Hello and welcome to today’s property surveying blog post in which we are going to be discussing party wall surveying matters, specifically today I am going to be looking at why one would need a Party Wall Surveyor.
It is not a requirement of the act to have a Party Wall Surveyor in all cases where works are taking place that does fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
Once a Party Wall Notice has been received one of the response options that an adjoining owner will have available to them is to consent to the Party Wall Notice which would forego the Party Wall procedure and as a result, there would not be a need for the involvement of a Party Wall Surveyor and if any issues were to arise as a result of the planned building works then this would have to be solved in a neighbourly manner or by way of common law.
Although if an adjoining owner chooses to dissent to the Party Wall Notice then this is when the selection of a Surveyor is a necessity under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
When it comes to dissenting you can either choose to appoint an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor, so this would be one surveyor who would act impartially on behalf of the parties that are involved.
Whereas the second option that you would also be able to choose when dissenting to a Party Wall Notice is to appoint your own Surveyor. In this case, there would be a Party Wall Surveyor who would act on behalf of the adjoining owner and another who would act on behalf of the building owner.
Within this response option, there will also be the selection of a third Party Wall Surveyor who may be called upon during the Party Wall Process in case there is a dispute between the two surveyors that they are unable to resolve.
What advantages would a Party Wall Surveyor bring?
As a building owner
For a building owner, it is always a good idea to consult a Party Wall specialist though when going through Party Wall matters as there are certain necessities of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 that must be followed accordingly such as the serving of the Party Wall Notice.
This must include the correct details such as those of the planned works, what sections of the act they fall under, and the details of the building owner or their Surveyor if they have appointed one. The Party Wall Notice will also generally be accompanied by drawings (which is mandatory under section 6)
If any of these are missed this could result in the Party Wall Notice not being valid and as such will require a new Notice to be served with the correct details, which can go to further delay the planned works.
Further to this, a Party Wall Notice is only valid for 12 months and so it is critical to serve the Party Wall Notice at the right time as if it served too early and expires before the planned works are ready to commence then you are going to incur further costs with reserving Notice.
As an adjoining owner
The advantage for an adjoining owner in appointing a party wall surveyor is that in doing so you are going to receive the full protections of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 that a Party Wall Surveyor would be able to implement through the use of a Party Wall Award, which can not be put in place without going through the Party Wall Procedure.
The protections that you are to find in a Party Wall Award will be varied and will be dependent on the types of planned works that the building owner is intending on carrying out, such as if the planned works include the removal of a chimney breast then this would have to be covered up at the adjoining owner’s side so stop dust and debris from entering into there property as a result of the removal.
One of the most important conditions of a Party Wall award for an adjoining owner is that any damage that is caused as a result of the planned works has to be rectified to the condition that it was pre-works which the building owner will be liable for.
Whereas if there was no involvement of a Party Wall Surveyor then there would be no party wall award and so these conditions and protections would not be able to be implemented.
I hope this gives you further information on Party Wall Surveying procedures and if you have any questions or queries in regards to today’s blog post or any of the other services that we offer here at Stokemont then please do not hesitate to get in touch today either by giving us a call or popping over an email and one of our team of experienced Party Wall Surveyors Will be happy to assist and advise you.
