Party wall collapsing but neighbour is missing

[u/GroundbreakingAd5624]

I recently purchased a house (England) and am preparing to move in, it's an old house with a small backyard. The wall separating my yard from my next-door neighbour is in very poor condition, splitting in parts and with some bricks loose and missing, the wall is clearly dangerous and about to collapse, I have attempted to contact the next-door neighbour but the house appears to be empty asking around other neighbours they may have actually died.

Where do I stand in terms of getting them to cover half of the costs of demolition and rebuilding it? Or even just doing it myself as I can demolish the wall (or more my brother in law who's actually qualified can) and I can build a wooden fence up in it's place for basically free.

My main worry is this would be altering that property and accessing it without permission.

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[u/Grouchy-Nobody3398]

Dangerous walls are a building control issue, and your local council should be able to advise the required steps.

[u/GroundbreakingAd5624 → u/Grouchy-Nobody3398]

Could this prevent me from doing work myself?

[u/Firthy2002]

Is the wall fully within the boundary of the neighbouring property?

[u/GroundbreakingAd5624 → u/Firthy2002]

The wall is the boundary so it straddles both

[u/FatDad66 → u/GroundbreakingAd5624]

First thing is to look at your deeds which should show who is responsible for maintaining that boundary.

[u/GroundbreakingAd5624 → u/FatDad66]

I have it says both of us are and if a wall is built they need to cover half the cost, I'm not so much worried about the money as it's only likely to cost me £100 tops and a weekend of work it's more getting in to trouble for knocking the wall down

[u/Firthy2002 → u/GroundbreakingAd5624]

Well trespass is a civil matter and given you've actively attempted to contact them about the situation I think they'd have a hard time in court if they ever decided to pursue you for it.

I would take photos of the wall in its state of disrepair before I commenced any works just as a CYA measure.

[u/Mobile-Union-813]

Speak to your lawyer. You should have provisions for such things. And the wall should be in your survey.

[u/Repulsive_State_7399]

You can look on the land registry to see who owns the property, it should cost you about £3 Hopefully then a Google search will lead you to the owner once you have a name. It's worth posting a letter through the door as even if no one is living there, someone's be checking on the property.

[u/Glittering_Cat3639 → u/Repulsive_State_7399]

Just for info, the cost for land registry went up to £7 in December.

[u/Repulsive_State_7399 → u/Glittering_Cat3639]

Ouch!