Party Wall Matters
Introduction
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 provides a framework for preventing and resolving disputes in relation to party walls, boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings.
A building owner proposing to start work covered by the Act must give adjoining owners notice of their intentions in the way set down in the Act. Adjoining owners can agree or disagree with what is proposed. Where they disagree, the Act provides a mechanism for resolving disputes.
The Act is separate from obtaining planning permission or building regulations approval.
What is a party wall?
A party wall is:
- a wall standing on the lands of 2, or more, owners and forming part of a building – this wall can be part of one building only or separate buildings belonging to different owners or
- a wall that is on one owner’s land but is used by 2 (or more) owners to separate their buildings (and it is that usage that defines which part of the wall is party and which is not).
A party fence wall:
- has nothing to do with fences (which are completely disregarded as structures by the Act)
- a wall standing on the lands of 2 owners but not forming part of a building, e.g. a typical garden wall separating gardens
Both of the above are classed as ‘party structures’. Other party structures could be wall or floor partition or other structure separating buildings or parts of buildings in different ownership, such as in flats.
What the Act covers
The Act covers:
- new building on or at the boundary of 2 properties
- work to an existing party wall or party structure
- excavation near to and below the foundation level of neighbouring buildings
This may include: - building a new wall on or at the boundary of 2 properties (the line of junction)
- cutting into a party wall for any purpose (e.g. inserting a beam into a pocket).
- raising, reducing, thickening or underpinning a party wall
- removing chimney breasts from a party wall
- demolishing and rebuilding a party wall
- excavating below the foundation level of a neighbour’s property and within prescribed distances (e.g. to lay foundations, underpin a wall, construct a basement extension)
- inserting a damp proof course into a party wall
Who are the parties?
If you are intending to carry out notifiable work such as that above to your property, you are classed as a “Building Owner” under the Act. The minimum legal requirement for you is to serve the appropriate notices under the Act on Adjoining Owners. How much more you need to do depends on what course of action your neighbours take.
Who counts as an “Adjoining Owner”?
Essentially, an Adjoining Owner is anyone who is an owner of land, buildings storeys or rooms adjoining those of the building owner. Also, for the purposes of section 6 of the Act a property shall be deemed to be adjoining if it is within the relevant prescribed distance even if it separate from the Building Owner’s property. The adjoining property may have a freehold owner, or a leasehold owner all of whom may be an ‘Adjoining Owner’ under the Act. Where there is more than one owner of the property, or more than one adjoining property, it is your duty to notify all Adjoining Owners.
Can I serve the notices myself?
Drafting of party wall notices is not as straightforward as it may initially seem to someone downloading template notices from the internet. Including all the required information and serving it in the correct way are essential to achieving valid notice on adjoining owners. If you are not experienced in such matters, we suggest you do not serve them yourself as any deficiencies in the notices could invalidate them and cause undue delay to your project. We have seen it happen on numerous occasions.
Once you have notified them, what happens next?
Once notices have been served, the clock starts ticking and we await the neighbours’ responses. Will they consent? (in which case nothing further needs to happen) or will they, as people usually do, dissent?
If they dissent, this does not mean that they can stop you carrying out your works; you have a right to carry them out under the Act. It is the timing and manner of the works as well as liability for costs (e.g. Surveyors’ fees) that need to be agreed. Dissent to notices results in a “dispute” under the Act. It is not as acrimonious as it sounds.
If however, after 14 days, nothing has happened, your neighbour will be deemed to have dissented by the passing of time. They will now need to appoint a Surveyor to act on their behalf and engage your Surveyor with a view to ultimately agreeing a Party Wall Award. You or your Surveyor will need to serve a further notice (referred to as a “ten day letter”) calling upon them to appoint a surveyor or you will be entitled to do so on their behalf (after ten days).
What do the two Surveyors actually do?
The order of events is typically:
- Select a Third Surveyor (a referee of sorts who either surveyor or either party can refer a matter to)
- Swap letters of appointment
- Share and peruse Architectural and Structural drawings, method statements and temporary works designs (if required)
- Record schedules of condition of adjoining properties (these should be detailed thorough documents, detailing every defect in an adjoining property) not a few photographs taken on a mobile phone
- Agree details of any access required to neighbouring lands and compensation to be paid
- Dealing with any other aspects of the works relating to loss, compensation etc.
They will then hopefully agree a Party Wall Award.
What is a Party Wall Award?
The first thing to say is that it is not an Award in the Academy Awards sense of the word. There will be no standing ovation at the end of the day and that is something Party Wall surveyors just have to live with. An Award is a legally binding document that the Surveyors will serve on the parties once they have agreed all relevant matters. It enables Building Owners to start their works. If a party is required to do something by the Award and they do not, enforcement of the Award though the Courts can be sought.
Who pays?
In 99% of cases, the Building Owners pay for their and their neighbours’ surveyors and, if required, their surveyors’ advising engineers. The 1% of cases where costs may be defrayed typically relate to situations where the adjoining owner is deriving some benefit from the work.
Party wall surveyors charge extortionate fees don’t they?
Some do but they are a minority who treat the Act like a “gravy train”. The vast majority of party wall surveyors charge reasonable fees. It is worth bearing in mind that “reasonable fees” are all that can be awarded under the Act. The issue is that one person’s definition of “reasonable” may be different to another’s but on the whole we find that most fees can be agreed with minimum fuss. When acting for Building Owners we scrutinise all adjoining owners’ surveyors fees to assess their “reasonableness”. When acting for Adjoining Owners we do charge reasonable fees.
Any other questions?
We could talk about Party Walls all day long. Feel free to contact us to discuss your particular project and how we can navigate you through the party wall process as smoothly as possible. One gem of free advice for you here: Start the conversation with your surveyor and your neighbours early. Leaving things till the last minute is not a good idea.
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