Summer is when many owners start the building work they have been planning all year. Loft conversions, rear extensions and alterations to terraced and semi detached houses often involve the wall shared with next door, or digging close to a neighbour’s foundations. Before work starts, you may have a legal duty to tell your neighbour. Getting this wrong can delay a project and sour a relationship that will last long after the builders have gone. This guide covers notices, awards, schedules of condition and the third surveyor.
When you need to serve notice
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies across England and Wales. In broad terms, you must serve notice if you plan to:
- Work on an existing party wall or structure. This includes cutting into it to take beams for a loft conversion, raising it, underpinning it, or removing chimney breasts attached to it. Notice must be served at least two months before work starts.
- Build a new wall on or at the boundary line. For example, the flank wall of a new extension built against the boundary. Notice must be served at least one month before work starts.
- Excavate near a neighbour’s building. Digging within three metres of their building to a depth below their foundations, or within six metres where the excavation would cut a line drawn down at 45 degrees from the bottom of their foundations. Notice must be served at least one month before work starts.
What happens after notice is served
For work to an existing party wall, or for excavation, your neighbour can consent in writing or dissent. If they dissent, or do not reply within 14 days, a dispute is deemed to have arisen. For a new wall on the boundary line, if your neighbour does not consent within 14 days the wall must be built wholly on your own land and at your own expense.
Where there is a dispute, both owners can agree on one surveyor, known as the agreed surveyor, or each owner can appoint their own. If an owner refuses to appoint a surveyor, or fails to do so within ten days of being asked, the other owner can make the appointment on their behalf. An adjoining owner who appoints their own surveyor is not starting a conflict. It means someone looks at the proposals from their side of the wall.
The party wall award
The surveyors settle the matters in dispute by an award. Where there is an agreed surveyor, that surveyor makes it; where each owner has appointed a surveyor, it is usually made by the two of them together. The Act allows an award to decide the right to carry out the work, the time and manner in which it is done, and any other matter arising from the dispute, including the costs of making the award. In practice it covers the method of work, protection for the neighbour’s property, access, working hours and fees. The building owner usually meets the reasonable costs of both surveyors.
What the schedule of condition records, and why
A schedule of condition is a written and photographic record of the parts of the adjoining property that could be affected by the works. It is usually prepared by the surveyors before work starts and attached to the award. The Act does not require one, but it is standard good practice and most awards include it. A good schedule records:
- existing cracks, with their length, width and location, in rooms and on elevations next to the works;
- sticking doors and windows, uneven floors and any signs of past movement;
- damp staining, loose plaster and the condition of decorations;
- garden walls, paths and boundary features close to the work;
- clear, dated photographs that can be matched to the written entries.
Under the Act, the building owner must compensate the adjoining owner and any adjoining occupier for loss or damage resulting from the works. Without a record of the condition before work began, it can be very hard to tell new damage from old, and that uncertainty leads to argument, delay and cost for both sides. With a careful schedule, the surveyors can revisit at the end of the works, compare the condition against the record, and agree what needs to be made good. Most claims are then settled quickly and on the evidence. The schedule serves both owners: the neighbour has clear evidence of what the works damaged, and the building owner is protected from claims for cracks that were there before work started.
The third surveyor
Under section 10 of the Act, where each owner appoints a surveyor, those two surveyors must straight away select a third surveyor. If one of them refuses, or fails to do so within ten days of a request from the other, the other surveyor can apply to the appointing officer designated by the local authority, who can then make the selection. In most matters the third surveyor is never called on, but having one named from the outset means a disagreement need not stall the work.
Either owner, or either surveyor, can refer a matter in dispute to the third surveyor. Common issues include:
- the method of work or the protection needed for the neighbour’s property;
- whether damage was caused by the works and what it will cost to put right;
- the reasonableness of fees;
- access arrangements and working hours.
The third surveyor considers the submissions and makes an award on the matters referred. Any award, whether made by an agreed surveyor, by the two surveyors or by the third surveyor, is conclusive, and the Act gives one way to challenge it in court: either owner may appeal to the county court within 14 days beginning with the day the award is served on them, and the court can rescind or modify the award. An owner unhappy with an award should take advice promptly.
Common mistakes
- Leaving notices until the builder is ready to start.
- Serving a notice for work to a party wall too far ahead. It ceases to have effect if the work has not begun within twelve months of service and is not being carried out with due diligence.
- Assuming that planning permission or building control approval covers party wall matters. It does not.
- Serving notice on only one owner when a property has several, such as a freeholder and a leaseholder.
- Starting work before an award is in place.
- Treating a party wall surveyor as an advocate. Party wall surveyors act under the Act, not for the owner who appointed them, and owners who understand this tend to reach agreement sooner.
Practical advice
If you are building:
- Talk to your neighbours early. Then serve proper notices well before you need to start, allowing time for surveyors to be appointed and an award agreed.
- Provide clear information. Drawings, structural details and a method statement answer most questions before they become disputes.
If your neighbour is building:
- Allow access. Let the surveyors in to record the rooms closest to the work. Refusing access only weakens your own position.
- Check the draft schedule. Point out anything that has been missed before the award is served.
- Keep your copy. It will be needed when the works finish, and possibly years later.
- Ask for a final inspection once the works are complete.
A clear notice and a fair process protect both sides.
The government publishes a free explanatory booklet on the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 for owners, which sets out the notices, time limits and the role of the surveyors in plain English.
See our Party Wall Matters service, and a later example where we dealt with two awards for two neighbours on one project.