If you served a Party Wall Notice upon the adjoining owner, with the adjoining owner having not responded, at that stage the non-response doesn’t mean that you can progress that party wall matters.
Instead, you have a legal duty under Section 10(4) of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 as follows:
If either party to the dispute— (a) refuses to appoint a surveyor under subsection (1)(b), or
(b) neglects to appoint a surveyor under subsection (1)(b) for a period of ten days beginning with the day on which the other party serves a request on him, That legal duty setting out that you will need to serve a follow on and further Party Wall Notice upon them, thereby giving them a final 10 statutory days to review and hopefully respond to that Party Wall Notice.
The aim of the Section 10(4) Notice is to enable adjoining owners who may have overlooked the initial Notice, not had the time to respond to the initial Notice, or perhaps are struggling to make enquiries with legal advisors and party wall professionals time effectively a final opportunity to respond to the Party Wall Notice.
The importance of a Section 10(4) Notice is that it will also categorically set out within it that the adjoining owner’s response is requested and needed.
Furthermore, it will go on to set out that if they don’t respond they are likely to have a party wall surveyor appointed on their behalf. This alone can often compel and jolt many adjoining owners into presenting the all important Party Wall Notice response and giving the building owner the opportunity to then progress their planned construction works.
Non Response to Section 10(4) Notice
In a scenario whereby an adjoining owner doesn’t respond to a Section 10(4) Party Wall Notice, at that stage the building owner will then be within their legal rights to appoint a party wall surveyor on behalf of the non-responsive owner.
That party wall surveyor will be selected by the building owner and will administer the Party Wall etc. Act on behalf of the adjoining owner in the same manner and approach as if the adjoining owner had appointed them themselves.
The party wall surveyor’s aim will be to inspect the adjoining owner’s property as part of their planned protocols and procedures.
That inspection giving the surveyors the opportunity to record a Schedule of Condition report.
The Schedule of Condition report being the all important document in place which not only records and benchmarks the condition of the adjoining owner’s property pre-works, it also acts as an all important record of proof in the event of any damage further down the line.
Damage in construction works as I am sure we can all appreciate and understand is unfortunately a common thing.
With the banging, clattering and smashing that can come with demolition and development, it is always going to be likely that there are going to be percussive vibrations to the party wall.
These vibrations often resulting in light decorative damage to the other side.
Party Wall Award Agreement
Once the Section 10(4) party wall surveyor has written to the adjoining owner to confirm their appointment and request an inspection date of their property, they will usually give it a period of time for which they will allow the adjoining owner to respond.
This period of time tends to be anywhere from 7-14 days and is the final attempt at obtaining a response from the altogether unresponsive adjoining owner thus far.
Should the response not come in, at that stage the building owner’s party wall surveyor and adjoining owner’s Section 10(4) party wall surveyor are then likely to undertake an external Schedule of Condition record from the vantage points they can obtain from both the street, side passages, or the adjoining owner’s property.
While the outcome of this is usually quite limited, it is better to have something on file than to not.
Ultimately it also demonstrates an attempt at best safeguarding an adjoining owner, even if they are an unresponsive one.
Following on from the external Schedule of Condition the two party wall surveyors will then progress to the agreement of the Party Wall Award.
Party Wall Award is commonly referred to as a Party Wall Agreement within the general public and by some party wall surveyors themselves.
The building owner’s party wall surveyor will conventionally draft this Party Wall Award, which would then be shared with the adjoining owner’s party wall surveyor.
The adjoining owner’s party wall surveyor will review and comment on it in the conventional way. Convention these days tends to be with track changes via Microsoft Word.
Once the Award has then been agreed in content, format and a description, it will then be circulated for signature and date by those respective party wall surveyors.
Party Wall Award Service
The Party Wall Award will then be served upon both the building owner and the adjoining owner respectively and ultimately will ensure and mean that the party wall surveying procedures have reached a conclusion, albeit a conclusion whereby the adjoining owner wasn’t a part of them or their property wasn’t necessarily inspected.
The building owner will be free to progress and commence their works with all of the same legal rights that they would have been afforded and have obtained had they engaged and been a part of the party wall surveying procedures and processes.
The only major difference being that they have not actually engaged with the processes, by virtue of non-response.
If you would like to discuss party wall surveying procedures with our experienced team of party wall surveyors, you can pop us an email, or pop us a call. We will be more than happy to assist and advise you.
