Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post in which we are going to be discussing Party Wall Surveying matters. In this blog post, today I am going to be concentrating on which planned works would fall under The Party Wall etc Act 1996
and thus what works would require aParty Wall Notice to be served to the adjoining owners under the Act.
First, I will clarify what a Party WallNotice is and some of the procedures for serving a notice
A Party WallNotice itself is a letter that must be served to the adjoining owners of the property where the planned works are going to be taking place. They must also outline what works are taking place and under what section of The Party Wall Act they will fall under and in cases where there is a surveyor involved then the details of said surveyor must also be on the Notice.
When to serve Party Wall Notice
Party Wall Notice should be served at least 1 to 2 months before the planned works are going to be taking place depending on what those works are, although you would be advised to not serve the Party WallNotice too soon in case of the planned works require planning permission then consideration must be taken of when to serve the Party WallNotice as the Notice its self is only valid for 1 year.
When serving the Party WallNotice you should also keep in mind in cases of an unresponsive owner that a minimum of two notices must be served before you can continue with the Party Wall procedure.
Party Wall Notice Timings
The first Party WallNotice gives the recipient 14 days to respond, this consists of 12 statutory days and 2 days of postage allowance.
If there is no response after the first notice has been served then a final Party WallNotice must be served in which the adjoining owner will have 12 days to respond, which is made up of 10 statutory days and again a 2-day postage allowance.
If your Party WallNotice is still not responded to, then you do have the power to appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor on behalf of an adjoining owner as per Section 10 of the party wall act.
Under The Party Wall etc Act 1996 there are 3 primary sections that deal with the types of works that will require a notice to be served they are as follows:
Section 1) New building on line of junction.
This relates to building a structure on or astride the boundary line, most commonly this will be things such as a boundary fence or even the creation of a new Party Wall.
For any works of this nature then a Party Wall Notice must be served and the minimum time required for the notice is one month before the planned works are going to commence.
Section 2) Repair etc. of party wall: rights of owner.
This section covers a variety of different works from cutting into the Party Wall whether that be to thicken/strengthen it or to add a damp proof course along the Party Wall, exposing the Party Wall etc.
If your planned works involve any of the above or any other works that are covered under section 2 that this will require a Party Wall Notice.
Section 6) Adjacent excavation and construction.
This is the case when excavations occur within 3m or 6m from an adjoining owner’s property and if the planned excavations are going to be lower than the adjoining owner’s foundations.
Current regulations on the depth that foundations must be dug are at least a 1m. So this in relation to most of the home stock in England and Wales which were built turn of the 19th century, where the requirements were not as deep as they are today and ranged from 300mm to 700mm deep. So even on the high end, they did not have the depth that modern structures are required.
So if the adjoining owner did have an older property then a Party Wall Notice would have to be served as current regulations would require you to dig deeper than the adjoining owner’s properties foundations.
If you would like to know more about any other aspects of the Party Wall Surveying procedure or require any other property surveying service that we provide then please do not hesitate to get in touch or alternatively pop us an email, and we would be happy to assist and advise you.
