Property Surveys and Party Wall Advice in Highams Park

Owners will sometimes prepare and serve their own party wall notices or the builder may do so on their behalf. That’s fine as long as they are willing to do the research, as an invalid notice can cause delays. We recently became involved in a case where the building owner has served his own notices but, as often happens, he’d only covered part of the works.

The owner planned to extend his Highams Park property to the rear and had served notice under section 6 of the Act to cover the excavation but had overlooked the new wall at the boundary which was also notifiable (under section 1). Once appointed, party wall surveyors are generally authorised to both send and receive notices on behalf of their owners and as the adjoining owner in this case had appointed a surveyor the issue with the missing notice was quickly resolved. The award was straightforward allowing it to be agreed and served prior to the proposed start date despite the building owner’s original error.

We were contacted by the owner of converted ground floor flat on the Woodford side of Highams Park who had recently constructed a rear extension. Our client was on good terms with their upstairs neighbour and wanted to keep it that way but had received a complaint about recurring cracks.

The job was passed on to our senior surveyor William Weaver who visited the property and inspected both flats to investigate the cause of the cracking. It transpired that they had been caused by thermal action and that unfortunately the builder had used an incorrect repair technique. With his knowledge of construction and repair techniques, William was able to demonstrate that the first floor flat hadn’t been damaged by the works, why the crack had appeared and then reappeared following repair and what should now be done.

The client commented that “William was incredibly helpful, very personable, reassuring and pragmatic” and that she would recommend and use him again if needed.