Latest blog posts

After 20 years, the Party Wall Act was amended in 2016 to allow for the electronic service of documents. Those of you that are familiar with the Act will know that it has more grey areas than a herd of elephants but that was the one amendment that was made. A year later I think I’ve met 2 other surveyors that have embraced this revolution. It ... Read more >>

The increasingly dire chances for first time buyers to get on the property ladder in London are well documented in the press. Those that hoped the Brexit vote or even the triggering of article 50 would soften prices have not yet seen their hopes realised as the average asking price in London reached £636,777 in April 2017. Properties purchased by ... Read more >>

As a company that undertakes a high volume of party wall work we regularly take calls from owners whose neighbours have commenced work falling under the Act without serving notice. They’ve normally called us having been told by the Local Authority that they cannot help so are disappointed to be told that we have no powers of enforcement either. ... Read more >>

When you own the freehold of a property, you have complete freedom to deal with the scope and timing of maintenance and repairs as you see fit. Owning a property under a leaseholder is a different proposition and brings with it a variety of difficulties/challenges. Essentially, the lease should set out the extent to which the building is ... Read more >>

In an age where we all have powerful computers in our pockets and easy access to work emails there are concerns that we never fully switch off when out of the workplace. We can obviously take steps to partition off our home and work lives, such as having a separate work mobile, not socialising with work colleagues or becoming a surgeon but that ... Read more >>

There is a lot in the news of late about the UK’s broken housing market. Spiraling house prices, unaffordable rents, poorly managed buildings, high service charges, ever rising ground rents and costly lease extensions increasingly favouring freeholders. The Government recently revealed its Housing White Paper which outlined how they intend to ... Read more >>

So another year, another set of surveyors (or should that be lessees and lessors) locking horns in the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) (UTLC). The hot topic, as is so often the case, has been our old friend, relativity. Whilst perhaps the most famous case of recent times has been Sportelli, which established the appropriate deferment rate for both ... Read more >>

Alterations to properties that do not have Building Regulation approval have the potential to fatally derail the conveyancing process and cause the parties to incur wasted costs if not addressed early. It’s an area where solicitors, surveyors and agents should work together to try and find a solution which will allow the sale to ... Read more >>

One of the more uncomfortable aspects of helping to man the RICS’s Party Wall Helpline is the calls I receive from irate neighbours. I regularly hear stories of falling debris that ‘literally could have killed someone’, builders working such long hours that they should be on the property’s electoral roll and one memorable call from a lady ... Read more >>

A large proportion of our work relates to resolving disputes under the Party Wall Act. If you are familiar with the Act you’ll know that an appointed surveyor performs a statutory function and has a duty to remain impartial. A surveyor doesn’t have clients (they are ‘appointing owners’) and does not provide a service and in most cases ... Read more >>