Neighbours house has Subsidence - need advice!

SurferRosa

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone could offer some advice on our situation.
We live in a semi detached house, the house that we are attached to is suffering from subsidence and there are large cracks on the front of the house.

Our house seems fine and has no cracks. I heard that their house was built on a ditch and the ground not filled properly.

Anyway the poor neighbours have been trying to get this sorted the last few years. The original builders went bankrupt.

We've just now gotten a letter from their solicitor that they're going to have to start major work soon and prior to this they would like us to consent to a dilapidation report.

I understand that this would be to protect themselves in case we were to claim against their insurance for any damage that may be caused.

Before I agree though, I was just wondering if there's any reason I shouldn't.
Is there a chance that they "find" structural damage so that if they knock our wall in they would try claim the wall wasn't sound in the first place?

I suppose if report was done properly the report would protect us too.

Should we seek legal advice first or just go along with it and hope for the best?

Thank you in advance!

coylemj

SurferRosa wrote: »

We've just now gotten a letter from their solicitor that they're going to have to start major work soon and prior to this they would like us to consent to a dilapidation report.

I understand that this would be to protect themselves in case we were to claim against their insurance for any damage that may be caused.

They will probably do the work anyway so it might be no harm for you to pay for an engineer's report on the state of your property before the work commences. You can then use that as ammunition in case they damage your place, regardless of what their report says.

Or another option is that you consent to let them do the survey provided they furnish you with a copy before the work commences and if there is the slightest hint that your property is not in order, you can then decide either to commission your own independent report and/or have the remedial work on your property included in the overall contract with an agreed split of the cost.

I'm not sure where you would stand if you refuse to let their people do the survey and then later claim that the remedial work damaged your property. At the very least your claim would be weakened by your refusal to let them survey your property, it may tend to show that you knew of a defect in your place that would be aggravated by the work on the place next door and your intention was to make them pay to fix the original problem with your house.

nuac

Organise your own solicitor, consulting engineer and photographer

Pat Mustard

The OP contains a request for legal advice so this thread is closed.

No legal advice.