I live in the UK 🇬🇧 and before you do any changes to a wall which could be structural in nature ( Party Wall) in your house which falls within the joint boundary of another house’s you must do so by following the Party Wall Act.

My neighbour has only simply left us a note saying she was doing some building work and that most likely it would not affect us. She is removing all of the chimney breasts in her house. All of which are on the same wall which our chimney breasts are on.

We were calm and attempted to solve this amicably and invited her to our home to talk about it. My partner and I gave her our points of view about it ( I’m an Architectural professional too, so even free advice!) and also from our personal view we just felt if she really wanted to go ahead she should but that we are against it because she hasn’t done it properly as she needs to follow the Part Wall Act and get an Award as this will cover us both in the future in case something arises from this building work ( I wasn’t convinced about the builders methods because he didn’t even know that any building work that involves changing a structure of a house is subject to Building Regulations regardless of how small or simple it is, plus the nature of what they were doing simply left huge questions in my head and also red flags because of how she was so nonchalant on the note rather than transparent) we told her we were against it for this reason and also because we would like to make sure we future proof our house and can at least safely insure it in the future. So we appointed a Party Wall Surveyor to deal with it.

The neighbour refuses to acknowledge that she needs to do it and is even going as far as saying the Surveyor is intimidating her because he is telling her what to do ( I mean that’s his job! And it’s a law! One which everyone has to follow!!!) we appointed the surveyor because we are not professionals in Party Wall matters he is and by law it states that since she wants to carry out the work she also has to cover the fees of any Surveyor that gets appointed because of it. She refuses to pay and continues to play the victim. We also appointed the Surveyor in order to be a mediator to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings between us she refuses to communicate through him and forces us to talk to her directly ( obs she doesn’t want to pay) Meanwhile I work from home and any knock i hear it’s starting to make me extremely uncomfortable and anxious. This woman on top of outright ignoring our rights to protect our property she is behaving in such an entitled manner and is attempting to force us address her directly when all I have is negative feelings towards her and her lack of transparency and I really really don’t need this stress right now or even to feel negative about my house or my neighbour. Advice please 🥺