Party Wall Appointment
Golders Green, London NW11 (London Borough of Barnet)
Close to Finchley, Hendon, Hampstead and Cricklewood, Within the catchment of our Finchley office.
Background: The works required excavation for foundations within 3 m of the adjoining owner's property and below the level of the adjoining owner's foundations.
We were appointed by the building owner. The adjoining owner did not wish to appoint the building owner's Surveyor as Agreed Surveyor and instead appointed his own Surveyor.
There was one adjoining owner to the works.
The works involved the erection of a ground floor extension to the rear of the house.
Conclusion:
When the Surveyors visited site they noticed that the adjoining owner's extension had been built partly on the building owner's land. This was apparent when drawing a straight visual line from the mid-width point of the chimney stack and it was apparent that the extension was over that line. The extension wall was in line with the main wall of the house which was itself a Party Wall, located on the land of both owners.
The building owner therefore had a right to enclose on the flank wall (subject to making a payment to the adjoining owner), but as he did not wish to make use of this right, opted instead to erect his own separate flank wall alongside the adjoining owner's wall.
The Award therefore dealt with such matters as how to keep the new foundations separate from those of the neighbours, how to keep the new wall from bonding with the existing wall, and how to excavate for new foundations alongside the wall without undermining the existing flank wall's foundations.