Party Wall FAQs

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (‘The Act’) is a framework for the management of disputes between two adjoining owners when building works are taking place, involving specific “notifiable” works that are set out within the Act. The purpose of the Act is to ensure that building work that is undertaken by one neighbour does not structurally undermine the neighbouring property in any way.

A Party Wall is a shared wall between two adjoining owners, which separates two separately rented or owned properties.

No. Whilst the Act deals with Party Walls, which can be defined either as a wall sitting equally on the land between two owners or a wall that has been previously enclosed upon, it also deals with a structure which separates two ownerships, such as a floor/ceiling between two flats. Adjacent Excavation is also covered under the Act, which relates to an excavation which has the potential to undermine an adjoining owners’ foundations. Certain distances are set out within Section 6 of the Act as to where this applies.

It is compulsory for a building owner undertaking notifiable works, to serve a valid notice upon their adjoining owner. The adjoining owner has an option to consent or dissent to the notice, which in turn leads to the agreement either in the form of a consent, or through the process of serving an Award.

Whilst you do not technically require a surveyor to serve a notice, it is advised that you seek assistance to ensure that the notice contains the minimum level of information to ensure validity. If your notice is deemed invalid, then it can void the process. Once a notice is served then an involvement by a surveyor will be determined by your neighbour’s response. If they choose to consent, then you may decide that you wish to have a surveyor record a schedule of condition of their property to safeguard both parties. This is however not mandatory. If they dissent to the works, then they can agree to the use of the same surveyor, known as the Agreed Surveyor, or they can request their own party, to which you would also need to appoint a surveyor to act for yourself as the building owner.

No, you should not need a solicitor during a party wall process as the procedures that the Act sets out are dealt with by a surveyor. The Act is designed to prevent disputes between owners and provides a framework to be followed and actioned by surveyors.

No. Boundary disputes cannot be dealt with under the process of a Party Wall Agreement and should be dealt with separately to your dispute. The owners must mutually agree upon the position of a boundary if this is not clear within the title documents of the property, otherwise must be resolved through the courts. A party wall agreement can set out the rights of the owners and obligations for the notifiable works without knowing a true boundary position, however, will not dictate the true boundary line.

Typically, the fees of a party wall surveyor are met by the building owner, the owner instigating the building works, however this can vary dependant upon the purpose of the notifiable work. In some instances where work is carried out on account of a defect to a shared structure, the building owner can request that the costs be split between the owner’s dependant on the use of the wall, or the responsibility for the defect concerned. In the event of a dispute, the surveyors will determine the fair split of the fees.

An Award transfers to any subsequent adjoining owners, providing that it remains valid, however it is unable to transfer to a new building owner if they change ownership. If this is the case, then the award is void and the process must recommence in the name of the new building owner.

Your Content Goes HereFirstly, it is important to establish whether your neighbour is undertaking any works which are notifiable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (‘The Act’). Regardless, you should seek to speak with them at the earliest opportunity to discuss their proposals and make them aware that Notices will be required where they are intending to undertake any works which fall under the Act. Further guidance on what these are can be found here.

Should you establish that your neighbour has commenced with notifiable works, then you should immediately ask that they cease with the works until a formal agreement is put in place. Case Law dictates that the Party Wall process cannot be used formally where all notifiable matters have been completed, and therefore any damages that have been caused (if so), would need to be dealt with through Common Law. Should your neighbour refuse to cease work, then they should be advised that you are entitled to raise an injunction against the works; and at this stage you should seek further legal advice.

If the notifiable matters have commenced, but not been completed, you should ask them to cease work and immediately serve Notice for the remaining notifiable matters. Once Notice has been served, the Party Wall process resumes as you require, in the event of a dispute, in accordance with Section 10.

If you have any concerns over the safety and security of yourself, your occupiers or your property during the works, then you should consider dissenting to a Notice and appointing a Surveyor to the matter.

As with all matters under the Act, the Surveyors only have jurisdiction over notifiable works and therefore any concerns over the safety of work in general should be further referred to the main contractor, appointing owner or even the Local Authority to pursue.

In the event of a dispute, the appointed Surveyors shall ensure that the Award sets out safe methods of working which relate to the notifiable works, and in the event of a structurally complex scheme may even appoint a third-party structural engineer on an advisory basis, to review and comment on the building owners’ proposals.

Should you have concerns about the safeguarding of your property, as the adjoining owner you have a right under Section 12 of the Act to serve notice upon the building owner to give security as may be agreed between yourselves, or in the event of a dispute, between the two surveyors. This typically takes the form of monetary security placed in an escrow or solicitors account for an amount as is agreed between the parties or surveyors which may place you back into the position you were in prior to the works; should any damages be caused, or the works cease mid-way. The amount can vary from matter to matter and should be considered carefully by the owners before making the request.

There are several ways in which “light” plays a part in future development.

The first is daylight and sunlight considerations within the planning process which requires the developing party to demonstrate to the local authority that an adverse impact will not arise to any neighbouring owner because of your neighbours’ development. The criteria to establish whether an adverse impact is caused, is explained in the BRE Guide “Site layout planning for daylight and sunlight – A guide to good practice” (Third Edition 2022). Daylight and Sunlight can be specific to light received within dwellings or the amount of sunlight received on gardens/amenity.

If you have any concerns about a potential loss of daylight and sunlight to your property, then it is suggested that your first port of call would be to review the online planning portal for the development site and download the daylight and sunlight report presented as part of the submission documents. If your property is considered in this document, then you should carefully review the impacts and the conclusions within that report should determine how significant the loss of light to your property would be. Depending on the level of impact, this may form the basis of any intended objection to the application. However, conversely, it may also help to alleviate any concerns that you may have particularly if only minor impacts are noted.

Although, if the daylight and sunlight report is missing from the planning portal, and that you believe your property is close enough to warrant an assessment being carried out, then it is suggested that you contact the planning officer to establish why an assessment was not provided as part of the application.

It should be noted that whilst there is usually a requirement for daylight and sunlight assessments to be carried out, it is not always requested by the local authority, particularly on smaller scale sites. The requirement to carry out a detailed assessment is not planning policy, rather it is simply guidance. This means that it will be at the local authorities’ discretion whether such assessment shall be asked for. They can also grant consent even though adverse impacts are noted as they may take a balanced view whilst considering other overarching benefits of a scheme.

The second is a common law right referred to as “rights of light”. This is an easement that allows you to receive sufficient natural light through a defined apertures over the developing land.

The first question should be – do your apertures have a right to light? You can take some initial steps yourself to establish this prior to getting expert advice on this matter. The first is understand the age of your apertures and how long they have been in place for. This could be quite easy to establish, particularly if you have owned the property for many years. However, if not, you may have access to either historic online photos or planning records that may give you an idea. The second is to review your title documents to see if there are any obvious legal agreements between the two sites that refer specifically to “light”.

The reason being, under Section 3 of the Prescription Act 1832 the easement will usually arise following 20 years without interruption to the said aperture. So, if you have established that your apertures are old enough and that there are no specific agreements on title, then it is likely that you have acquired a right to light.

However, if your apertures are younger than 20 years old, then rights can still transfer between old and new windows if there is a degree of overlap between the old and new apertures. So, you should not completely rule out rights of light unless you are sure that no windows were positioned in a similar position previously.

Once you have established whether a right exists, it is essential that you speak to an expert practitioner so they can advise you on the conduct of communication between both parties and how best to establish whether there will be any legal infringement to the rights that you have established. If it is established that an infringement occurs, then the remedy in court is either an injunction or damages in lieu of an injunction. However, more usually, compensation will be agreed between both parties with the help of surveyors acting for either party.

If you have any concerns over the safety and security of yourself, your occupiers or your property during the works, then you should consider dissenting to a Notice and appointing a Surveyor to the matter.

As with all matters under the Act, the Surveyors only have jurisdiction over notifiable works and therefore any concerns over the safety of work in general should be further referred to the main contractor, appointing owner or even the Local Authority to pursue.

In the event of a dispute, the appointed Surveyors shall ensure that the Award sets out safe methods of working which relate to the notifiable works, and in the event of a structurally complex scheme may even appoint a third-party structural engineer on an advisory basis, to review and comment on the building owners’ proposals.

Should you have concerns about the safeguarding of your property, as the adjoining owner you have a right under Section 12 of the Act to serve notice upon the building owner to give security as may be agreed between yourselves, or in the event of a dispute, between the two surveyors. This typically takes the form of monetary security placed in an escrow or solicitors account for an amount as is agreed between the parties or surveyors which may place you back into the position you were in prior to the works; should any damages be caused, or the works cease mid-way. The amount can vary from matter to matter and should be considered carefully by the owners before making the request.

Irrespective of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, contractors have a duty to comply with Local Authority hours for noisy working, which are always set out on the governing authorities’ websites. In the event of a dispute arising, the surveyor(s) involved will dictate to the building owner when they may complete noisy or disruptive operations which are in relation to the notifiable matters. These will be agreed and documented with the Party Wall Award.

In some instances, surveyors may request that environmental monitoring takes place, in the form of noise and vibration monitoring. Whilst it is usual for structural movement monitoring to be requested by a surveyor, environmental monitoring may be instructed on particularly invasive projects, or in instances where the notifiable works pose a high risk of causing disturbance to surround buildings, owners, and occupiers.

Section 8 of the Act sets out the rights of entry for the completion of notifiable matters. Once again, a right of entry under the Act only applies for notifiable matters and cannot be used to gain access for anything outside of this.

To invoke the rights under Section 8 which allows a building owner, his servants, agents, and workman to enter any land or premises for the purpose of executing any work in pursuance of this Act, a building owner must serve a notice not less than fourteen days, ending on the day of the proposed entry.

Refusal for entry, after the applicable notice must then be dealt with through necessary legal channels.

The commencement of notifiable works must firstly be considered against the relevant statutory periods set out by the respective Notices. No matters can commence inside of those notice periods without the express consent of the adjoining owners. Secondly, in the event of a dispute, the building owner must not commence notifiable matters until the award has been served. Section 10(17) of the Act sets out a period of 14 days to enable either of the parties to appeal against the award within the County Court, and therefore it is recommended that notifiable works do not commence until expiration of this period.

As set out in question 5 (check when configured on website) above, Section 8 entitles a building owner, his servants, agents and workman a legal right to access any land required to undertake works in pursuance of the Act. The building owner must ensure that the relevant notification is provided with at least 14 days’ notice of their intention to access.

If either of the above have previously been agreed in the form of an Award, which has not been subject to a successful appeal, then the Award can be enforced through a legal process. If you had previously consented to the works and agreed terms upon receipt of a valid Party Wall Notice, then you have the right to refer the matter to a surveyor under Section 10 and commence proceedings as a dispute under the Act. At this stage the surveyor or two surveyors shall agree the recourse either as a matter of making good, or payment in lieu of the damages and document within a Party Wall Award. Equally, a share of the defrayment of costs can also be dealt with in this manner.

Please refer to our Complaints Procedure