Latest blog posts

There are many reasons why neighbours do not respond to party wall notices - they may have moved out of the property and not updated the Title Register, they may be on a long holiday or they may just be the type of person that doesn’t do paperwork (more than you might think). Whatever the reason, I would estimate that between 10 and 20% of party ... Read more >>

The Party Wall Act leaves it up to the surveyors to agree which of the owners should pay their fees (which must be reasonable) - in all normal circumstances that will be the owner benefitting from the works but what happens if those works do not proceed?With the uncertainty that has plagued the economy over the last couple of years it has ... Read more >>

It’s essential that the time periods relating to party wall procedures are followed to the letter as they are taken directly from the Act and many of those time periods relate to the service of and response to notices.The first point to clarify is when the time periods run from as it’s not obvious. Regardless of the date that is entered on ... Read more >>

This post was inspired by a question posed recently by a homeowner who was concerned about the neighbour’s new basement excavation and whether or not it would undermine her property.She wanted to know what precautions could be taken to ensure that the neighbour would dig under the party wall only and stop as soon as they had enough room to ... Read more >>

Having drafted your party wall notices the next step is to serve them – we say ‘serve’ rather that ‘deliver’ or ‘post’ as they are legal documents and the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 includes strict rules on how adjoining owners must be notified.The first task is to try and establish the name(s) of the adjoining owner(s). The most ... Read more >>

The next decision once you’ve confirmed the requirement to serve party wall notices is whether to employ the services of a surveyor or do it yourself. I am of course a surveyor that offers the service but I will attempt to provide an impartial view.There are various templates available online (including this one that I helped to design and ... Read more >>

Once you’ve established that your works are covered by the Act the next step is to identify who the affected adjoining owners are. An ‘owner’ is defined in section 20 of the Act as ‘a person in possession of land, otherwise than as a mortgagee or as a tenant from year to year or for a lesser term or as a tenant at will’ or, in other ... Read more >>

It used to be common for party wall awards to include an obligation for the building owner to ‘maintain or cause contractor(s) to maintain adequate insurance against such risks and provide evidence of this upon demand by the adjoining owner’s surveyor contractor’ and this was generally interpreted as the relatively inexpensive Public ... Read more >>

The very first step in the process is to establish whether your proposed works fall within the scope of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 and, if so, which adjoining owners are affected.Sections 1, 2 & 6 of the Act set out an owner’s rights but those rights are only exercisable if the necessary notices are served, let’s look at each of them ... Read more >>

I often tell adjoining owners that have suffered damage as a result of party wall work not to, under any circumstances, enter into discussions directly with their neighbours’ builder. By giving such advice, I’m not trying to make life difficult for building owners but rather making the point that under the Act it is the building owner rather ... Read more >>