UK Landlord Forum / Life

I am the owner of a 1st floor flat, sharing the freehold with the ground floor flat owners and occupiers.
The roof space is demised to me and we currently share responsibility for all roof maintenance and repairs.

I have been trying to convert my attic for months.

My neighbours/co-freeholders signed a acknowledgement of party wall structure notice in 2013 when I applied for the planning permission.

In February 2015, I decided to go ahead with the building work with the planning permission granted from local council. I instructed my co-freeholders a few weeks before starting the work thinking that all paperwork was in order.

3 days into the work, my neighbours asked me to stop, hired a solicitor and demanded a licence to alter.

We presented their solicitor a licence to alter straight away. They replied once with a query. We emailed back asking for this to be discussed in more details. Complete silence ever since from both the neighbours and their solicitor. 9 months ago!

My solicitor told me to either go ahead without their consent or hire a litigation solicitor.

Now, 9 months after this all started, I feel very uncertain as to where to take this next? The one thing I do know is that i have no intention to go into litigation.

Should I go ahead and proceed without a licence to alter assuming that the signed a acknowledgement of party wall structure notice will suffice? This would probably mean going ahead without a dormer as the dormer would need a scaffold tower in their garden.

Any advice welcome... Many thanks!