Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post in which I am going to be discussing Party Wall Surveying matters. Specifically, within this blog post, I am going to be taking a look into the Party Wall Award and your rights in disputing the Party Wall Award.
Firstly, I am going to outline what a Party Wall Award is, in essence, a Party Wall Award is a legally binding document that makes up the final part of the Party Wall process.
It outlines the types of work that are going to be carried out along with any drawings, and method statements that will outline the way in which the way the works are going to be carried out and any protections that will need to be put in place to protect the adjoining owner’s property from the proposed works.
When can you appeal a Party Wall Award?
An Award is capable of being disputed through the courts 14 days after it the service of said award, with the courts being able to modify and even rescind the award if they wish.
This is set out by Section 10(17) of the Act:
Either of the parties to the dispute may, within the period of fourteen days beginning with the day on which an award made under this section is served on him, appeal to the county court against the award and the county court may — (a)rescind the award or modify it in such manner as the court thinks fit; and (b) make such order as to costs as the court thinks fit.
This is done by filling out an appellant’s notice in form N161 together with the grounds of appeal setting out the reasons for the challenge to the award and what the court is being asked to do – i.e. This could be in relation to the Party Wall Surveyor cost that makes up an aspect of the Award which you may want to dispute, so you would specify that you would like the Party Wall Surveyors cost to be modified.
There is going to be an initial cost for submitting the application which will be around £150, with there being various other costs that are going to go along with disputing a Party Wall Award.
All in all, to dispute a Party Wall Award is going to be a costly procedure and can range anywhere from £5’000 to £50’000 depending on the dispute and the time you are at trial.
Another thing to consider before disputing the Party Wall Award is that there is no guarantee that you are going to win the trial and so could also be liable for the cost of the defending party.
So in certain cases even if you feel that you are right and justified in your appeal you would really have to consider whether the benefits outweigh the risk.
For example, if you have a dispute of any costings on the award and the discrepancy in what you feel you are entitled to is within the range of a couple hundred pounds then it may not be worth the cost of appealing the award, as you are likely to spend far more then that through the appeal with no guaranty that the appeal will even be successful.
When it comes to successfully challenging a party wall Award one would need to consider some of the following to have a greater chance to appeal successfully:
- Whether the Surveyor acted beyond their power
- Whether they acted in a way that is not in line with the established way of carrying out the party wall procedure.
- Are there any aspects of the award that seem to be unfair or in one party’s favor?
- Was the compensation in the award fair accounting for all things that may have caused you loss such as loss of earnings
Although just because one of these aspects is true it does not mean that you are guaranteed to win the appeal, for any legal advice in this area we at Stokemont would recommend that it is best you speak to a competent property lawyer who is well versed in this area.
I hope this gives you further insight into the Party Wall Awards and how to dispute them if you so wish. If you have any further questions or queries about Party Wall Surveying matters or any of the other services that we offer, then please do not hesitate to contact us by giving us a call or alternatively pop us an email and one of our experienced Party Wall Surveyors would be happy to assist and advise you.
