Rosemont Road resident says planning notices inadequate

It is claimed that residents often miss the council's notices on lampposts

February 27, 2023

A charity worker from Acton has said she experienced weeks of stress trying to understand her rights regarding her neighbour’s ‘monstrous’ extension, which she claims has damaged her fence and created holes in her concrete path.

Her neighbour has agreed to fix all damage following construction, but she wants planning and development rules to be tightened to stop the same thing from happening to others.

Lisa Whitaker has lived in Rosemont Road in Acton for 10 years and said it had been ‘peaceful’ between herself and her neighbour, who moved in after a housing association stopped managing the property. She said, “I was having a nightmare with [the housing association], the tenants were having parties four nights a week. He moved in and it’s been peaceful – until now.”

In August 2022, Lisa’s neighbour secured planning permission to build a first-floor extension – but she claims the neighbours missed the planning notices at the time. In December, he then asked Lisa for a Party Wall Agreement to build the wall right next to her bedroom window.

Lisa claims she was handed a letter on 30 December, giving notice that building work was about to commence. But, the letter, Lisa says, was dated 6 December and addressed to the management company of the flats and not Lisa, who owns her home. She believes notice was not served correctly.

Lisa had to quickly call surveyors to work out what rights she had. She said,“From what a surveyor has advised me, is that people can just send a letter and it doesn’t have to be recorded.”

She later added, “Within the space of three weeks, I have had to deal with a hell of a lot and before this, I didn’t know anything. I’m a woman on my own, I don’t know anything about what is going on but I was fighting it by myself. I didn’t have time to breathe and I did get stressed. I recognise that I haven’t dealt with it very well, I have lost it a couple of times.”

Lisa’s neighbour has been contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service and disputed claims that he started work without giving his neighbours enough notice. He says the notice ahead of the building work was served correctly commenting, “I did serve her notice, she knew about this back in May and so did everyone else.”

Under the Party Wall Act 1996, neighbours have 14 days to respond to the notice. If neighbours can’t agree, then a surveyor is appointed to agree on a ‘party wall award’ that deems when work will begin, how it will be carried out and who will pay for each part.

Without an agreement from Lisa, her neighbour appointed a surveyor to agree on the works. But, Lisa claims, communication with the appointed surveyor was poor and her questions were left unanswered. She says she was handed another letter of a notice on 6 January, which was addressed to her and two weeks later her neighbour began building work.

She said, “Suddenly I’m having to put up with all this noise, they’ve got around a loophole, something to do with the foundations. They then started ripping the fence down, the only reason that fence is still there is because I work from home.

“I made it very clear I had not given permission for that fence to come down. They’ve created holes in my concrete path and the fence doesn’t touch the ground.”

Lisa’s neighbour has since agreed to fix the damage created by the work and leave the fence, but a party wall agreement has been rescinded because work will go no deeper than the foundations. Lisa claims this means she no longer has any say unless she appoints a solicitor to challenge the work which will cost her £150 per hour – which she can’t afford.

She has further criticised Ealing Council for not assisting the neighbours in the dispute and has said that more should have been done in the planning permission stage to inform them about the extension. She said, “No one in this building knew about the development. They say they put up notices but people are busy, who’s checking posts? If they had sent a letter I might have responded.

“I’ve got two windows and a door facing this development, my bedroom is a lot darker now. They’ve used black brick which is why that fence is not going because it is lighter. I don’t want my bedroom looking at a black brick.”

Lisa is now calling for the rules to change, with laws around the Party Wall Act to be tightened as she fears many others have gone through the same stress she has. Said, “It is the system that allows this to happen …. That’s not right.”

Andrew Schofield, a leading specialist in party wall matters and boundary disputes, is calling for the Party Wall Act to be tightened. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, “Anyone can call themselves a surveyor. You can quite literally appoint anybody as long as it’s not yourself. I have encountered situations where another surveyor, quite openly, said ‘oh last week I was selling double glazing’.

“Regrettably there are people who administer the act who do not have those abilities as a result it is abused. The Act is horribly out of date and needs to be rewritten, the main problem is the law and it needs to be rewritten to protect people who do not have money.”

An Ealing Council spokesperson said, “The approach for a development of this size is for site notices to be put in place to allow for any comments to be made in relation to the application. This was the case for this planning application and is the same for all developments of this level.”

Megan Stanley – Local Democracy Reporter