Party wall act breach: Roof ridge removed

Joined
21 Jan 2010
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Location
Manchester
Country
United Kingdom
Hi,
My neighbour has removed a bit of their roof to build a wooden structure to provide a flat roof for a bathroom. They had a bathroom in this room before I bought my house (a semi), but they have now performed this work to provide full height all across the bathroom rather than stick with the original sloped roof, as they had before.
I had a look out of my window today and found they have removed the roof ridge tiles completely in this section. The pics are from the back window of the 3 storey main house looking across to the ridge of the shared 2 storey outrigger at the back of the building.
This is without any prior notification of this work. I would assume that this required 2 months notice under the party wall act. I heard the workmen talking about needing to put 3x2 joists in. I assume cutting into the party wall to put in these larger joists. As it was previously a cramped bathroom due to sloped roof, I can only assume with the extra space they are going to put something heavier in there like a bath and so want to put bigger joists in.
I don't want to go steaming in and cause an undue dispute, but would like more info, before I broach the subject with the owner.
I had a picture of this area from when I bought the house about 18months ago. You can see from the before pic:


That area of the roof was a mess before. Something that was on my todo list to sort out.
You can see where the ridge rises (or rather it's sagged to either side), where there is a wall under the roof. That creates a small storage room under the roof on the right side. It's that room on their side, that was converted to a bathroom and that they are now expanding.
They don't appear to have caused any further damage on my side except to have removed the ridge tiles.
From the after image:


Is their work likely to cause any future issues?
Have they done a decent job?
What would you expect of the other owner? Fix my roof too and let that be an end of it? I'd prefer not to get into solictor's etc., as it seems I could get their work stopped due to breach of party wall act. I'd like a more amicable solution.
Thanks for any insight.
 
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I don't know the details of the party wall act you refer to maybe someone else can enlighten us.
To be honest it took me a moment to realise what had occured but from what I can see it's not too bad a job at all. It all looks watertight and done in lead rather than being some horrendous botch up of felt and mastic.
If I were to be crictical I would have liked to see some clips on the lower edge of the lead, normally copper, stainless or lead strips nailed underneath and projecting beyond the edge of the lead and turned back over it and it wouldn't have hurt them to fix that slate a couple of courses down for you, but generally I don't think there's a huge problem.
 

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