I have a BTL 3bed mid terrace house in Barking & Dagenham Borough & in 2015 the neighbour build a Dormer & never sought Partywall Act etc.
I did employ my own Partywall chap & attempted to get back costs to no avail, yet i did get a leak through my roof due to the sub-standard dormer built, i have had many roofers state their dormer is very bad and why yet the Council is just not interested!
I am left for years with a leak and no Licence, hence no tenants and no rent and still have a leak.
I have complained to Building Control & Planning not to mention the Licence team to no avail, i further requested Building control do a site visit to re-inspect their works they signed off yet they will not, i further contacted the local councillor to no avail and i feel i am experiencing total system incompetence and i normally get £1,400 p/m rent and have been getting £0 rent for over 2yrs and still no resolution.
The neighbour is also a Landlord and doesn’t care and apparently knows someone on the inside as this dormer is that bad that it sits proud of the ridge line, felt roof not even stuck down, wrong lead codes, cheeks wrong, apron wrong, flashings wrong and so on…
If there’s anyone out there who knows of anything i can do to force the hand of the council to take responsibility for signing off the building works for instance i feel that would break the back of the issue hence to get a resolution being the works to be rectified so that i can re-plaster the walls and ceiling and get a licence which means then a tenant hence i can get rent as i feel im going insane here, any help would be most appreciated indeed.
In the case of the party wall act. The bird has flown… As soon as you saw constuction start you should have got a stop on it thru building stating the party wall act Next door pays for your surveyor. Next door should have informed you well before job started. Have you checked with planning department?
Yes i did do all of that at that exact time yet no one was interested and no one would listen etc. I think the landlords brother is related to someone on the inside, words from the other neighbour who was also effected.
I did also check with planning and as it was a dormer it was pemitted
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Can you find the plans online? I was under the impression dormers can not be over the roof line
yes, the planning department refuse to act also and that was in 2015
I dont. get this. I have had party wall agreements for my customers rigorously enforced. Can you go up on your roof and fix the problem ?As one building inspector said to me.they are not quality control inspectors! they cringe when they see some of the jobs, but as long as it comes up to minimum standards they can do nothing. It was probabley done on the cheap… If I get a client who wants a bare minimum job doing I walk away. There are many landlords who only want a cheap job. but rent out high.
It is illegal to repair works on someone’s property unfortunately & further more the works do not comply with regulations either which is the main issue so they dont comply with minimum standards, its a real farce to say the least
Is the dormer right on the party wall ? andrew 8… I mean the SIDE of it
The dormer cheek seems to not be encroaching however the sub-standard works seems to be causing a leak and my inside roof has been opened up & i can see it coming from the partywall side due to the water ingress stains on the roof batterns
Sounds as if the lead flashing is missing or failed assuming the side of the dormer is tiled or boarded
The fault seems irrelevant as the Owner isn’t interested nor the council
Andrew that is why if my place were next to it I would get up on my roof with a tub of ARCOPAL and brush it on the join. No one else is going to do it
That is assuming that that is the problem and that the neighbour one suit you and that is applying the temporary roof fix solution doesn’t end up with me in court which they can, further to add to this there is a catalogue of other issues which are too long to explain on the leak could quite well be coming from the roof of the dormer there is about eight different places the leak could be coming from according to my independent roofing expert reports So unfortunately nothing at all can be done until the dormer has been stripped back it’s that bad
Do you have any pics from a skylight? for your own record.
Yes, got loads of pictures and a full roofing report & i sent to the neighbor & council yet to no avail
This just sounds so bad. to sue may be throwing money down the drain. I dont know what you can do.
I have already paid £15k legal fees yet a resolution seems so far away
wow that is a lot of money and no result. You cant go on like that
I know but i feel bent over a barrel sideways on this one & i feel its all the Council at fault for signing off the works which im classing as incompetence or fraud as they refuse to investigate what they signed off
You didn’t really believe you would get any help from the council did you. Good landlords who do everything right come in for the same landlord bashing as rogue ones. I still believe that money changes hands.