Party Wall issue

gabbo is coming

Hi

Friends of mine live in a semi detached dublin house. On the non attached side, there was a gap in to the next door neighbours back garden.
Fronting this gap between the houses was a wall, connecting both houses, with a garage door

About 20 years ago, new neighbours moved in and they set about roofing the gap to make a garage. They affixed the roof against the side of my friends house, with no permission.

Added to this is a small party wall that runs between the two front gardens, partially between the back gardens and as such, now in to this new garage

So effectively they built a roof over this stone party wall and affixed it against the side my friends house, enclosing the smaller party wall.

About 5 years ago, it all blew up, mainly over noise coming in from the garage. Solicitors letters exchanged but it came to nothing.

Now my friends have learned that they plan to convert the garage to a livingroom and utility room. They want to get rid of the stone wall, which they claim is their wall.

What should my friends do to stop this? The concern is that not so much about the stone wall, but that they build off the side of the house again, with no independent wall, with have transference of noise from now on.....

FishOnABike

Did the neighbours 20 years ago make 'their' garage out of what was a shared wall and one shared access door which spanned the gap between two houses?

Was the whole of the gap between the houses even theirs to use 20 years ago?

There may be two issues
1. Clarifying property boundaries and whether the neighbours existing garage structure encroaches on your property and if any of it is on your property looking at what options are open to address the issue.
2. Structural, ensuring your neighbours building does not impact your house. You should probably ensure anything they build is structurally separate from your house with a proper fire / acoustic / expansion break. excavation for foundations does not affect your house. Are there any water mains, drains or other utilities buried under the area they propose to build on? Where would rainwater runoff from thier roof go - could it affect your house?

Approached the right way it might be an opportunity to fix the errors of the past.

gabbo is coming

FishOnABike wrote: »

Did the neighbours 20 years ago make 'their' garage out of what was a shared wall and one shared access door which spanned the gap between two houses?

Was the whole of the gap between the houses even theirs to use 20 years ago?

There may be two issues
1. Clarifying property boundaries and whether the neighbours existing garage structure encroaches on your property and if any of it is on your property looking at what options are open to address the issue.
2. Structural, ensuring your neighbours building does not impact your house. You should probably ensure anything they build is structurally separate from your house with a proper fire / acoustic / expansion break. excavation for foundations does not affect your house. Are there any water mains, drains or other utilities buried under the area they propose to build on? Where would rainwater runoff from thier roof go - could it affect your house?

Approached the right way it might be an opportunity to fix the errors of the past.

Hi

No the gap is their gap between the houses. And the wall spanning the gap with the double door in it was theirs. And that wall did meet and join the gable wall of the friends house

What wasn't OK was then building a garage, with that gap wall as the front wall of it, affixing the garage to the gable wall and building over the party wall

gabbo is coming

Hi

How do you ensure it is structurally ok though, does DCC enforcement help, I doubt they're going to get planning permission

Calahonda52

OP, its a bit hard to follow TBH
any way establish from the site maps/title deeds etc where the boundary line is between the two houses.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/27/enacted/en/print#part8-chap3

Markcheese

I'm assuming they'd need to apply for planning , so object ..
If they haven't applied for planning contact the planning office , it'd be a lot cheaper to let the planning office do the fighting for your friends ..
I think I'd be getting a solicitor involved .. if for nothing else to establish the boundary line ,
But I'm guessing they neighbour is either trying to say that the entire space has always been theirs , or is gonna try claim adverse possession since they roofed it ..
If it technically is , or has become the neighbours your friend may have a right of way , which could scupper their plans ..

gabbo is coming

Calahonda52 wrote: »

OP, its a bit hard to follow TBH
any way establish from the site maps/title deeds etc where the boundary line is between the two houses.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/27/enacted/en/print#part8-chap3

Does this help?

gabbo is coming

If it technically is , or has become the neighbours your friend may have a right of way , which could scupper their plans ..[/quote]

A right of way to maintain the gable wall? Never thought of that

Markcheese

And that's been there 20 years and they didn't sort it out then ? Even with solicitors involved ...
I doubt this will be easy ..

Markcheese

The wall they want to remove how far is it from the side wall of your friends house ?
Does your friend have access from the back ?