In this week’s property surveying blog post, we are going to be discussing Party Wall surveying and procedures that need to be followed in the event that a building owner needs to serve a Party Wall Notice upon an adjoining owner, however, the adjoining owner’s legal name is unknown.
Believe it or not, this is actually a relatively common position for a building owner, or a building owner’s Party Wall Surveyor to find themselves in.
The issue effectively arises when the HMLR, or Her Majesty’s Land Registry has not been updated, and therefore, the building owner, or building owner’s Party Wall Surveyor, does not have the opportunity to access public records which would effectively confirm the adjoining owner’s legal name.
The Land Registry is only ever updated when a transaction takes place, so in the situation whereby a single owner has owned the property, from its construction date, or for a long period of time (pre-dating digital records), it is unlikely that the Land Registry will hold any record for the property.
So what does this mean for an owner, or Party Wall Surveyor, who wants to serve a Party Wall Notice?
The Party Wall Act Etc 1996 has taken this exact situation into account, and has put in place a procedure that can be followed to ultimately ensure that the correct party wall procedures are followed.
The first thing for the owner, or Party Wall Surveyor to do is to prepare the Party Wall Notice in the normal manner, explaining the works in a simple and easy to understand format.
Once they have done that, they will then need to address the Party Wall Notice, and cover letter to the Party Wall Notice, to “the owner”. In addressing the Party Wall Notice to “the owner”, this is effectively as clear an attempt to ensure that the Party Wall Notice does in fact, indeed, reach the correct person.
The Act goes one step further, whereby it requires the Party Wall Surveyor, or building owner who is serving the Party Wall Notice, to then fix the Party Wall Notice itself to a conspicuous part of the unknown adjoining owner’s property.
So what does this mean? Quite simply, it means that the Party Wall Notice will need to be fixed to a clear and easily noticeable and identifiable part of the adjoining owner’s property. Commonly, this would be the front gate, front door, next to the doorbell, or any other position whereby it cannot be missed or overlooked.
Once the Party Wall Notice has been fixed to the adjoining owner’s property, at that stage, the building owner, or building owner’s surveyor will need to take a record, usually in the form of a photograph of the Party Wall Notice fixed in place, with that then being confirmation of legal service. This type of Party Wall Notice Service is common, and something that our surveyors here at Stokemont have done on numerous occasions over the years.
If you’d like to discuss if this form of Party Wall Notice is suitable for your adjoining owner, give our team of experienced and qualified Party Wall Surveyors a call now, and we will be more than happy to assist you.
