My wife and I are building an extension to our semi. We have planning permission and building regs approval. As the new foundations will be about 2 meters from our neighbours property, we sent them a party wall notice a week ago. This was based on the standard letters at the end of the government advice leaflet. We also asked in the notice if we could start the work earlier than 1 month. We didn't say anything about who we would appoint as surveyor. We got a response today which reads:
Dear (Got my name wrong, and only addressed it to me, not my wife)
Thank you for your letter dated 12th January. I would like you to start construction, on 12th February, as outlined in the council application. I have appointed chartered civil engineer XXXX to look after my interests. Could we arrange a meeting just before commencement of the contract on Fri 11th February between my engineer and your builder to discuss a number of points of mutual interest.
Regards,
XXXXX
I'm really confused. Obviously the neighbour does not agree to an earlier start date - we can cope with that. Does the phrase "I would like you to start construction" count as agreement? Does this look like a set up? Why wait until the day before work is going to begin to have this meeting? Am I right that a PWS looks after the interest of the property, not any people?
Our relationship with the neighbour is neither good nor bad, as we haven't owned the property long. I think their main concern is nothing to do with foundations - it is noise. We spoke to them when we delivered the notice and they moaned about the noise from another recently completed extension two doors away from them.
Any advice would be very much appreciated,
Ross
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