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Owners are able to serve their own party wall notices, which can reduce the potential surveyors' fees but also maintain a slightly more informal and neighbourly relationship –after all, you will have to live next to each other after the work is completed! The Government’s website provides templates for Party Wall letters and notices, which you can find here.
However, many homeowners feel more comfortable asking a professional party wall surveyor to carry out the process from the very beginning and serve notices on their behalf to ensure its accuracy and validity. In our experience, many of the notices that have been served by homeowners are found not to be valid and, on most of these occasions, lead to time having to be spend explaining or correcting documents)
By meticulously preparing the notice, ensuring proper service, and following the legal timeline, Party Wall Limited’s surveyors ensure compliance with the Party Wall Act and reduce the risk of disputes between the parties involved.
A building owner intending to carry out work covered by the Act must give notice of the intended works to all the relevant adjoining owners. This notice must include: the owner’s name and address; the building’s address (if different); full details of what is proposed (including plans where appropriate); and the proposed starting date. In the case of excavations, the notice must also state whether the owner proposes to strengthen or safeguard the foundations of the building or structure belonging to the adjoining owner and it must be accompanied by plans.
At least two months’ notice is needed of works to an existing party wall; and one month for a planned new wall or for excavation within the specified distances. This can only be varied by the agreement of the adjoining owner in writing.
No. Minor works such as drilling into the party wall to put up shelves, re-plastering or putting in electrical sockets do not require notice. Examples of work that does require notice are: cutting into the party wall to insert steel beams or flashings; underpinning, demolishing or re-building a party wall; excavating within 3 metres of and to a greater depth than the foundations of the adjoining building.
Yes. If you consent to your neighbour’s works and there is damage caused to your adjoining property and you cannot agree how this is to be put right, this is considered to be a new ‘dispute’ which can be settled by surveyors appointed at that later date.
Yes. Under the Act, a person who receives a notice about intended work may give consent within 14 days or give a counter notice setting out what additional or modified work he would like carried out. If an adjoining owner does not do either of these two things, a dispute is regarded as having arisen.
If your neighbours are minded to consent, they should do so in writing on the acknowledgement to the party wall notice and return it to you. Your neighbours could consent, but subject to a schedule of condition of their property being carried out. This is often an economical solution when neighbours just require reassurance that their interests will be looked after but otherwise have no issues.
If they do not consent, they could agree to the appointment of one surveyor to act for both of you (an ‘agreed surveyor’). This would be economical for the building owner. They may however wish to appoint a separate surveyor to act for them.
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