In March 2026 we agreed a party wall award for the owner of a shop on a high street in Newham, east London. Next door, the building owner planned to raise the party wall, cut in steel beams, remove chimney breasts and underpin within three metres of our client’s building. The shop had to keep trading throughout.
A draft award is a starting point
Under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, each owner can appoint their own surveyor, and the two surveyors agree an award between them. The building owner’s surveyor usually prepares the first draft. The adjoining owner’s surveyor checks that the draft deals properly with the adjoining owner’s rights and the risks to their property before it is signed.
What we added
- A temporary works scheme and underpinning method statement, to be reviewed before any excavation.
- Insurance requirements for the contractor.
- Fixed working hours to suit a shop that was open for business.
- Controls on dust and noise.
- Protection for the shop roof under the scaffold, with photographs before and after.
- A correction to the access clause, which had a different period in two places.
Why the detail matters
Once an award is signed, it governs the work. A missing method statement or a vague clause on working hours is very hard to put right later. Every protection the adjoining owner needs has to be in the award before it is agreed.
Impartial, but thorough
A party wall surveyor acts impartially under the Act, whoever appoints them. The RICS professional standard Party wall legislation and procedure describes it as “a statutory appointment that is personal to the surveyor”. Impartial does not mean passive: it means making sure the award is fair, complete and workable for both owners.
For a plain English overview, see the government’s guide Party walls and building work and its explanatory booklet on the Act.
See our Party Wall Matters service.