Semi-detached wood frame demolition/development?

I own a wood frame, semi-detached 2-family house in East Flatbush. The other half, also a 2-family, is a mirror image of our place. The structure was built in the 1800’s and the party wall doesn’t seem particularly substantial. We’re basically one building divided in half. But obviously we’re on separate lots, (zoned R6) and the city recognizes these at separate buildings.

Our neighbor’s half is slated to go to foreclosure auction soon, and I’m concerned that a developer will buy and want to tear down their half to put up a larger building. My hope is (if I can’t figure out how to buy it), that someone will buy it, rehab, and sell as a 2-family. But, given the permissive zoning, I’m worried. Is there any precedent for developers buying a semi-detached wood frame 2-family and demolishing their side of it? I know it’s legal, of course, but is it common? ie: Is it worth their while to deal with the headache? Am I screwed here?

tcflatbsh

in General Discussion 6 years and 4 months ago

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tsgrlc | 6 years and 3 months ago

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I own an wood frame row house attached on both sides, and there’s no way to knock down the building next door without serious work to shore mine up–the party wall doesn’t even reach up into the attic!

Anyway, in an R6 zone, developers get to build taller and denser the more lots they own. A single small rowhouse lot doesn’t really get much development rights by itself; the development rights probably aren’t worth exercising on the neighboring lot unless the current house is in super bad condition or it’s an oversized lot. So your house would be more valuable to the developer of the lot next door than it would be to anyone else because of the development rights it would unlock. As such, it seems unlikely that someone would develop the lot next door without offering to buy you out as well.

alterboy | 6 years and 3 months ago

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Any property owner would be justified in being concerned about potential construction next door, especially if there is a party wall between the two properties. With that said, we finished a demolition of a very small wood frame dwelling that shared a party wall with both its neighbors and are nearly complete with a new 3 story 1-family house that takes its place. We had inspectors look at the entire interior and exterior of each neighbor to record existing conditions. We were as responsive as possible whenever a concern came up. As @joearchitect said, a solution is to construct a totally new wall to the inside of and adjacent to the shared wall. We made sure that our contractor had all insurance paid up. We pressed the contractor to develop and to follow a schedule. As you are a neighbor and not the buyer or developer of the property you must do whatever you can to keep relations between you healthy so that your concerns are heard and addressed as quickly as pos sible. There is an easement provision that the Department of Buildings sometimes insists on in these party wall situations that you may want to look into.

Guest User | 6 years and 3 months ago

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I live in a brick house that doesn’t have a true party wall and the previous owners dug down in the basement to finish it. There was a lot involved in protecting the neighboring property per the building code. They needed to underpin the house next door as well as mine. When we’ve discussed with the neighbor about building on the roof, we realize that we can’t do so without both being part of the decision making, since we have no parapet wall sticking up from the roof. In our case, we would both have to agree to have a builder build our parapet wall up to above roof height and then possibly come to some agreement as to how we could share it. I think you would find if your neighbor wanted to do major construction that they couldn’t without your involvement. The DOB may not issue them permits without both properties in agreement over some of the major undertakings if the party wall is shared.

peterdinatale

in General Discussion 6 years and 3 months ago

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Many years ago when I was pretty young I rented a tiny apartment over a small carriage house in Brooklyn. It was during an economic downturn and my landlord had financial trouble. The bank was foreclosing on the property and was going to auction it off on the courthouse steps. I counted my pennies, called the bank and made them an offer. But the bank scoffed at me and said they wouldn’t sell it for anything less than $X . So imagine my surprise when at the auction (I went to watch) the bank accepted a bid not only well below X, but also well below my offer. And I found out you can’t just jump into the auction process, you have to register before it begins and bring a certified check for a percentage of your bid. Maybe the fix was in, but to this day, I kick myself for 1) not hiring a local lawyer to have at least explore my options, and 2) not asking my parents to loan me some money to have brought it up to X before it even got to auction. My advice: In vest a little into talking to a savvy local real estate lawyer and find out what the story is. And if it is at all possible for you to buy – beg, borrow and steal to do so!

tcflatbsh | 6 years and 3 months ago

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thanks joearchitect. i think this is probably true, but i’m worried that if they decide to dig deeper or do anything to the adjacent foundation (which is basically one with mine) that it could effect our foundation.

joearchitect | 6 years and 3 months ago

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If the developer decides to build a new building, it’s most likely that they leave your party wall intact and build a new wall for their building adjacent to it. It won’t harm your wall structurally, but you will have noise, dust , drafts while they work on it. Once done, in some ways you will be better off than before since you will have complete separation.

tcflatbsh | 6 years and 3 months ago

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yes, that’s certainly on the table. it’s all hypothetical at this stage— i’m just working through all possible scenarios in advance.

jazzwalk | 6 years and 3 months ago

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I recognize this may not be ideal, but If you are able to take home enough to make yourself happy somewhere else, have you considered asking for a premium on your house and selling to the developer?

CarmenR | 6 years and 4 months ago

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for what it’s worth, we our house is as you described and while we did not completely raze our lot, we did demo the entire interior of the house and add a 3-story rear extension. Our neighbors house was not in great shape and actually ended up more structurally sound when we were done, but it’s a sensitive situation especially because the party wall is very thin (ours is “two bricks thick” but the bricks are VERY small.) Also, be aware that a lot of these wood-framed houses from the 1850s don’t have much of a foundation- a large portion of our foundation was literally a boulder in the rear half of the house. A “rubble” foundation was loosely defined then! If your neighbors start digging down (as we did) they may find that the foundation is in bad shape and need to underpin. None of this is impossible (we did it) but just something to keep in mind.

Our neighbors are elderly and we were slightly concerned about what you describe, actually- they have an oversized lot with a driveway and it would be attractive to developers. Our architect/expeditor felt pretty strongly that the DOB wouldn’t approve plans to completely demo their house given how our structures are attached, but who knows how the DOB thinks…

chemosphere | 6 years and 4 months ago

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I don’t think this is that uncommon. You see it all over the Northside of Williamsburg, for example – a heavily redeveloped area with a lot of Civil war era attached wood houses. Some were built in rows and some built separately, but this doesn’t prevent developers from tearing some down and building next to them.

resident2 | 6 years and 4 months ago

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Because the attached house is a separate block & lot & every owner has independent property rights; does not mean that every property “should” exercise those rights.
The attached house built in the 1800’s were mostly all built in a manner dependent on each other. For example: I would never buy a Brownstone in the middle of a block where the house next door had been knocked down. The remaining house is always going to have issues.
A frame house even more so.
Any “sane” developer wanting to knock the house down next to you will approach you about buying yours as well. That said, there are many none experienced developers running around these days, not seeming to care of the destruction they leave behind.
You have some options to think about:
1.) Buy the house next door; consult a good mortgage banker/broker to see if there are any purchase & construction loans that you may qualify for.
2.) Put yours on the market at a development price; price per build-able square f oot. Probably worth more that way than as a livable house with a shell next door.
3.) Pray! That you get a rational, sane buyer in the auction. (Sorry, but not likely)

tcflatbsh | 6 years and 4 months ago

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It definitely is a serious puzzle. What I’m wondering is, if anyone knows of any similar cases. I agree that it’s somewhat analogous to a row house where demo and new construction takes place on an adjacent lot. But…and I may be wrong here, while that sort of scenario is quite common, I haven’t seen many chopped in half wood frame/Victorian-ish semi-detached homes in which one half remains original and the other half is a newly constructed 6-10 unit building. I’m wondering how common this is, and am trying to assess what the chances are of a developer actually trying to pull this off, or if it’s more likely that they will just rehab and flip it as a two family and not want to deal with the hassle.

Smokychimp | 6 years and 4 months ago

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This is a serious puzzle and no easy solution – it reminds me of the problem we were facing in the Build it Back program (Federal reparations for Sandy damage). As Bobjbkln notes, the semi-detached is actually a common type in parts of Brooklyn, including those that were devastated by the hurricane.

So – one owner of a semidetached accepts federal rebuild money that requires the house to be “elevated” (lifted off its foundations to a new flood level) and their immediate, attached neighbor refuses the rebuild funds — what happens? Do we saw the building in half?

Fortunately this situation never really occured but city lawyers were getting ready for it…

shahnandersen

in General Discussion 6 years and 4 months ago

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This is not such a rare situation because it’s analogous to a rowhouse where demolition and new construction takes place on a an adjacent lot with a shared party wall. It should be no different for your semi-detached. Note that your neighbor will build a new wall adjacent to the party wall. Because of earthquake codes there will be a small gap between the party wall (now your stand alone wall) and their new wall. Others will give you advice about someone building on an adjacent lot, but to start with you’ll need professional help. You should hire a lawyer and an engineer as you will need to negotiate a license agreement with the developer as well as being a named party on their insurance.
a good lawyer should be able to get the developer to reimburse you for the professional fees. In any case, this is your home and you need to protect it at all costs. Good luck.