Thank you for clicking on today’s property surveying blog post topic. In today’s informative property surveying blog post, we are going to be looking at party wall surveying procedures. In particular, we are going to be taking an in-depth look at scenarios that come into play when a building owner serves a party wall notice, upon the adjoining owner. The key consideration being that the adjoining owner is in the process of selling their property.
To start with, a building owner is the legal owner, who is paying and undertaking construction works to their property. The adjoining owner is the legal owner who’s property borders or neighbours the building owner’s property.
Party Wall Notice will be required if the building owner’s works are notifiable to the adjoining owner under the Party Wall Etc Act 1996. Effectively, this means that the building owner is undertaking works, whereby the works they are undertaking all within the realm of the Party Wall Etc Act 1996, and as such, the building is owner is legally responsible and has a legal duty to serve a Party Wall Notice upon the adjoining owner prior to commencing their proposed construction works. Party Wall Notices can be served at any given time and will ultimately depend on when the building owner is planning on commencing or undertaking their construction works.
Equally, property purchases and sales take place almost every day of the year, and therefore, it is incredibly common for these two moving pieces to potentially interact with one another.
For an adjoining owner, or seller, this can be a precarious and difficult situation to navigate. On one hand they would have successfully marketed and found a purchaser for their property. On the other hand, they have a legal duty to inform the adjoining owner of the “dispute” that is about to occur.
Many adjoining owners will take the view that the buyer will likely take issue with proceeding with the sale, in the knowledge that they are going to be buying into a property that is shortly going to have a good period of work being undertaken along side it.
Furthermore, with those works having a recognisable effect on the property, some may worry that the buyer will move on, or pull out of the sale.
From a legal perspective, when a party wall notice is served, and the property is in the process of being sold, the advice we would give here at Stokemont is to discuss the scenario with the buyer as soon as possible.
In many cases, the purchaser may be planning on undertaking works of their own in the near future. Therefore, they may in a situation where there is not a key factor in the purchase process. Equally, they may have undertaken their own construction works to previous properties in the past and therefore, may have a good understanding of what the scenario is, also likewise knowing what it means for them in their new property. In any event, even if the buyer doesn’t have a great deal of understanding of the party wall surveying procedures, the conveyances, both the purchasers and sellers, will. It is therefore likely they will discuss and explain through careful consideration to the purchaser, exactly what the party wall procedures are, what they mean for the buyer and ultimately what the considerations at this stage should be.
In terms of the specifics and technicalities, the Party Wall Notice will need to served upon the owner of the property up until the new purchaser/buyer is under contract. As soon as the purchaser comes under contract to purchase the property, at that stage, the Party Wall Notice will need to be served upon them respectively.
If indeed, the Party Wall Notice has already been served, with a party wall order in place, then the key factor to take into account is when the party wall works are actually starting.
It is worth noting that we have specifically referenced the party wall works, rather than the construction works. The construction works to the wider site will not be covered by the Party Wall Etc Act 1996. However, the party wall element of those construction works will be.
This effectively means that so long as the party wall works have not started, if the property goes under contract, the party wall surveyor or party wall surveyors would then have to update the Party Wall Notices and Party Wall Award to reflect the new owner’s details.
Hypothetically, when the new Party Wall Notice is served upon the new owner, whom is now under contract, the new owner would have the same rights as set out by any Party Wall Notice, effectively meaning they can dissent and appoint their own surveyor, potentially even a different surveyor the one the adjoining owner, or selling owner, had previously appointed and instructed.
In the normal scenarios, what you will tend to find happens is that the purchaser will be well aware of the party wall procedures, have a full understanding of them and will likely be happy or agreeable to the Party Wall Award being updated and rubber stamped to simply reflect their details as opposed to the selling owner’s details. This is where the considerations and discussions can be a significant game changer in respect of this type of scenario. And this is why it is key for the adjoining owner and seller to make sure that the purchaser is well aware of the scenario as soon as is practicably possible.
The worst outcome could be that the seller isn’t aware of this, proceeds with the sale, and finds themselves in a position whereby they are presented with the information at the very last stage, or potentially even through the presence of contractors turning up on site. There is also a legal duty for a selling owner to advise the purchaser of the property of the Party Wall Notice service, the legal dispute as per the Party Wall Etc Act 1996, and the other approaching agreement of a Party Wall Award.
Likewise, even if a party wall award has been agreed, and there is no longer a dispute in place as per the Party Wall Etc Act 1996, the seller still has a legal duty to share that information with the purchaser.
This type of scenario is common. Surprisingly to some, here at Stokemont, we deal with it a handful of times each month. If you would like to discuss party wall surveying procedures with our team of qualified and experienced party wall surveyors, or, would like to discuss this exact scenario with us, please feel free to give us a call today and we will be more than happy to assist and advise you.
