In England and Wales work carried out on a part of your property which adjoins or is in close proximity to your neighbours, must comply with the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and be formally notified to the affected neighbour. In outline this covers:

• Building a new wall along or up to the line of boundary between two properties.
• Works to actual party walls between properties, including foundation underpinning and the removal of chimney breasts.
• Excavations within 3m or 6m of a neighbouring building which may undermine neighbouring foundations.

If in doubt, seek advice from your building control office, a party wall surveyor or an architect.

Firstly, you should determine how the works affect your neighbours and serve the appropriate Notices. Works to party walls, structures, fences or, under particular circumstances, the formation of new foundations within 3 or 6 metres of your neighbours’ property may require separate Notices to be served. Notices for anything affecting a party wall or structure must be served at least two months before the works begin, or in the case of works to a party fence wall or excavations, one month. In the event of a Dangerous Structure Notice being served, these timescales can be waived.

If you are in doubt we will be pleased to advise you.

Once you have served a Notice on the adjoining Owner they have 14 days to respond. The response should take one of the following routes:

• They can consent to the Notice, at which point the party wall process is concluded
• They can dissent and agree to using a single joint surveyor
• They can dissent and appoint their own party wall surveyor

The Award will be drawn up by the appointed party wall surveyors after their assessments are completed. The Party Wall Award will usually include a detailed schedule of the current condition of the relevant walls and details of the work to be performed along with any restrictions on methods of construction and details of access arrangements. If there are many Adjoining Owners the Building Owner’s Surveyor may find himself dealing with a number of different surveyors.

During the course of the works it may be appropriate for the party wall surveyors to inspect the property and ensure that everything is being conducted in compliance with the terms of the Party Wall Award.

Having been served with a Notice, you are required to reply in writing within 14 days. You can choose to consent or dissent to the works. If you do not respond within 14 days this is classed as dissent and a dispute is deemed to have arisen.

If you have spoken to your neighbours and the work to be undertaken is minor and you feel that it presents no risk of damage to your property or interests you can agree to allow the building owner to proceed with no further action required. If a dispute over damage arises during the works then the Party Wall Act can still be invoked. However the surveyors appointed will not have assessed the condition of your property, making it more difficult to determine the scope of any alleged damage.

If you dissent to the works or ignore the Notice then the matter passes into a formal Dispute, meaning that both you and your neighbour must appoint party wall surveyors under section 10 of the Party Wall Act in order to make an Award before work can start. You can either jointly agree to appoint a single party wall surveyor or you can appoint a separate party wall surveyor to act on your behalf.

If you are in doubt, please contact us and we will be pleased to advise you. Assuming that there is no need for us to make a site visit we do not usually make a charge for this service.

In almost all cases it is the party proposing the work to the party wall that is responsible for paying for all of the fees of the appointed surveyors of all parties. If you are the building owner you should allow for the likely costs of Party Wall matters within your fee budget for your proposed project.

We will be happy to discuss your individual situation and provide a cost effective quotation.