof of the property next door and raised relative to the gable end of the building. White PVC fascia boards have been used around the building rather than replacing the wooden boards. The result is a glaring mishmash of old and new which is completely unsympathetic to the period of the building and the area. I have contacted local planning enforcement who are looking at potential breaches of local planning and the Conservation Area.
What I am hoping for advice on is a dispute with regard to the Party Wall Act. The owners of the building did not contact us before starting work and the contractors who carried out the work entered our property without consent and removed the original wooden fascia boards and replaced them with white PVC. The building now has one half PVC and one half wooden fascia which looks terrible and is completely not in keeping with the period industrial building. The contractors trampled over our garden killing and damaging our plants and made no effort to clean up after themselves. Our garden is now littered with bits of broken slates, nails, plastic and old bits of the original roof. Unfortunately, there is little I can do about the shocking roofing work that has been undertaken but I'm hoping there is something I can do about the total indifference and contempt with which this work was completed.
Does the work of replacing the fascia boards with white PVC fall under the Party Wall Act? We now have to look at this jarring mess of a job so I'm hopeful that we can at least force them to replace the PVC with wood.
As always I would welcome your thoughts and advice.
I am hoping that the collective experience of PPUK will help me with some advice and clarification of a potential dispute with works undertaken by our neighbour. Our house is an end of terrace and the building next door is a small 1920s former industrial building. One wall of the building forms the boundary of our properties (ie. rather than a garden wall there is this building). The building was divided internally into two properties in the 90s and each property has a different owner.
Last week while we were away the owner of one half of the building undertook roofing work and removed the original Welsh slate roof and replaced it with modern tiles that are completely different from the original covering and not in keeping with the character of the building. The roof level has been raised by several inches and so is now at a different height to the shared roof of the property next door and raised relative to the gable end of the building. White PVC fascia boards have been used around the building rather than replacing the wooden boards. The result is a glaring mishmash of old and new which is completely unsympathetic to the period of the building and the area. I have contacted local planning enforcement who are looking at potential breaches of local planning and the Conservation Area.
What I am hoping for advice on is a dispute with regard to the Party Wall Act. The owners of the building did not contact us before starting work and the contractors who carried out the work entered our property without consent and removed the original wooden fascia boards and replaced them with white PVC. The building now has one half PVC and one half wooden fascia which looks terrible and is completely not in keeping with the period industrial building. The contractors trampled over our garden killing and damaging our plants and made no effort to clean up after themselves. Our garden is now littered with bits of broken slates, nails, plastic and old bits of the original roof. Unfortunately, there is little I can do about the shocking roofing work that has been undertaken but I'm hoping there is something I can do about the total indifference and contempt with which this work was completed.
Does the work of replacing the fascia boards with white PVC fall under the Party Wall Act? We now have to look at this jarring mess of a job so I'm hopeful that we can at least force them to replace the PVC with wood.
As always I would welcome your thoughts and advice.