Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post, in today’s blog post we are going to be looking into Party Wall Surveying matters specifically taking a look at how to serve a Party Wall Notice legally.
The Party Wall Notice must be severed in a particular way with the correct information for it to be valid and legal, if it is not done in the correct manner then this would mean that anything that is then done from the base of this would also be considered invalid and as such not legal.
This would then require a reserve of the Party Wall Notice which could go to delay your planned works and so it is always best to make sure that it is done correctly the first time around.
What is a Party Wall Notice?
A Party Wall Notice is a letter that will be served to your neighbors if any of the planned works you wish to carry out fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996. If this is the case then you must serve a Party Wall Notice to the adjoining owner of who the planned works could potentially affect as outlined in the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
Depending on the types of planned works that you wish to carry out and under what sections of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 the planned works fall under, this will alter the minimum time before commencing of the works that the Notice must be served for it to be considered a legal and valid Party Wall Notice.
For works that fall under sections 1 & 6 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996, this would require you to serve a Party Wall Notice 1 month prior to the planned works taking place, whereas for planned works that fall under section 2 would require a Party Wall Notice to be served a minimum of 2 months before the planned works where to take place.
When initially serving a Party Wall Notice this would allow for a response time of up to 14 days from the adjoining owner which consists of 12 statutory days and a 2-day postage allowance.
If the initial Notice is not responded to then a further Party Wall Notice needs to be served, Known as a 10(4) Notice. This Notice will give the adjoining owners a total of 12 days to respond, consisting of 10 statutory days with a 2-day postage allowance.
If the second notice does not get responded to then this would be seen as a dispute between you and the unresponsive Neighbor, where you would be within your rights to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor on their behalf.
Although that is not a requirement under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor for the adjoining owner, we at Stokemont would consider it within your best interests to do so, as if you do not choose to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor on their behalf then they are within their right to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor at any time throughout the planned works.
I hope this gave you further insight into Party Wall Surveying matters and Party Wall Notices.
if you have any further questions in regards to today’s blog post or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch today by either popping is over an email or giving us a call and one of our team of experienced Party Wall Surveyors will be happy to assist and advise you.
