The Importance of a Party Wall Surveyor
Steven Vaughan is the Managing Director of Steven Vaughan Associates. In this article, he discusses party walls and the importance of getting a party wall surveyor.
A party wall is defined as a wall that forms part of a building and stands on lands of different owners to a greater extent than the projection of any artificially formed support on which the wall rests. In layman’s terms, the best way to think about this is when viewing terraces of houses, the wall that separates each property is a party wall. When undertaking building work that affects a party wall in England and Wales, it is a legal requirement to comply with the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
The Act provides a framework for preventing or resolving disputes in relation to party walls, party structures (the floor/ceiling structure that separates flats), boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings. If you are undertaking any ‘notifiable work’ to your property, it is compulsory to meet the requirements of the Act to ensure your legal obligations have been fulfilled. If your neighbour is undertaking notifiable work which affects your property, you should be served a party wall notice to ensure your interest is properly safeguarded in the event of damage.
Notifiable work is defined within the Act as work which constitutes a party wall notice. The owners undertaking the works are legally known as the ‘building owners’ and any other person who is liable to receive a party wall notice containing the notifiable work is known as an ‘adjoining owner’; this includes all freehold and leasehold interests within neighbouring properties that share a party wall or are within 3 or 6 metres of excavation that is to a lower level than existing foundations of an adjoining owner’s building.
Ideally, the building owners would have already involved an architect who would have produced a preliminary design which would satisfy a planning department’s requirement for the granting of planning permission (recommended but not essential), an engineer who would have considered the scheme in terms of the structure and would prepare a structural design that shows the locations of any steel members being cut into any party walls and the locations of any new foundations and their depths. Armed with this information, the building owner would usually be recommended a party wall surveyor by the architect or engineer to prepare party wall notices for service to adjoining owners to ensure their obligations under the Act are fulfilled.
Unfortunately, the process does not stop there. Once a notice is prepared and served referencing the relevant sections of the Act in connection with the work and appends the necessary drawings to ensure the notice is valid, an adjoining owner has four options. They can ‘consent’ to the notice, meaning they are content with the proposals. They can ‘dissent’ to the notice, meaning a dispute under the act has arisen, and either appoint the building owners’ surveyor as an impartial ‘agreed surveyor’ or they can ‘dissent’ and appoint their own surveyor, the reasonable costs of which are picked up by the building owners.
If a notice is served and the adjoining owners fail to respond within the 14-day statutory expiry period, then the party wall act provides for a scenario that allows the matter to continue to be resolved by creating a deemed dispute and eventually a party wall surveyor would be appointed to act for the interest of the owner that has not responded. If a ‘consent’ is received, the building owner can start work immediately (it is recommended that the condition of the adjoining owner’s building is recorded); however, if a ‘dissent’ is received, then the agreed surveyor or two surveyors must agree and serve a party wall award that sets out the rights and obligations of the owners should the building owners commence the work. Work cannot legally commence until a notice is served and that notice is acknowledged with a consent, or in the event of a dissent, a party wall award is served.
There is nothing preventing a building owner preparing DIY notices themselves should they wish to verse themselves in the legislation, which is available on the Government website; however, whilst this approach may offer some cost savings, a building owner should be made very well aware that the road ahead could be quite the opposite and be costly, time consuming and involve litigation.
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 clearly states the requirements of a notice in its relevant sections, and these sections must be scrupulously complied with for the legal notice to be valid. Two owners who have lived next door to one another for many years often prepare a DIY notice and ask their neighbour to sign it, which they are typically happy to consent to; however, if the notice is not legally valid, then the Act has not been invoked and therefore cannot provide a framework for resolving any disputes that arise. Whilst in most cases this could be minor cracking to walls and ceilings, it should not be forgotten that when major structural work is undertaken, there is a small chance that a worst-case scenario could occur and that is the adjoining owner’s building could collapse.
If notices were served in this scenario, the party wall act would provide the pathway to resolving the damage; however, if not, then litigators would be involved and at a cost much higher than that of a party wall surveyor. Additionally, once a party notice has been served, in the event the adjoining owner dissents, the building owner who has prepared it themselves must appoint a surveyor who should then undertake diligence and recheck the notices served to ensure they are valid or reserve them. Essentially if the initial notice is invalid, then everything that succeeds it is also invalid.
The party wall process can be complex to navigate but with good communication, sound advice and suitable planning, much of it can be streamlined. We are experts in all party wall-related matters, from drafting valid party wall notices to starting the process through to serving party wall awards and assessing damage upon completion of the works. We liaise with your architects, structural engineers and contractors to facilitate ground floor, first floor and roof extensions and we have extensive experience where basement excavation is undertaken. Additionally, we offer 30 minutes of free advice to anybody on any party wall-related matter. Get in contact today!
Steven Vaughan
https://www.stevenvaughan.co.uk
020 3902 6545