Welcome to this week’s Party Wall Surveying blog post, we hope this can be beneficial for you and help you to enhance your knowledge of the party wall procedures.
In today’s blog we will be discussing what procedures are in place once damage has occurred to an adjoining owner’s (the legal owner who neighbours the construction works) property as a result of a building owner’s (the legal owner who is undertaking construction works to their property) construction works.
As a building owner, under the Party Wall etc Act. 1996 you are legally obliged to serve notice to any adjoining owners if you wish to undertake construction works that is either directly to the party wall, excavations within 3 or 6m of any neighbouring structure or the construction new walls built up to or astride the boundary line.
Once you have served this notice, the adjoining owner has three Party Wall response options. They are able to either consent to the works, dissent and appoint Party Wall Surveyor or dissent and appoint an Agreed Surveyor.
Should the adjoining owner decide to appoint their own Party Wall Surveyor or appoint an Agreed Party Wall Surveyor, the Party Wall Surveyor(s) will then look through the building owner’s proposed work and aim to reduce the risk to the adjoining owner’s property as much as possible.
The Party Wall Surveyor will then carry out a thorough Schedule of Condition of the adjoining owner’s property. This will provide an accurate and detailed record of the property prior to the works commencing. Once this has been completed this will be included within the Party Wall Award and ensures that the adjoining owner is legally protected should any damage or issues arise.
At the next stage the Party Wall Surveyor(s) will write up the Party Wall Award and then serve this to the adjoining owner which allows the building owner to carry out their construction works.
Under the Act the building owner is responsible for the costs of repairs for any damage that occurs to the adjoining owner’s property. Once the building owner’s works have been completed the Party Wall Surveyor will then conduct a post-works inspection of the adjoining owner’s property. This will allow the Party Wall Surveyor to check off the original Schedule of Condition report assessing whether there has been any change to the condition.
The Party Wall Surveyor will keep an eye out for issues such as cracks, open board joints, tears to wallpaper, or cracks to tiles. However, the Party Wall Surveyor will also be looking for issues that are less obvious and not visible to the eye as even nonvisible issues are protected under the Act.
If you are an adjoining owner and your property has been damaged, the Party Wall Surveyor will then carry out an assessment in order to determine whether the damage is a result of the building owner’s works.
If the Party Wall Surveyor does decide that the damage is a result of the building owner’s works then they will quantify the damage.
At this point, as the adjoining owner you are left with two options:
- Have the building owner’s contractor make good of the damage
- Receive compensation to have your own contractor make good of the damage
Here at Stokemont Party Wall Surveying is something that we specialise in and we believe that any damages to adjoining owner’s property should be dealt with promptly and without delay as it is possible that this damage could worsen.
We understand that Party Wall damage can be a very worrisome time for adjoining owners. For this reason, we always ensure that the relevant procedures are implemented as soon as possible so that the adjoining owner’s property is prevented from further damage and the damage that has occurred is made good.
For our existing clients we have a party wall damage notification page which allows the adjoining owner to notify one of our surveyors directly of any damage with one click of a button. This will allow the surveyor to act upon the issue promptly without delay. Unfortunately, this service is currently only available to Stokemont’s clients, although, we are aiming to make this available for all in the near future.
If you are an adjoining owner who has recently suffered damage as a result of your neighbour’s construction works, there is no need to worry as our highly experienced team are on hand and would be delighted to assist.
If you are in a position where your neighbour has served you with a Party Wall Notice and you are unsure what to do next, we can always help you out as our team are highly qualified and experienced in this field. Do not hesitate to contact one of our team by clicking here.
