Party wall issues? Here are a few advices: You must tell your neighbours if you want to carry out any building work near or on your shared property boundary, or ‘party wall’, in England and Wales. Party walls stand on the land of 2 or more owners and either: form part of a building, don’t form part of a building, such as a garden wall (not wooden fences). Walls on one owner’s land used by other owners (2 or more) to separate their buildings are also party walls. Party structures: You can also have a ‘party structure’. This could be a floor or other structure that separates buildings or parts of buildings with different owners, eg flats. Party wall agreements are different from planning permission or building regulations approval.
Party wall matters can cause a delay to the project, so this should be considered reasonably early in the design stage. Depending on the notice required you may need to inform your neighbours up to 2 months prior to your proposed start date. If the project is complex it may take some time for the surveyors to come to an agreement, or several awards may be required. The act does provide various mechanisms for non cooperation including non communication of adjoining owners and their surveyors, however there are also rights of appeal and referral to a third surveyor if necessary.
The Party Wall Act requires you to serve notice on any neighbours that may be affected by your planned works either 1 or 2 months in advance depending upon which type of notice it is. The first decision you have to make to be made is whether to serve the notice yourself or get a Party Wall Surveyor to do it for you. There are no prescribed forms for the notice so there is no reason why you should not do it yourself (there are some sample letters in Part 5 of the Party Wall leaflet) although if you are going to be appointing a surveyor later it would be better to get them to serve the notice as well.
At Home Heroes, we endeavour to provide a competitive service while attaining the highest standards of professional practice. Home Heroes although we are experienced Party Wall Surveyors, we understand that to you our clients the party wall act can be a pretty daunting experience and you have already probably been left nervous and confused, with compliance of the act. We are able to speak to you in plain English using familiar terms and sayings helping you to be put and ease and more importantly understand your obligations and rights under the act. Home Heroes Limited has experienced surveyors who are well placed to help you with your party wall requirements, be you the building owner, adjoining owner or even as an agreed surveyor. See more details at Party Wall Surveyor Whitstable.