loft wall

[sarah j]

Could someone answer my question ?

I own a victorian semi and have (had) no party wall in my loft ,i now have new neighbours who when i have been at work this week have built a new dividing wall (timber and plasterboard )
My question is this should i have been consulted about this does it fall in the Party Wall Act ?

Thank you

 

[Penners]

I suppose common courtesy suggests that they should have talked to you about this, before they just went ahead and did it. But that aside they have probably done you a favour. A properly constructed fire break wall in the loft adds to your safety, and if the building was being built today it would be a requirement under the Building Regulations.

I'm afraid I know nothing about the Party Wall Act.

 

[Pford75]

Agree with Penners that the division is of benefit to yourselves.

On your question....

I believe that your neighbours have in fact created a party wall (assuming that it is positioned along the dividing line between your lofts).....which would mean that it should in fact fall under the act. The exception would if if they had created the structure entirely inside their own loft space (without impingeing on your loft). I'm not sure what you actually want to do about this, since it doesn't sounds as if it is causing you any problems and you may in fact derive some benefit. It might, at a push, be worth establishing with the neighbours that this is now a party wall....and any future work would fall under the act.

My key questions would be:

1. Has anything been done to the roof structure to accomodate this wall? ie. bits hacked out of rafters, joists etc.

2. Does the work have building regulations approval? In theory, partitioning of a space would require this.

3. Does this affect the ventilation of the roof space?

In summary though, it's probably a good thing....but agree it would have been nice if they'd mentioned it to you before commencing work.

 

[Ian Bond]

They probably should have informed you about the work - I would have done out of courtesy anyway, just as Penners stated.

As well as providing fire protection, the wall will make the house more secure, and help stop smells (cigarettes, cooking) as well as noise travelling between the houses. They've possibly saved you a job here.

That is, providing they've done it properly and not caused damage or mess to your house?

 

[Lime]

My question is this should i have been consulted about this does it fall in the Party Wall Act ?

Thank you

Yes.
The questions I'd be asking is does it conform to building regulations and fire regulations?
Has any damage been done to the roof structure?
For what purpose was the wall put up?

 

[Moo]

On the bright side - not only do you now have a fire barrier, but you also have secure private storage space.

 

[Penners]

The last time we moved house, the chargehand of the removals gang gave us a piece of sage advice. "Never store anything in your loft. It'll stay there for ever, you'll never use it, and you might as well throw it away."

Mind you, he did say this after bringing down some three dozen boxes from our loft which had lain there for thirteen years, untouched and unopened - they still had the remover's labels on from when we moved into the house.

 

[AMc]

Agree with Penners - current loft isn't used for storage as I couldn't see enough sturdy joists through the itchy fibreglass to be sure of the boxes staying in the loft and not making an unexpected reappearance in the upstairs bedrooms...when the bats returned to roost and pooed everywhere I was glad there was nothing up there but dust

To sarah j - I would speak to your neighbours as quickly and politely as you can about what they've done and what they're planning on doing. Hopefully they're not planning on turning their loft into a recording studio and they have building control approval - but if they are planning an unauthorised loft conversion it could cause you some trouble in the future with noise etc.
I would go for the 'ohhh how interesting what are you doing with yours then' approach over an indignant neighbour tone

Let us know how you get on.