Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post, in today’s topic, we are going to be looking into Party Wall Surveying matters, taking a close look at what options would be available to you if you were to find damage as a result of your neighbour’s (building owner’s) planned Party Wall works.
The Party Wall etc Act 1996 is very clear in section 7(2) that if damage is to occur as a result of their planned works, then it is the building owner that would be held responsible for making that damage good.
“The building owner shall compensate any adjoining owner and any adjoining occupier for any loss or damage which may result to any of them by reason of any work executed in pursuance of this Act.”
So, if the Party Wall procedures have been adhered to correctly, they should be measures that have been put in place for this type of situation within the Party Wall Award.
What is the Party Wall Award?
This is a legal document that will outline the building owners’ rights to conduct their planned works and will also outline what protections to put in place for the adjoining owner’s property and will include provisions of what to do if damage occurs.
What to do if you find damage after Party Wall Works have been conducted?
If you do believe that damage has been done to your property as a result of your neighbour’s planned Party Wall works, then the first thing you should do is to contact your Party Wall Surveyor.
Ideally sending the Party Wall Surveyor photographs of the area in question, so they can cross-reference the photographs with the one that should have been taken as part of the Schedule of Condition report, before the works had taken palace.
Over the years we have found that it can be a fairly common occurrence that owners become more aware of pre-existing cracks and then believe that they have come about as the results of the planned works, only to find that it was something that was flagged within the initial Schedule of Condition report.
Sending in photographs first can allow the Party Wall Surveyor to assess whether the area has a new defect or whether it was pre-existing, which would save the Party Wall Surveyor from having to reinspect the property unnecessarily, saving on fees.
If after reviewing the photographs if the Party Wall Surveyor can confirm that it was not pre-existing, then they would be able to reinspect the property, assessing the current condition against the condition of the property pre-works, as per the Schedule of Condition report.
Once the Party Wall Surveyor has reinspected and done a full comparison and investigation into the damage and they are able to confirm that damage has indeed occurred as a result of the planned works.
The Party Wall Surveyor would then be able to then flag this up with the building owner, who would be able either get their own contractors to fix the damage or pay a sum, so you could have your own contractor come and fix the damage.
This figure will be put forward by your Party Wall Surveyor who will base this of their own experience and industry standards and norms, if you are in a situation where each party had opted for their own Party Wall Surveyor, then the two Party Wall Surveyors would have to agree on the figure before it can be issued to the building owner.
Once this has been agreed upon the Party Wall Surveyor or Surveyors can then create an Addendum Party Wall Award to finalise the exact amount owed, and like a normal Party Wall Award the Addendum Award will be considered a binding agreement between the two parties.
Thank you for reading today’s blog post, if you have any further questions or queries in regards to today’s topic or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont then please do not hesitate to get in touch, by either giving us a call or popping us over an email and one of our experienced Party Wall Surveyor will be happy to assist and advise.
