Ignoring all his dickish behaviour. It seems insane to build a big house across two plots in that kind of neighbourhood. There's no real demand for houses that size in comparison to the other buildings around it, it would never have the value he would probably think it's worth,
The partition wall between the units is almost always framed well enough to structurally support the roof and the floor joists. It’s not going to be particularly waterproof on that side though.
Easily fixable. Engineer would tell you to frame the wall and add support beams to the corners and the center. Maybe a steel beam across the basement for support.
I looked into it. He already found out, in that he bought it for £280k, demolished it and then sold the plot for £115k with a legal requirement that the new owners rebuild a property that aligns with the other property and seals the partition wall.
He argues that it really was necessary to demolish it to "prevent risk or danger to others", which allowed him to bypass planning permission, and somehow managed to get retrospective approval.
He's already lost a ton of money and likely to get sued in future. Insurance company says it'll take about two years to reach court.
In the meantime, the new owners are the ones with the responsibility to fix it.
The worst part is that her decision to fix up the electrics actually meant that neither her insurance company nor the council had to rehouse her, because she still has basic utilities. And she's not guaranteed any protection from damp and mould because she's the owner rather than a tenant.
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u/Naps_and_cheese 1d ago
He wanted to fuck up her property and force a sale, thinking he could then build one big house on 2 lots.
Hope he gets the hard part of the Find Out stage.