This article is written to advise building owners of their legal requirements in the run up to construction works that fall within the realm of the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
A Party Wall Notice is a letter that is legally required for service to your neighbours (the adjoining owners) f your planned works fall under the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
If this is the case, then the planned works would be considered notifiable and you would have a statutory duty to serve them with a Party Wall Notice.
This notice informs the adjoining owner of the planned works that you would like to undertake.
PARTY WALL NOTICE LEGAL REQUIREMENT
If you are the one serving the Party Wall Notice, it is important to note that the Party Wall Notice will come with certain requirements that it has to meet in order to be considered valid.
These include;
- Citing the correct sections of the Act that notifiable works would fall under
- The details of the building owner
- The details of the adjoining owner
- Some Notices also require specific drawings included with them
Party Wall Notices also come with a minimum time that they need to be served within before the planned works could take place.
This timing hinging on the Act’s section that the works fall under, being either a minimum of one or two months in advance of the planned works.
HOW CAN AN ADJOINING OWNER RESPOND TO THE PARTY WALL NOTICE?
When and adjoining owner has received a Party Wall Notice this will open up three distinct response options for them.
PARTY WALL NOTICE RESPONSE 1
The first response option is to consent to the Party Wall matters.
This would be deemed as them consenting to the works and would bring the Party Wall procedures to close.
This means that if a dispute was to arise, it would then have to be dealt with by way of common law, or via the Act further down the line.
PARTY WALL NOTICE RESPONSE 2
The second response option and adjoining owner has to receiving a Party Wall Notice is to dissent and appoint an Agreed Surveyor.
This means there would be one Party Wall Surveyor who would oversee the Party Wall procedures in a fair and impartial manner looking at the planned works from the perspective of the adjoining owner’s property.
PARTY WALL NOTICE RESPONSE 3
The third and final response option would be for an adjoining owner to appoint their own Party Wall Surveyor.
The Surveyor would act similarly to option two, however there would be two Party Wall Surveyors each working together to best implement the Party Wall procedures and working together to decide upon a suitable Party Wall Award.
PARTY WALL NOTICE TIMINGS
Another important thing to consider when and adjoining owner receives a Party Wall Notice is that they only have a certain amount of response time available them.
When a Party Wall Notice is initially served, it will come with a total response time of 16 days, consisting of 14 statutory days with 2 days allowance for postage.
PARTY WALL NOTICE NON RESPONSE
If the first Party Wall Notice does not get responded to, then another Notice will have to be served to the adjoining owner.
This is referred to as a 10 (4) Notice, in which they would have a total of 12 days to respond to the second Party Wall Notice, consisting of 10 statutory days and a 2-day postage allowance.
If the second Party Wall Notice is not responded to this will be deemed as a dispute and would be treated as though the adjoining owner have dissented to the Party Wall Notice and would allow the building owner to choose a Party Wall Surveyor on their behalf.