When do you need a Party Wall Surveyor

There are two main reasons you might need a Party Wall Surveyor; if you plan on carrying out building work near a boundary, or if you neighbour is. We will break down these scenarios in this post.

Let’s start off with a scenario where you are a developer or a building owner and you plan on undertaking some works on or near the boundary. You have heard of people talk about the Party Wall Act, but you have no idea what it means, or how it might impact your works.

For starters; the Party Wall Act 1996 is considered an enabling Act. It was put in place to provide some clarity on what you can and can’t do when it comes to building work on your boundary, so that neighbours do not need to rely so heavily on complicated common law principles and old non-specific statutory instruments.

Put in simple terms; if you want to build on the boundary, or do work to a shared (party) wall, you may refer to the Party Wall etc Act 1996 to find out exactly what rights you have, what you are allowed to do, and what duties you owe your neighbour in order to gain such rights. Can’t be that difficult, you may be thinking. Well, you are kind of right. The basic principles are fairly simple, it’s just that when it gets down to the detail; the specifics and history of each site and the concerns of owners are important and crucial to understand properly.

This is why a party wall surveyor is important. The Party Wall surveyors are appointed (in most cases) by the legal owners under special mechanisms within the Act, in order to advise the owners and follow a statutory protocol to bring about a legal agreement called an ‘Award’, which should allow the permitted work to take place. I suppose it could be thought of as a kind of arbitration type process. The nuances of this process get complicated and so I will refrain from going any further in this regard; instead will give you an idea of when you should speak with a Party Wall surveyor to find out more.

If you are a building owner or developer and you plan on doing one or more of the following:

*Building at the boundary

*Undertaking works to your side of a party wall beyond that which are superficial in nature

*Repairing, rebuilding, exposing or modifying a party wall

*Do some work to or make use of a wall at the boundary that might not necessarily be a party wall

*Excavating within 3 meters of the boundary and to a depth lower than neighbours foundations

*Excavating within 6 meters of the boundary and lower than a 45 degree projection from the bottom of your neighbours foundations

I must stress, that the above are descriptions are significantly simplified and the rights and duties afforded by the Act can be difficult to navigate and may depended on very specific wording in the Act. The best advice I can give at this stage is to get in contact with an experienced Party Wall surveyor at an early stage in your feasibility process (if not, during concept design). Early advice could provide useful information that could influence design decisions and save a fortune in Party Wall related costs and reduce the risk of Party Wall related delays.

If you are an adjoining owner and you have been served notice by our neighbour of their intention to cary out works, you will most likely be given the option to Consent to the works, or Dissent and appoint a Surveyor. In most circumstances the Dissent option is likely to be the best option. This is mainly because you are likely to require to appoint a surveyor in order to fully understand what your rights, duties and associated risks are , before you are able to make an informed decision.

If you are friendly with your neighbour and want to limit their cost exposure to surveyor fees, you can still choose to Consent to the works at any point. However, proceeding with a surveyor to an Award will provide you a greater amount of legal protection and a good record of fact, should problems arise during the works or in the future.

If you would like to speak to Carl W Miller MRICS our party wall surveyor, please drop us an enquiry below and we will get in contact.