In this week’s property surveying blogpost topic, we are going to be discussing Party Wall Notices, and the Party Wall procedures surrounding the service of these notices upon adjoining owners.
If you are planning on undertaking works to your property, and have established that there are multiple adjoining owners that require a Party Wall Notice, we would advise approaching the service of these notices carefully, and with thorough consideration.
One of the Party Wall responses that an adjoining owner has open to them, is to dissent with the appointment of a Party Wall Surveyor. Should this be their response, you, the building owner will ultimately be liable for that Surveyor’s reasonable costs.
In the event where there are multiple different adjoining owners, each adjoining owner has the legal right to appoint any Party Wall Surveyor of their choosing, and they do not need to liaise with one another, or mutually agree on one, or the same surveyor acting on their behalf.
This could effectively mean that you as a building owner find yourself with multiple different adjoining owner’s Party Wall Surveyors all of whom are charging reasonable fees and costs, of which you will be responsible for.
This can not only cause delay to the proposed construction procedures, but can also cause significant cost, in many cases thousands upon thousands of pounds depending on the number of adjoining owners applicable.
Here at Stokemont, we would very much advise adopting a piecemeal Party Wall Notice service approach, which effectively reduces and limits the number of adjoining owner’s surveyors that are appointed post Party Wall Notice service.
In effect, the building owner would start with serving a Notice upon an adjoining with whom they have the most open dialogue with, waiting for that adjoining owner’s Party Wall Notice response. Should the adjoining owner appoint a Party Wall Surveyor, they would then serve Notices on the other respective adjoining owners.
The further Party Wall Notices, would confirm that the adjoining owner has selected the specific Party Wall Surveyor to act on their behalf, and ultimately request for the adjoining owner to do the same, should they also want the input of a Party Wall Surveyor.
Whilst there is no legal requirement for the adjoining owner to take this offer or request into account, in more cases than not you will find that the adjoining owner is facilitating of this request, but ultimately if they do want the input of a Surveyor, so long as that Surveyor is qualified and experienced, that is usually sufficient for them.
While this piecemeal Party Wall Notice approach does take a much longer period of time, as you are effectively waiting for one neighbour to respond, before you serve the other Notice.
It can go a significant way to reduce the overall costs, and also reduce the complication associated with numerous different Party Wall Surveyors being appointed.
If you would like to discuss your Party Wall Notice approach with our team of qualified and experienced Party Wall Surveyors here at Stokemont, give us a call today and we will be more than happy to advise and assist you.
