Hello and welcome to today’s informative property surveying blog post, in which I am going to be discussing Party Wall Surveying matters. Within today’s blog post I am going to be concentrating on at what stage one should dissent to a Party Wall Notice.
Firstly to see when you can dissent to a Party wall notice we must look at the Notice its self
Party Wall Notice
A party wall notice is a letter that must be sent to your neighbours (adjoining owners) if any of your planned works fall under The Party Wall etc Act 1996.
The Notice is designed to inform your neighbors of the works that you are planning on carrying out that fall under the Act and will come along with contact details for the building owner or their surveyor, what sections the planned works fall under, and will usually be accompanied by drawings (which is mandatory for any section 6 works).
The Notice needs to be served 1 to 2 months before the planned works are going to be carried out, depending on what sections of The Party Wall etc Act 1996. they fall under.
For any of the planned works that fall under sections 1 & 6 the Party Wall Notice must be served 1-month before the planned works are going to be carried out, whereas for any planned works that fall under section 2 of the Act then Notice must be served 2 months before the planned works are going to commence.
Once the Notice has been served you will then have 16 days to respond, although if you are not able to respond within the allotted time period for whatever reason then not to worry, as after the first Notice has expired then a second Party Wall Notice must be served which will give you a further 14 days to respond.
When it comes to the actual response to the Party Wall Notice you have 3 distinct ways that you are capable of doing so.
Party Wall Notice Consent
The first option you have when responding to the Party Wall Notice is to consent. In doing so you would give the building owner the right to begin their planned works and would forfeit the rights and protections that The Party Wall etc Act 1996 affords you.
Party Wall Notice Dissent, Agreed Party Wall Surveyor
The second response option to the Party Wall Notice is to dissent and appoint an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor. In cases where there is an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor, the surveyor will act impartially representing both parties involved ensuring that they uphold The Party Wall etc Act 1996.
Party Wall Notice Dissent, Own Party Wall Surveyor
The third response option is to dissent but this time appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor who will oversee the party wall procedure on your behalf. So a building owner and adjoining owner will have their own surveyors and the two surveyors will work together to ensure that the Act is upheld and adhered to.
At what stage should you Dissent?
We would advise at Stokemont that it is best is respond the Party Wall Notice as soon as you are capable of doing so to ensure that there are no issues with the appointment for your surveyor, but as long as you adhere to the deadlines as outlined within the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and respond before the deadline of the second Party Wall Notice then, in reality, this should not cause any issues.
You will however come into issues if you wait till beyond the deadline, as after the expiry of the second Party Wall Notice the building owner would be capable of appointing a Party Wall Surveyor on your behalf by way of section 10(4) of the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
I hope this gives you further insight into Party wall Surveying procedures and your options when it comes to dissenting to the party wall Notice. If you have any questions in relation to party wall surveying or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont then please feel free to get in touch today by either giving us a call or pop us over an email and one of our experienced team of surveyors will be happy to assist and advise you.
