Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post, in today’s blog post we are going to be looking at Party Wall surveying procedures, taking a look at when someone refuses or dissents to your Party Wall Notice.
Is a Party Wall Notice Required?
Firstly, let us take a look at what is a Party Wall Notice and when one might be required.
A Party Wall Notice is a letter that will be sent to any of your neighbours when any of your planned works fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
Notifiable works under the Act are outlined under sections 1, 2 & 6, I will not go into detail about the different kinds of works that are outlined under each section as that is not the purpose of today’s blog post, but if you are interested, be sure to check out one of our other blog post on the topic.
The important thing to note is that if any of your planned works do fall under any of the sections mentioned, such as excavating within 3m of the adjoining owner property and to a lower depth their foundations, then this would require you to serve a Party Wall Notice.
The Party Wall Notice is essentially a letter that will be sent to the adjoining owners of the properties where your works could affect and will outline what works are taking palace and what sections of the Act they fall under.
The Party Wall Notices are generally accompanied by drawings which is a requirement to have foundation drawings at a minimum for any works that fall under section 6 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
What are Party Wall Notice Responses?
When you have served a Party Wall Notice your neighbours will have the right to choose 1 of 3 distinct options.
Option 1 – to consent to the works.
If this option is chosen then this would be the end of the Party Wall Procedures as the adjoining owner will be seen to be happy to let the planned works go ahead and if a dispute was to arise as a result of the planned works then this would have to be handled by way of common law.
Options 2 – to appoint an agreed Party Wall Surveyor.
If this option was to be chosen they would be one Party Wall Surveyor who would act on behalf of both parties, doing their duty to uphold the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
This will include them looking at the planned works front the perspective of the adjoining owner’s property and best-implementing protections to minimise any chance of damage by way of the Party Wall Award.
Options 3 – to appoint your own Party Wall Surveyor.
Under option 3 both parties will appoint their own Party Wall Surveyor, in which both Party Wall Surveyors work together to implement Party Wall Procedures.
With this option, the two Party Wall Surveyors will have to agree on the appointment of a third Party Wall Surveyor in case there is a dispute between the two surveyors that they were unable to resolve between themselves.
Then the third Party Wall Surveyor will be called upon to resolve the dispute, although it is worth noting that the fee for the third Party Wall Surveyor will generally have to be settled by the one who called upon the surveyor.
What are the Party Wall Surveying Timings?
The third option is generally slower than the other dissenting option as while implementing the Party Wall procedures, as the Party Wall Surveyors will have to communicate back and forth with one another when it comes to deciding on things, such as a time for the property inspection and importantly the Party Wall Agreement.
Out of the 2 dissenting opinions, the first option is generally the more preferable for building owners as it will allow for an overall lower cost for the Party Wall procedure, as there will only be one Party Wall Surveyor involved and so you will only be responsible for one lot of surveyor fees.
Whereas if the 3rd option was chosen then you would be responsible for the cost of both Party Wall Surveyor fees.
We at Stokemont would usually recommend that you budget up to £1500 for the adjoining owner’s surveyors fees, but this will all vary depending on the scope of the works and ultimately how long the Party Wall Surveyor has spent on the file.
Thank you for taking the time to read today’s blog post, if you have any further questions on today’s topic or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont please do not hesitate to get in touch today 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.
