Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post, in today’s topic I am going to be looking into whether your neighbour would need to notify you if they were doing a basement extension.
In short, this would depend on the type of property that you live in. If you were in a detached property that was at a greater distance from your neighbours than 6m, they would not need to notify and serve you with a Party Wall Notice for their basement extension, although if the property is within 3m then they would need to notify you of their planned works.
For other properties such as a semi-detached or terraced house, the planned works could potentially be Notifiable under 3 different sections of the Party Wall etc Act 1996, depending on how the planned works are going to be carried out.
The planned works will fall under section 6 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 for the excavations that would be necessary for the extension.
The works could also be notifiable under section 1 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 if the planned works are to extend all the way up to the line of junction.
As they would now be a new wall that is being built on or astride the line of junction and so would fall under section 1 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
The planned works could also be notifiable under section 2 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 if the planned works require underpinning as this could involve cutting into the Party Wall which would fall under section 2.
What is a Party Wall Notice?
Now that I have outlined when you would need to serve a Party Wall Notice let us look at what a Party Wall Notice actually is.
A Party Wall Notice is a letter that will be sent to you if your neighbours works do fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
The Party Wall Notice is designed to inform you of the planned works that are taking place, what sections of the Act the planned works fall under, and details of the building owner and/or their Party Wall Surveyor.
The Party Wall Notice will also generally be accompanied by drawings, which for section 6 works, foundation drawings would be necessary.
What to do when you receive a Party Wall Notice?
When you receive a Party Wall Notice they are 3 distinct ways that you are capable of responding to it. The first being is to consent to the Party Wall Notice, if this option is chosen then this would be as fall as the Party Wall procedures will go and there would be no surveyor input moving forward.
This means that if a dispute were to arise as a result of the planned works then this would have to be handled in a neighbourly manner or by way of common law.
The second response option is to dissent and appoint an agreed Party Wall Surveyor, so under this response option, there would be one Party Wall Surveyor who would be responsible for implementing the Party Wall Surveying procedures and the draft and service of the Party Wall Award.
The third response option is to dissent and appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor, so this would be similar to the second response option, but unlike the second option there would be two Party Wall Surveyors who would work together to implement the Party Wall Surveying procedures and for drafting and serving the Party Wall Award.
Thank you for reading today’s blog post, if you have any further questions 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 Surveyors will be happy to assist and advise.
