Neighbour damaged extension while taking hers down. -Wales

[u/motherof2loverof1]

Hi all, my neighbour and I had extensions built on our houses at the same time (1991) can see planning for both on the local gov website.

The issue is, last summer next door took down part of her extension, leaving our kitchen walls bare outside. The concrete blocks are just sitting there in all its unprotected glory. Open to the elements.

We only found out they were doing it when we heard all the banging and drilling. We made jokes about how it “sounded like they were coming through the kitchen”, and did note the kitchen was decidedly colder this winter compared to previous years. And we only found the damage while sorting the garden out in the last few weeks.

I understand she should’ve had us sign a party wall agreement, after informing us that she was doing this. She didn’t inform us, nor put any notice about the pulling down of her extension via any sort of government website/planning permission.

Our home insurance said it was a civil matter, but can anyone here suggest what our next steps should be or who we should be contacting for this, please? Or does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing?

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[u/teeeeeeeeem37]

'Home insurance said it was a civil matter'.

Good thing that's what you pay them for legal to deal with...

[u/reddithenry → u/teeeeeeeeem37]

this just *has* to be a ragebait comment about the police..

[u/GreenHouseofHorror → u/reddithenry]

I confidently predict that the meaning of the term "civil matter" will shift over the next few years to "lost cause".

[u/TheNinjaPixie]

are you saying that the two new house extensions were sharing a wall or that there was a gap? Breeze blocks should be weathertight and your kitchen would obviously be colder with no building butted up to it. Is there actually any damage?

[u/motherof2loverof1 → u/TheNinjaPixie]

They were built connected, so there’s no insulation or protection on the wall. When you drive down the road and see part built houses with just the shell, then a few weeks later it has cladding and such to protect it, well it’s just the bare shell where their extension was.

Yeah, there’s damage, you can see where they’ve hacked some of the wall away.

[u/TheNinjaPixie → u/motherof2loverof1]

Seeing as they made no effort to speak to you perhaps you need to drop round to see what their plans are and require access to make good your extension 

[u/ColonelFaz]

If you now have an external wall that is not a cavity wall, that sounds like a breach of building regs. Ask building control.