Hello and welcome to today’s installment of our informative property surveying blog post. In today’s topic we are going to be discussing Party Wall Surveying matters more specifically we are going to be looking at the ways an adjoining owner can dissent from a Party Wall Notice.
What is a Party Wall Notice?
Firstly before we look at how an adjoining owner may dissent to a Party Wall Notice, we must first consider what is a Party Wall Notice.
A Party Wall Notice is in essence a letter that will be sent to your neighbors when you are planning on undertaking works that fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
If the panned works do fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 then a Party Wall Notice will need to be sent to your neighbors as outlined in the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
The Party Wall Notices purpose is to inform your neighbors of the types of works that are taking place and what section of the act that planned works will fall under.
There are also certain requirements that the Party Wall Notice must be served under such as the correct information on the Notice such as the address and contact information of the owner and/or their surveyor and the Party Wall Notice is generally accompanied by drawings which is mandatory under section 6.
The Party Wall Notice also are required to be served and responded to within a specified time period.
For planned works under section 1/6 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 the Party Wall Notice must be served a minimum of 1 month before the planned works are set to commence.
Whereas works that fall under section 6 will require you to serve a Notice a minimum of 2 months before the planned works are set to commence.
If the Notice is not responded to then this would be deemed as a dissent and the building owner or their surveyor will be within their right to appoint a party wall surveyor on their behalf.
Ways to respond to a Party Wall Notice
Consent This is the most desirable outcome for building owners as it would mean that there are free to commence with their work and if an issue was to arise as a result of the planned works this would be handled in a neighborly manner.
Dissent and appoint an Agreed Surveyor
This is when the adjoining owner will dissent to the Party Wall Notice and choose to appoint the same Party Wall Surveyor as the building owner. So there would be one surveyor who would be acting for both parties who will act impartially to uphold the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and Party Wall Surveying procedures.
Dissent and appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor
The last dissenting option when responding to a Party Wall Notice is to appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor. So there would be a Party Wall Surveyor for the adjoining owner and one for the building owner who would both work together to uphold and implement the Act and Party Wall Surveying procedures.
I hope this gives you further insight into the Party Wall Surveying procedures and your options when responding to a Party Wall Notice.
If you have any further questions in relation to party wall surveying matters or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont then please do not hesitate to get in touch today by either giving us a call or alternatively pop us over an email and one of our team of experienced Surveyors will be happy to assist and advise you.
