Semi-Detached Loft Conversion – Party Walls

Party Wall Act

When a semi detached loft conversion is being planned, it’s a legal requirement to keep your neighbours informed. Under the Party Wall Act, you are required to notify your adjoining neighbour of home extensions and obtain their consent if you share any party walls which will be affected.

While this procedure won’t normally be relevant to detached homes, any semi detached attic conversion or terraced house loft conversion will almost certainly be affected. For instance, where the steel beams rest onto shared walls, or where foundation excavations are close to other buildings, you will need to serve the required notices on your neighbours.

Modern Attics carries out many terraced and semi detached loft conversions in London and is highly experienced in the whole area of party walls. We can serve the notices on your neighbours for you, including a full description of the work to be carried out. This needs to be done well in advance, normally at least two months before work begins.

Once the notices have been served, the neighbours are within their rights to appoint a surveyor to represent them to produce a schedule of condition. This is to record the condition of their property before work and it will be checked again later once the roof conversion is completed, to establish if there have been any changes. Surveyors’ fees incurred for this procedure would be paid by you.

As our director is a qualified chartered surveyor, he will be able to fully guide you through the procedures. To speed up this process and help ensure that it all goes smoothly, we can provide surveyors who are specialists in this field. The party wall consents must be finalised before we can start work, and will mean that your neighbours will be unable to delay progress once the required notices have been served.

Modern Attics provide terraced house and semi detached loft conversions in all areas of London, including Turnpike Lane, Colney Hatch, Arnos Grove, Brunswick Park, Bounds Green, Friern Barnet, North Finchley and Osidge, North London. We can advise you not only on the Party Wall Act, but also on other statutory consents. You can rely on us to ensure compliance with all building regulations and we also submit planning applications on your behalf in the case of roof conversions where planning permission is needed.

For more information on our services, get in touch with us or browse our website to see the range of projects we carry out.