Neighbours house falling down!

gimpotronitus

Hi,

I live close to the connolly rail line, near the city centre. Recently works were carried out on the line. I live in the second house from the line. Its a terraced redbrick. My neighbours house is the first house from the rail line and is an end of terrace. Houses built 1916.

Since I am thinking of building an extension on my property soon, I went in to chat about it with my neighbour. She showed me her house. There is a big crack in her chimney breast, the house seems to be leaning towards the back garden and in the front bedroom the rear wall has *lifted* from the floor (or the floor has fallen from the wall) so that there is a gap of about 3 inches between the wall and the floor.

In her opinion, and it seems correct to me, the recent works on the line are to blame and she has a case pending. Wont say any more on that score. Needless to say, she will have to get the house rebuilt i.e. front and back walls at the *very* least.

Now to my house. Naturally I am now concerned about my own property and its state. I have started to remove the wallpaper on the chimney to see if there are any cracks and there are none so far. To a laymans eyes (mine) my house does not *seem* to be leaning at all and *seems* ok.

She advised me to get the house surveyed to see if there are problems. BEFORE the works were done, the company involved paid for surveys to be done on the houses close by so it is probably a good idea that I compare my "before" survey to an "after" survey to see if any damage has taken place.

Basically I am now very worried about:

a) the structural integrity of my property

and

b) the effect on my property when her house gets knocked down and rebuilt!

and

c) getting the timing right now for my extension at the back.

advice?

thanks.

Gyck

Sounds like you need to get the house surveyed asap. It's worth it even for the peace of mind.