BUILDING OWNER

As the building owner and the one planning any building work that comes under notifiable works in the Party Wall Act you are responsible to serve notices to all Adjoining Owners. We can serve these notices for you for a set fee. On serving a Party Struture Notice then the Party Wall Act is invoked or comes into action. Once you have served these notices then the Adjoining Owners have 14 days to respond.

Below are shown the various responses and what is entailed:

CONSENT

Your neighbour consents to you starting work without a Party Wall Agreement.

This means you can start work as soon as you receive written confirmation of consent on the served notice. 

CONSENT

with a schedule of condition

We recommend this as a minimum even though your neighbour is happy to consent to the work.

A Schedule of Condition would be prepared by a Party Wall Surveyor and this detailed document would provide a record of the current condition of your neighbour’s property.

It would include photos of the adjoining property before you commence work, so that if any damage does occur it will be easier to identify.

DISSENT

appointment of an Agreed Surveyor

(an Agreed Surveyor is one surveyor Agreed upon to be used by both parties)

Once your neighbour dissents to the work you are proposing to carry out then a dispute has occurred.

Your neighbour can then appoint an Agreed Surveyor.

The responsibilites of an Agreed Surveyor would be to produce a Party Wall Award, this is a legal document that would be used to settle the dispute.

The Award would include:

  • the rights and responsibilities of both owners.
  • A schedule of condition, that is a photographic record of the current condition of the Adjoining Owners property before work commences.
  • drawings and plans that detail the notifiable works
  • a list of works that have been agreed upon to be carried out by the Building Owner and/or the Adjoining Owner.

DISSENT

appointment of two surveyors

Your neighbour on dissenting to the proposed work may decide to appoint their own surveyor.

The surveyor they appoint and your surveyor would work together to produce and serve a Party Wall Award and a Schedule of Condition to both owners as outlined in option 3.

A third surveyor would also have to be appointed and would be consulted only if the two surveyors could not agree.