The correct response to a party wall notice

The correct response to a party wall notice

The correct response to a party wall notice.

As you grow your property portfolio you will doubtless at some stage receive a party wall notice from a neighbour detailing works that they propose to undertake to their property and which may affect yours.

Notice under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 should be served where the proposed works involve the construction of a new wall on the boundary line, works are proposed to a wall shared with a neighbour or where excavations (normally for foundations or drainage) are proposed within 3 metres of a neighbours structure.

It is important that you receive any notice about works which could affect your property and so you must ensure that your chosen correspondence addresses are up to date with the Land Registry. Your neighbours Party Wall Surveyor is only obliged to ensure that the notice is correctly served to the address as noted on Land Registry. They are not under an obligation to ensure you have received it.

The service of the notice on you is actually a positive step as it means that the neighbours works will invoke the Party Wall etc Act and as such you are covered by the various sections of the Act which include for compensation and dispute resolution. Indeed the whole process will likely be at your neighbours expense and be at no cost to you.

Once you have received the notice you have a period of 14 days to respond. Your options are broadly threefold. Where you have no issues with the proposed works you can sign in consent of them and upon receipt of your signed consent form, your neighbour can start their work.

The alternative is that you dissent the notice and this will trigger the preparation and service of a Party Wall Award by surveyors. Within the dissent option you have the option to use your neighbours surveyor as an “Agreed Surveyor” between the parties or alternatively you may appoint your own Surveyor who will work with the neighbours surveyor to agree the terms of the Award.

Regardless of which option you take you will retain the rights and protections of the Party Wall Act however if you consent then an Award, which is a document which provides for the various protections ad safeguards considered necessary by surveyors to minimise the risk of damage to your property and the inconvenience that may occur during construction works, will not be produced.

Regardless of how you respond to the notice, I would suggest that you avail yourself of your neighbours surveyors offer to undertake a schedule of condition of your property prior to the works commencing. This is a very useful document in proving that damage caused by the neighbours works was not pre-existing and it will reduce the chance of you and your neighbour entering into a dispute at a later stage.

If you fail to provide a written response to the notice within the 14 day time period, then your neighbour will be required to serve a further notice giving you a further period of 10 days within which to respond and as necessary appoint a Surveyor. If this 10 day notice is not responded to then your neighbour may appoint a surveyor for you in order that the formal process can proceed.

It is, in my opinion, advantageous to engage at an early stage. In some circumstances you have the ability to serve a counter notice requiring your neighbour to undertake works which will benefit you and this option may be lost if you fail to respond. Alternatively, if your neighbour is proposing an extension or loft conversion and you think you may undertake something similar in the future, then it is possible that you could use your neighbours new wall provided it is constructed astride the boundary line. For these reasons it makes sense to respond to your neighbour in a timely fashion.

You should also be aware that if your neighbours proposed works are notifiable under the Party Wall Act and they fail to serve you with a notice, then you will not have the protections of the Act in the event of damage to your property. In such circumstances you would have to pursue matters via a potentially slow and expensive process under common law.  Accordingly if the Act applies and your neighbour is intent on not complying with it then you should consider taking legal advice to ascertain whether it would be prudent to apply for an injunction to halt the neighbours works pending their compliance with the legislation.

Of course if you receive notice and are unsure what to do, then you can contact a party wall surveyor in your area for some no obligation advice.