In this week’s party wall surveying blog post, we are going to be looking at the role of a party wall surveyor and in particular whether an interim, or interim visits are a reasonable expense for the party wall surveyor to incur during the course of the works.
Part of a party wall surveyor’s role is to ensure that his or her costs are reasonable thereby limiting the building owner’s liability. Generally speaking, and the norm for the industry, would be for a party wall surveyor to visit before the works take place and again upon completion of the works.
The pre-works visit allows the party wall surveyor to undertake an inspection of the adjoining owner’s property to carry out the Schedule of Condition Report. However, it also gives them the opportunity to accommodate themselves with the properties and lay of the land thereby taking into account any factors that they should consider in the drafting and service of the party wall award.
The post work visit is generally undertaken to check off the original schedule of condition report undertaken pre-works, and ensure that the condition of the adjoining owner’s property is understood and documented post works.
These two steps enable the party wall surveyor to definitively confirm if there has been any issue or damage as a result of the building owner’s construction works, and also ensure that if there is any damage caused he or she can properly advise the adjoining owner.
One of the most common questions we are asked by adjoining owners is if we are able to inspect during the course of the works to ensure that the building owner is adhering to the party wall award.
Our take on it here at Stokemont is that unless the works are of significantly high risk, or are particularly intrusive to the adjoining owner’s property, it would be an unreasonable expense for a party wall surveyor to undertake interim visits during the course of the works.
Generally speaking interim visits require 2-3 hours for a surveyor to be out of the office which is including travel and also the site time, therefore it isn’t rare for these costs to be upwards of about £400 plus VAT. Therefore, to undertake interim inspections throughout a lengthy construction process could quite easily add close to £1,000 or on particularly long projects upwards of £1,000 costs to the overall building owner’s surveying costs.
In our opinion this wouldn’t be reasonable or particularly fair to the building owner as they would have to incur the added cost of a surveyor visiting site. It is also worth noting that a party wall surveyor does not actually have the right to police or overlook the party wall works during the course of the works, which is exactly why a party wall award is agreed pre-works as it ensures, or attempts to ensure that the building owner undertakes the work in accordance with the party wall awards clauses thereby reducing the potential of risk or issue to the adjoining owner’s property.
It is not uncommon for party wall surveyors to request interim inspections, however the inspection has to be based on some form of requirement or validity. A particular example of this could be if the building owner’s contractors want to gain access onto the adjoining owner’s land, for scaffolding or temporary hoardings. It could therefore be argued as a reasonable expense for the adjoining owner’s surveyor to be present during the course of the access, or to visit while access is taking place to ensure that the procedures are properly being adhered to.
However, here at Stokemont we tend to try and get as much from the respective owners as possible through photographs or videos emailed in as we can find out in many cases that can greatly reduce the requirement to visit site and as a result ensures that the surveying costs are as low or as reasonable as they can possibly be.
Party wall surveying costs are often one of the most hotly disputed points of the party wall procedure, therefore we would always advise speaking to an experienced party wall surveyor well in advance of commencing the works to ensure that the procedures progress smoothly and in the most cost effective way possible.
If you would like to speak to one of our experienced party wall surveyors a call now and we will be more than happy to assist you.
