Loft conversion - Party wall with neighbour

[xyz123]

Hi, we are in a semi detached house and looking at doing loft conversion next year. We get on very well with our next door neighbour however the house is owned by council. Council website says they will have their own surveyor. What I want to understand is

1. What sort of money should I estimate for paying for council's surveyor
2. At the drawing stage is there any specific things to look out for to avoid problems later on with surveyor
3. Similar to 2 above for building control drawings anything specific to look out for?


Any other advise/suggestions welcome..

Thanks

[xyz123]

Bump..

[hidetheelephants]

They'll be surveying before and after your works, so if you get change out of a couple of grand I'd count myself lucky.

[trickywoo]

hidetheelephants said:

They'll be surveying before and after your works, so if you get change out of a couple of grand I'd count myself lucky.

It’s a shame it’s council owned as neighbours are generally fine. A survey only happens on request.

I wonder if all councils do it or some don’t.

[FlossyThePig]

xyz123 said:

Hi, we are in a semi detached house and looking at doing loft conversion next year... however the house is owned by council.

If the house is owned by the council are they happy that a tenant wants to make major alterations?

[timbo999]

We get on very well with our next door neighbour however their house is owned by council

I think there is an 'ir' missing in that sentence... its the neigbours house that is owned by the council.

Edited by timbo999 on Saturday 21st December 17:54

[Cow Corner]

xyz123 said:

Hi, we are in a semi detached house and looking at doing loft conversion next year. We get on very well with our next door neighbour however the house is owned by council. Council website says they will have their own surveyor. What I want to understand is

1. What sort of money should I estimate for paying for council's surveyor
2. At the drawing stage is there any specific things to look out for to avoid problems later on with surveyor
3. Similar to 2 above for building control drawings anything specific to look out for?


Any other advise/suggestions welcome..

Thanks

Allow £1500 for the adjoining owners surveyor, assuming a simple award.

Questions 2 and 3 are, to be blunt, the stuff that you are paying your designer to worry about.

[xyz123]

Thanks for replies and apologies for typo. We own our house and adjoining house is owned by council.

[nute]

It is possible to both agree to use the same surveyor which might save you some cash.

[Cow Corner]

nute said:

It is possible to both agree to use the same surveyor which might save you some cash.

It is generally, but the council will want to appoint their own surveyor (my previous employer used to act for numerous local authorities in this area).

[nute]

Find out who they use and go to them? Or send your PW notice out yourself and see who they appoint and approach them to act as agreed surveyor.

Might be worth bearing in mind that anyone with more than a 12 month interest is regarded as a qualifying owner for the purposes of the PWA. I have no idea what sort of lease your neighbours are on but they could be due a notice too.

It is possible to design a roof conversion which doesn’t need a notice. Not sure if this would be possible in your case but avoiding cutting into the PW, avoid taking out any chimney breasts, steels spanning front to rear and not on pads stones in the PW, no new flashings into parapets etc. Not always easy but seen it done.

Edited by nute on Sunday 22 December 17:20

[Cow Corner]

nute said:

Find out who they use and go to them? Or send your PW notice out yourself and see who they appoint and approach them to act as agreed surveyor.

Might be worth bearing in mind that anyone with more than a 12 month interest is regarded as a qualifying owner for the purposes of the PWA. I have no idea what sort of lease your neighbours are on but they could be due a notice too.

It is possible to design a roof conversion which doesn’t need a notice. Not sure if this would be possible in your case but avoiding cutting into the PW, avoid taking out any chimney breasts, steels spanning front to rear and not on pads stones in the PW, no new flashings into parapets etc. Not always easy but seen it done.

Edited by nute on Sunday 22 December 17:20

The PW act is designed to enable development, not to stop it, and loft conversions are bread and butter stuff to PW surveyors - so my advice to clients in the past has generally been to design what you want, rather than try and design it specifically to avoid the need to issue a PW notice and end up with a smaller/compromised space.

[nute]

I don’t disagree, but equally some people are on a very tight budget, and some PWS’s ( thankfully few) charge too much for the input required.

[nute]

I don’t disagree, but equally some people are on a very tight budget, and some PWS’s ( thankfully few) charge too much for the input required.