The situation
A homeowner in Loughton, in the Epping Forest district of Essex, planned an extension with a sub-basement. The new foundations would be dug within three metres of two neighbouring houses and below their foundations, which made the work notifiable under section 6 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, even though neither house shared a wall with the site.
The brief
Avalon was appointed as building owner’s surveyor. The owner needed the notices served correctly and the awards agreed, so the build could go ahead, at a cost that stayed in proportion to a single family home.
What we did
- Notices servedAdjacent excavation notices served on both neighbours, with the plans the Act requires.
- Third surveyor selectedCandidates put forward and a third surveyor agreed with the neighbours’ surveyor at the start.
- Schedules of conditionBoth neighbouring houses inspected and recorded before work began.
- Scope negotiatedThe neighbours’ surveyor sought an advising engineer, extensive monitoring and wider schedules. Each point was argued on its merits, and groundwater concerns were confirmed as outside the surveyors’ remit.
- Two awards agreedOne for each neighbour, setting the controls the work would follow.
The RICS standard
The work followed the RICS professional standard Party wall legislation and procedure. Once a dispute has arisen under section 10, the surveyors’ appointments stand until the award is made.
For owners, the government’s guide Party walls and building work and its explanatory booklet explain the Act in plain English.
Acting for the building owner means getting the work started, not conceding every request the other side makes.
The outcome
Two awards were signed about nine months after instruction. The awards required an independent engineer to confirm the design and method statements before work started, movement monitoring, insurance, fixed working hours and as built drawings. The neighbours confirmed they would not seek security for expenses.
