Q & A: Digging down for extra space
I want to create extra space in my home by digging down and building below the ground floor/cellar area. However, I’m unsure of the legal and planning issues – can you help?
This week, Andrew Smith from Child and Child in Belgravia, London provided the following advice:
Planning permission should not be a difficulty, though you will of course need to obtain planning permission in the usual way. If you own your freehold, you are perfectly entitled to excavate for a basement but you will first of all need to obtain an award under the Party Wall etc Act 1996. This will involve serving a notice on your neighbours describing the works that you intend to carry out and giving them the opportunity to appoint surveyors to reach agreement with your own surveyor about the nature of the excavations and the manner in which your neighbours’ properties will be protected.
You will have to pay your neighbours surveyors’ fees and you should not begin the excavation works until the surveyors have reached agreement and made an award. If you conduct the excavations before an award has been obtained, you will be a risk of an injunction and a claim for damages from your neighbours. If you want to locate a suitable party wall surveyor, you may wish to contact the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
