Welcome to another edition of Stokemont’s property blog series, the focus of this blog will be on the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Particularly we will be looking into section 10(4) of the Act and what this entails.
First of all, let’s take a look into what the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is and what it involves. The Act was created to provide a framework to reduce the risk of, or prevent disputes that arise in respect of construction works that involve party walls, work on boundaries or excavations nearby to adjoining properties.
The Act achieves this as it means that building owners who are undertaking construction works are required to serve party wall notice upon all relevant adjoining owners if they are either building a new wall up to or astride the boundary, undertaking works directly to a party wall or structure or excavating within 3m of any adjoining property.
Once a party wall notice is served the adjoining owner has three response options:
Consent
This will end the party wall procedures and allow the building owner to progress with their proposed works.
Dissent and appoint an ‘Agreed Surveyor’
One surveyor will be appointed to act impartially on behalf of both the adjoining owner and the building owner. This surveyor will undertake a Schedule of Condition & create a party wall award.
Dissent and appoint an independent party wall surveyor
Both the adjoining owner and building owner will appoint their own party wall surveyors, these two surveyors will then work together to undertake the Schedule of Condition & create the party wall award.
The party wall notice has an initial response period of 14-days. If the adjoining owner does not respond with one of the options set out above within 14-days, the building owner is required to serve a further party wall notice upon the adjoining owner which will provide them with a further 10 days to respond with one of the previously discussed response options.
If at this stage there is still no response from the adjoining owner, then there is automatically deemed to be a dispute between the building owner and the adjoining owner.
The procedure that should be followed in this event is set out within section 10 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
The Act states that if the adjoining owner either refuses or neglects to appoint a party wall surveyor in response to the notice then the building owner is entitled to appoint a party wall surveyor on the non-responsive owner’s behalf.
Unfortunately, for building owners it is not possible to have on surveyor act on behalf of both parties as this can only be done with the agreement of the adjoining and if they are unresponsive then this is simply not possible. This means that the building owner will have to appoint their own party wall surveyor and appoint a separate one of behalf of the non-responsive owner.
The building owner’s surveyor could potentially become the ‘Agreed Surveyor’ if the surveyor which is appointed on behalf of the non-responsive owner neglects to act effectively for a period of ten days beginning with the day on which the building owner’s surveyors serves a request upon them.
If this happens the building owner’s surveyor will be allowed to proceed and serve the party wall award ex parte.
The building owner undertaking the works will be liable to pay for all costs related to the party wall procedures including the surveyor’s fees for the non-responsive owner.
The building owner could proceed with their works without appointing a party wall surveyor on behalf of the non-responsive adjoining owner. Although this would obviously save costs, this could potentially backfire and end up costing the building owner more.
The party wall notices remain open until there is either a response or a surveyor is appointed. Meaning that at any point during the notifiable works the adjoining owner could pop up and appoint their own party wall surveyor. This would bring the building owners works to a halt until the party wall procedures have been followed.
If you have any further question relating to the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, then please do not hesitate to reach out to one our experienced Party Wall Surveyor’s by clicking here.
