Hello and welcome to the latest edition of our blog series, today we will be looking into the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 procedures and more specifically the fees related to this and who is liable for these.
A Party Wall Surveyor is called upon when an adjoining owner dissents to a Party Wall Notice served upon them by a building owner who is intending to carry out construction works in the near future.
A building owner is required to serve a Party Wall Notice upon all relevant adjoining owners if they are either building a new wall up to astride the line of junction, undertaking works directly to a party wall or structure or if they a planning to carry out excavations within 3 metres of an adjoining property.
The Party Wall Notice will set out the nature of the proposed works and include a series of drawings to show these. If an adjoining owner consents to the Party Wall Notice, they are allowing the building owner to proceed with their proposed works with no further Party Wall procedures in place.
This is the ideal response option for a building owner as it means they do not have to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor saving costs but also saving time as they do not have to wait for the creation of the Party Wall Award to start their works.
Unfortunately, for building owners, having an adjoining owner consent to their notice is an incredibly rare response as many adjoining owners would rather have the input of an experienced Party Wall Surveyor to ensure the likelihood of damage to their property is kept to a minimum.
If the adjoining owner dissents to the notice they can either appoint an ‘Agreed Surveyor’ or appoint their own independent Party Wall Surveyor. Whichever option they go for, they will not find themselves liable for the fees of the Party Wall Surveyor acting on their behalf.
Under the Party Wall Act, it is the building owner who is undertaking the works that is liable for all fees related to the procedure. The thinking behind this is that the adjoining owner should not find themselves out of pocket for works that are of no benefit to them.
If an adjoining owner appoints their own independent Party Wall Surveyor, the building owner will then have to appoint their own Party Wall Surveyor. The building owner undertaking the works will find themselves liable not only for the fees of their surveyor, but also for the fees of the adjoining owner’s surveyor.
There are some circumstances where an adjoining owner could find themselves liable for Party Wall Surveyors fees. When two surveyors are appointed in response to a Party Wall Notice, these two surveyors will select a Third Surveyor that can be called upon in the event where a dispute cannot be resolved between the two appointed surveyors.
If an adjoining owner decides to defer a dispute to the Third Surveyor and this surveyor decides the adjoining owner is in the wrong, then the adjoining owner will find themselves liable for the Third Surveyors fees.
As a building owner there are certain methods which you can adopt to aim to keep Party Wall Surveyors fees to a minimum.
Here at Stokemont, we would always recommend that you contact the adjoining owner personally to explain your proposed works before serving them with a Party Wall Notice. This can help put the adjoining owners mind at ease and the arrival of the Party Wall Notice will be far less of a surprise which can increase the likelihood of a consent or at least the appointment of an ‘Agreed Surveyor’.
Another method we often propose is that the building owner hand serves the Party Wall Notice rather than having the Party Wall Surveyor serve these via the post. This can also reduce the formality of the notice and put the adjoining owners mind at ease. Therefore, encouraging a more favourable response to the Party Wall Notice.
If you are a building owner who is planning on undertaking construction works that fall within the remit of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 please feel free to discuss these plans with one of our highly experienced Party Wall Surveyors by clicking here.
Our team of experience Party Wall Surveyors would be delighted to offer a helping hand throughout your construction works.
