No Smoke Without Fire… Or so they say!?!

We were recently contacted by a building owner hoping to carry out some much needed remedial works to a jointly owner chimney stack, unfortunately despite the extend of damage to the chimney which was significantly affecting the functionality of the chimney the adjoining owner was not interested in discussing the repairs. Not surprisingly the adjoining owner was even less interested in discussing the costs of the repairs or their responsibility to pay a fair proportion of these.

The building owner contacted Party Wall Services and we were able to reassure them of their rights under the act to firstly have the repairs undertaken and equally as importantly to reclaim a fair proportion of the costs from the adjoining owner, even without them directly agreeing to this. Obviously in practice this is not always as simple as it should be to resolve these issues but the fact remains that is a structure is jointly owned it should be repaired by both/all owners, depending on the benefit to each of them and costs split accordingly.

The Act is there to protect structures and to allow works to progress, particularly where an avoidance of undertaking remedial works will have a detrimental affect on the structure as a whole.

In cases such as these it is important that the surveyor/s act within their remit to resolve the dispute under the Act and to ensure that the award is correctly and fairly detailed and proportioned. Evidence of costs should be appended to the award and any other supporting evidence referenced.

Once an award is in place, if not challenged in a County Court within 14 days, the adjoining owner will be legally required to pay the amount determined by the surveyor/s. In addition the award will be likely to include details relating to access and so enabling the building owner and/or their advisors/contactors to undertake any works that are necessary to be undertaken from the adjoining owners side.

This is a great example of how the Act benefits all parties and structures equally and certainly refocused the appointed surveyor/s of the duty of their role.

Smoke without fire… well in this case the smoke put out the fire, at least until the Act came in! Ifyou find yourself in a similar situation, please contact us for some free advise and further information of what to do and when.