Adjoining Owner

This is the person or company who is the freeholder or leaseholder of the adjoining property. Also for the purposes of section 6 of the Act, a property shall be deemed to be adjoining if it is within the relevant distance even if it is not actually adjoining.

Award

An Award is a legal document prepared by the surveyor(s) and basically has four parts.

1. The sections of the Act that are applicable and the names and addresses of all the parties concerned. 2. The description of the works to be undertaken. 3. The duties and rights of the two owners. 4. The conclusion with signatures and dates.

Building Control Body

Local authority or approved inspector

Building Owner

This is the person or company that is proposing to undertake the works and is either the freeholder or has a lease for longer than one year.

Line of Junction

This is simply another name for boundary. It is the meeting point or junction of land or properties in different ownerships.

Notices

A Notice is simply the Building Owner informing the Adjoining Owner the works he proposes to undertake.

Party Structure

This is a wider term, which could be a wall or partition or other structure separating buildings or parts of buildings approached by separate staircases or entrances such as flats.

Party Wall

This is a wall that is commonly shared between Owners.

Party Wall Surveyor

This is the person that is appointed by the Building Owner or Adjoining Owner to resolve the dispute between the parties. (The parties being the Building Owner and Adjoining Owner)

Each party may appoint their own chosen surveyor or each party may agree to use the same surveyor. In such a case the surveyor is simply known as the ‘Agreed Surveyor’.

Schedule of Condition

This is simply taking a record of the condition of the Adjoining Owner’s property before the work starts. It is usually done by describing the walls, floors and ceilings, or indeed any other parts that may be affected by the works such as the garden fence or planting, in writing. These notes are usually supported by photographs. Recording a Schedule of Condition is not a requirement of the Act but it is most prudent to do so and Party Wall Surveyors would advise this.

If however an Adjoining Owner does not wish this to be done then an Award may be drawn up without it, but in the event that damage occurs it may be difficult to prove that the damage is attributable to the works. It is therefore highly advised that such a record is made.

In its simplest form, a wall is a Party Wall if it is shared by one or more properties. But to be more specific we can categorise them into three different types:

1. They can stand astride the boundary of land (known as the line of junction) belonging to two or more owners.

For example:

2. A wall is also a Party Wall if it stands wholly on one owners’ land, but is used by two or more owners to separate their buildings. Floors or walls between flats are ‘party structures’.

For example:

3. Party Fence Wall. These are boundary walls dividing the property of two separate owners built on, or up to, the line of junction but not forming part of a building. Party fence walls are made of brick, so a fence made of panels are not party walls.

For example:

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (the Act) affects virtually all residential, commercial and industrial property and land in England and Wales. It gives additional rights to building owners planning certain construction works. It also ensures adjoining neighbours are informed and protected during these works.

The Act supersedes common law and provides a framework to resolve disputes between parties without using law courts.

Here is a useful video on YouTube that explains further. The content is not created, owned or monitored by Resolve Party Wall Surveyors:

Before starting any works that are related to a party wall, the Building Owner needs to serve Notice to all affected neighbours. The Act sets out how much notice is needed.

Failure to follow the provisions of the Party Wall Act may result in the works being unlawful.

If you receive a notice from your neighbour you should reply to it in writing within 14 days of receiving it. You do not need to appoint a professional adviser to respond to the notice on your behalf.

You can consent to or disagree with what is proposed.

Section 1 Notice: If you do not respond to a notice about an intended new wall built up to (but not astride) the line of junction, the work can commence after the one month notice period.

If you do not respond, in writing, within 14 days to a notice about an intended new wall built astride the line of junction (a party wall), the Building Owner must build the wall entirely on his own land. The work can commence after the one month notice period.

Section 3 or 6 Notices: If you receive a notice about work to an existing party structure, or a notice about excavations within 3 or 6 metres of your foundations, and you have not responded, in writing, within a period of 14 days from receipt of the notice, a dispute is deemed to have arisen.

If you disagree with the work described in a notice under the Act it may be helpful to explain why. The Building Owner can then consider your objection and perhaps amend his proposal. Agreement might then be reached, without the need to use the formal dispute resolution procedure.

No. Adjoining Owners should note that the primary purpose of the Act is to facilitate development. When an Adjoining Owner dissents to works being served, it is not a power of veto but an opportunity to have a say about the time and manner of the works. This means that a Building Owner can continue with his planned works.

There is one exception where an Adjoining Owner does have the power of veto. They may decline to allow a new party wall to be built that sits astride the line of junction; or simply put, any new wall that trespasses onto their land. Under the Act you cannot impose a Type A new party wall on anyone else. The wall in question can be seen as such:

Here is a real life example: A Building Owner wishes to build a single story extension at the rear of his house. He wants to extend the party wall (Type A) from the house into his garden which means that the wall is half on his land and half of the neighbours. The neighbour (Adjoining Owner) can veto this proposal as he doesn’t want any wall on his land. The Building Owner changes his design and builds the wall wholly on his side of the line of junction and can continue with his extension after the one month notice period has elapsed. The veto did not stop the planned building works, only the encroachment onto the neighbours land.

Real life example B) in the same scenario the neighbour (Adjoining Owner) may decide that allowing the wall to be built is a good idea because the new Type A party wall could form the wall he needs to build his own extension in the future. As it is a new party wall he would have rights to build against it (enclose) and cut into, cut away, or any other legally defined acts of construction.

The Act contains no enforcement procedures for failure to serve a notice. However, if your neighbour or a builder carrying out work on your neighbour’s behalf starts work, without having first given notice in the proper way, you may seek to stop the work through a court injunction or seek other legal redress. You may wish to take professional or legal advice before commencing such action.

Remember, this only applies to notifiable works related to the Party Wall Act.

No. Under the Act, an Adjoining Owner and/or occupier must, when necessary, let in your workmen and your own surveyor or designer etc., to carry out works in pursuance of the Act (but only for those works), and allow access to any surveyor appointed as part of the dispute resolution procedure.

You must give the Adjoining Owner and occupier notice of your intention to exercise these rights of entry. The Act says that 14 days’ notice must be given, except in case of emergency. If access is necessary to carry out the notified works you may wish to include this requirement in the notice that you serve when seeking consent to carry out the works, so as to avoid any dispute in this respect at a later stage when work is underway.

It is an offence, which can be prosecuted in the magistrates’ court, for the occupier or other person to refuse entry to or obstruct someone who is entitled to enter premises under the Act, if the first-mentioned person knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the latter person is entitled to be there.

If the adjoining property is closed (for example an unoccupied property) your workmen and your own surveyor or designer etc. may enter the premises by breaking open a fence or door, if they are accompanied by a police officer after following the Act’s procedures.

You should discuss access for works with your neighbour. It is often in the best interests of the Adjoining Owner to allow access voluntarily to build a wall or to carry out works for which there is no statutory right of access, as this will allow a better finish to the side of the wall that they will see.

The surveyor (or surveyors) will settle the dispute by making an ‘award’ (also known as a ‘party wall award’). This is a document which sets out :

• The work that will be carried out
• When and how the work is to be carried out (to limit times of noisy work for instance)
• Specifies any additional work required (protective measures to prevent damage for instance)
• It usually contains a record of the condition of the adjoining property before the work begins. This is desirable as it can assist in identifying and attributing any damage to adjoining properties for instance.
• Access rights to the neighbours property under Section 8 of the Act.

The Party Wall Award is the final piece of documentation in the process. It sets out the agreement reached by the surveyor or surveyors of the matters that were in dispute under the Act. A Party Wall Award is a legal binding document.

Once issued, the Building owner or the Adjoining Owner have the right to appeal an Award within 14 days of it being served by applying to the County Court. If no appeal is made, the Party Wall Award is binding and conclusive and cannot be questioned by any Court.

Usually the Building Owner will pay all costs associated with drawing up the award including the adjoining owner’s surveyor’s fees, if the works are solely for the Building Owner’s benefit.

However, in certain circumstances where work is necessary due to defect or need of repair the adjoining owner may have to pay costs. In these circumstances the costs are split based on the use each owner has of the structure or wall concerned and responsibility for the defect or need of repair if more than one owner makes use of the structure or wall concerned.

The surveyor (or surveyors) will decide who pays the fees for drawing up the award and for checking that the work has been carried out in accordance with the award.

Resolve Party Wall Surveyors offers advice and support throughout the process. Acting in a client-based relationship, they can act on behalf of the Building Owner to serve the correct notices to make them compliant to the Act.

If a dispute has arisen, Resolve can also work as a statutory appointed surveyor to adjudicate between the neighbours and serve an Award to settle the dispute.

It is important to note that when a surveyor acts as in statutory role to settle a dispute, they are no longer answerable to the Building Owner, nor the Adjoining Owner. The surveyor adheres to the Act and acts impartially, and not in favour to the person paying their fee.

Resolve is happy to work as an “Agreed surveyor” on behalf of both parties, or as surveyor for either the Building or Adjoining Owner.

No. The Act does not contain any provision that could be used to settle a boundary line dispute.

Such disputes can be resolved through the courts or through alternative dispute resolution procedures (which may be simpler, quicker and cheaper), for example mediation, decision by an independent expert or arbitration.

No. If no dispute arises there is no requirement under the Act to appoint a surveyor.

The Act is separate from planning or building regulations control. Therefore, even if a building owner has planning permission and/or building regulations approval, they should still go through the proper procedures with their adjoining owners under the Act. However, not all work covered by the Act will require planning permission and/or building regulations approval.