In this week’s Party Wall Surveying Blogpost, we are going to be discussing the procedures that a Building Owner should follow in the event that they have served both a Party Wall Notice, and the following Section 10(4) Party Wall Notice, upon the Adjoining Owner, and having received a formal response.
This is actually an incredibly common position to be in, so the first thing to bear in mind is to not panic. The Act has a sound and reasoned procedure in place to ensure that you are in a position to progress the works, without delay, or having to wait for the Adjoining Owner’s response.
In the event that both Party Wall Notices have been served, and those respective Party Wall Notices have been determine as legally valid by an experienced Party Wall Surveyor, or a Legal Advisor, at this stage we would advise appointing a Party Wall Surveyor on behalf of the non-responsive Adjoining Owner.
In making this Party Wall Surveyor appointment on behalf of the non-responsive Owner, you will be ensuring that the Owner’s Party Wall rights are still fully considered and protected, with the legal position being that the Party Wall Surveyor appointed on their behalf is to consider the matter in the same way he would, had he been appointed through the normal natural selection.
The outcome of the Party Wall Surveyor’s appointment, will be an eventual Party Wall Award whereby you, the Building Owner, would have appointed a different Party Wall Surveyor to the one that had been appointed on behalf of the Adjoining Owner, with those two respective Party Wall Surveyors then effectively resolving the legal dispute that exists through the eyes of the Party Wall etc Act 1996, with the ultimate resolution being in the form of a Party Wall Award.
When that Party Wall Award has been served you, the Building Owner, will be within your legal rights to commence the works without further delay, thereby ensuring that a sound and just procedure has been followed that will ultimately facilitate your proposed works.
If you find yourself in a position where you have served a Party Wall Notice and have not had a response, we would actually advise speaking to a Party Wall Surveyor at the earliest opportunity, as the last thing you want to do is serve another Notice, allow the full timings to elapse, to only then find that the potential Notices that predate that position, were in fact invalid and require re-serving.
If you are planning on undertaking works to your property, or your neighbour is planning on undertaking works to their property, give our team of experienced and qualified Party Wall Surveyors a call now, and we will be more than happy to assist you.
