Thank you, for clicking on today’s Property Surveying blogpost. In this version of our informative property post, we are going to be looking at party wall surveying.
In particular, we are going to be focussing on Party Wall Notices, and the Party Wall Notice response options that an adjoining owner has at their disposal upon receipt.
Once a building owner serves a Party Wall Notice upon the adjoining owner, the Party Wall etc Act 1996, also commonly referred to as the Act, gives an adjoining owner the legal right to respond to the Party Wall Notice.
We have a number of different blogposts available on what those response options are, while also touching on what they mean from a legal perspective.
This blogpost is going to focus on Party Wall Notice consents, and what needs to be done in order to satisfy the requirements of the Act upon receipt of a Party Wall Notice.
The Party Wall Notice is in place to ensure that there is a legal record as required by the Party Wall Act, setting out the building owner’s intent to commence the work, while also documenting the adjoining owner’s response to such Notice.
We are often contacted by building owners who have served a Party Wall Notice upon the adjoining owner, however, they have never gone through the necessary protocols once the adjoining owner receives the Party Wall Notice.
Under the Party Wall etc Act 1996, a Party Wall Notice has to be responded to.
This response equally has to be in writing, thereby constituting a formal response and contracting into the selected response that the adjoining owner has opted for.
Commonly, in your more informal or friendly neighbourly relations, building owners will often rely on the verbal response and consent of their neighbour the adjoining owner.
This is often in an effort to avoid any form of confusion relating to the Party Wall Notice response, while also usually a result of a building owner not wanting to nudge the Party Wall Notice Consent towards a dissent.
We can categorically confirm here at Stokemont, that Party Wall Notices, whether they are served by party wall surveyors or owners, have to have a formal written response to them.
Responding verbally is not considered legal response, and if a building owner accepts a verbal Party Wall Notice response, consent or otherwise, they run the risk of the Party Wall Notice response being deemed invalid, or simply never given.
While the Act does not specifically set out that a Party Wall Notice response needs to be in writing, as with any legal contract it is implied and as such building owners should tread very carefully in the scenario whereby they have failed to obtain this.
It is also worth noting, that a Party Wall Notice response does not need to be overly formal.
A simple e-mail, letter or more appropriately completing and responding via a Party Wall Notice acknowledgement form will be more than sufficient to demonstrate the legal requirements as set out via a Party Wall Notice response.
If you would like to discuss party wall surveying procedures with our team of experienced and qualified surveyors, feel free to give us a call today, or pop us an email, we will be more than happy to assist and advise you.
