You can't usually develop your loft without anyone knowing about it, but with a loft extension there are fewer problems than you might imagine.
For a start, did you know that almost all our work is done from scaffolding erected outside the building. At some point we will need to fit a staircase, but we make a special appointment for this and most of the joinery is done beforehand and fitting is completed quickly and cleanly.
A party wall agreement with your neighbour is required and they are entitled to use their own surveyor and ask you to pay for it.
Click here for more information.
Click here for Party Wall Notice
The party wall is owned by all those whose house is connected to it. Because you are planning to do a loft conversion, you have to inform the neighbour, who has a total time limit of eight weeks to get the agreement in place with you. It normally only takes two to three weeks if all parties are working together well and good will prevails!
There are two forms, one is the party wall notice form, used to formerly give your neighbour notice. The other is the acknowledgement form, which your neighbour has to sign and return, with their choice of a surveyor or not.
The neighbour can't stop you doing the conversion, they just have the right to have any work that would be done to the party wall checked out and an agreement put in place with a party wall surveyor.
Hopefully your neighbour will sign the form and decide to go ahead with out the need for a surveyor. This will save you time and money. So if you can, try to get them to agree to go ahead with out a surveyor.
This is not always possible obviously!
Please click here to download a draft of a Party Wall Notice.
Planning permission is sometimes required but most of the time you can convert a loft without it unless you are in a flat or a conservation area. But local authorities do differ so it pays to work with a company that knows its way around the various authrorities
We engage professional architects for all our projects, and they produce detailed plans and specifications for your approval, and then where necessary for submission to the council. Our experience means we seldom waste anyone's time or money with unacceptable plans.
Many of our customers are surprised when we tell them that there is much less disruption than there would be with, for example, the demolition of an internal wall, or even an extension or a conservatory.
This is a conversion, not an extension, so we do all our construction from the outside. That means that materials are carried directly to the roof using the scaffolding on the outside of your home, and we don't knock through the hole in the ceiling until the work on the roof has finished. And even when we reach that stage it's not as much a disruption as you might think.
The best way to get answers is to call us. But in the meantime here are some of the most common queries.
We wouldn't do anything that
isn't legal and authorised, but it won't usually be possible to complete
the work without the neighbours at least noticing.
So we always say it's good to talk.
Involve your neighbours in your exciting project, tell them what you're
planning, keep them informed, and they'll be glad that your improving the
value of
the property in your street.
And in the unlikely event of problems with neighbours, it's good to know that an unreasonable objection is unlikely to succeed, though they do have a right to use an independent surveyor. You will need a "Party Wall Notice" - which we would be pleased to draft for you.
