by winny219 »
Tue Dec 03, 2019 4:43 pm
About 10 years ago my next door neighbours had an extension built onto their terraced house which I obviously had no objections to, but I did ask that they follow the guidelines of the Party Wall Act. They denied all knowledge about this so I gave them a copy, but at no time did they speak to me about the fact that they would be exposing the foundations of my old extension or that they would be attaching their guttering into the side of my extension wall. One day I noticed a fine vertical crack had appeared at the top of my stairs, I took a photo of it and told them about it in writing, but they or their builders did not respond. I live alone and was working at the time so couldn't be here to speak to the builders during the day. I thought it was just a crack in the plaster and filled it. However I have recently noticed the crack is back and slightly wider, although still only about 1.5mm. I opened a paper clip and pushed it into the crack and was horrified that it went in up to about 10cm so the crack is obviously deeper than I thought. I know I should have chased it up at the time but to be honest the neighbours are very abusive and I have always tried to avoid confrontations. There is a gap of about 25 cm between our extensions but its certainly not accessible from their side. The same neighbour is there but their house is now owned by a housing association. Can anyone advise me on what I should do about this crack - would a builder or a surveyor be the best person to contact? Many thanks.
