Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post in which we are going to discuss Party Wall Surveying matters. Specifically, in this blog post I will be looking at what an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor is and what the fees typically associated with them are.
What is an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor?
An agreed Party Wall Surveyor is when there is one surveyor who will be overlooking the Party Wall procedure for all parties involved.
This comes about by way of the adjoining owner’s response to the Party Wall Notice.
What is a Party Wall Notice?
A Party Wall Notice is what will be served to any adjoining owners (typically a neighbor) when any of your planned construction work falls under The Party Wall etc Act 1996.
There are certain aspects that one must consider when serving notice but as this is not the purpose of the blog post I will not go into detail on those, rather if you wish to learn more about them then please see one of our blogs on the topic.
What is relevant in terms of the Party Wall Notice is that there are 3 distinct response options that an adjoining owner will have available for them when responding to a Party Wall Notice.
Consent to the Party Wall Notice
The first of the response options that you have is to consent to the Party Wall Notice. In doing so you would be giving the building owner (the one who is caring out the works) the green light to carry out their works immediately and would also give up the protections that The Party Wall etc Act 1996 affords.
Dissent to the Party Wall Notice and appoint an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor
The second response option is to dissent to the Party Wall Notice and appoint an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor. So as I have stated above this is when there will be one Party Wall Surveyor who will oversee the Party Wall procedure for all Parties involved.
Dissent to the Party Wall Notice and appoint an independent Party Wall Surveyor
The third response option is to dissent and appoint an independent party wall surveyor. So each party will have their own Party Wall Surveyor who would oversee the Party Wall procedure on their behalf. The surveyors involved will work together to ensure The Party Wall etc Act 1996 is upheld and adhered to.
The option for an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor will then come about if the second response option is chosen.
The actual cost and fee of the agreed party wall surveyor will vary depending on the number of different parties that are involved with the Party Wall Surveying procedure as simply the more parties that are involved would mean more work and time for the Party Wall Surveyor and so there is going be an increase in cost all of which the building owner will be liable for.
Within a typical case where the planned works are taking place within a terraced house both of which are owner occupied the fee for an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor will be within the region of £1,000.00.
This figure can be significantly increased if there are freeholds and leaseholds involved as each are capable of appointing there own Party Wall Surveyor on there own behalf so the agreed surveyor could be between 3 different parties in this case you can see the figure increase to around £2,000.00.
So it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact amount for the fees of an Agreed Surveyor and all will vary depending on the exact nature of the case and the number of different parties that are involved.
If you wish to know what the fees are likely to be for your particular situation then please do not hesitate to get in touch today by either giving us a call or popping us over an email, one of our team of experienced Party Wall surveyors will be happy to assist and advise you.
