We are going to be discussing section 2 of the Party Wall Etc Act 1996 (the Act) and delving into party wall matters through the eyes of a party wall surveyor, offering you an insight into the intricacies of the Act.
SECTION 2 OF THE ACT
This section of the Act refers to circumstances where one or more owners share a party wall or party fence wall. A party fence wall is the Act’s referral for a garden wall that separates two gardens.
Under section 2, the Act provides additional rights to a building owner who wishes to carry out work to an existing party wall or party fence wall beyond ordinary common law rights.
To provide insight into the rights available to a building owner under the Act, we have listed the most common section 2, sub-sections of the Act that works fall under:
Section 2(2)(a): to underpin, thicken or raise a party structure, a party fence wall, or an external wall which belongs to the building owner and is built against a party structure or party fence wall.
Section 2(2)(b): to make good, repair, or demolish and rebuild, a party structure or party fence wall in a case where such work is necessary on account of defect or want of repair of the structure or wall.
Section 2(2)(f): to cut into a party structure for any purpose (which may be or include the purpose of inserting a damp proof course).
Section 2(2)(g): to cut away from a party wall, party fence wall, external wall or boundary wall any footing or any projecting chimney breast, jamb or flue, or other projection on or over the land of the building owner in order to erect, raise or underpin any such wall or for any other purpose.
Section 2(2)(j): to cut into the wall of an adjoining owner’s building to insert a flashing or other weatherproofing of a wall erected against that wall.
Section 2(2)(n): to expose a party wall or party structure hitherto enclosed subject to providing adequate weathering.
Following on from Section 2 of the Act, Section 3 confirms and specifies the following:
Before exercising any right conferred on him by section 2 a building owner shall serve on any adjoining owner a notice (in this Act referred to as a “party structure notice”)
Therefore, as per above wording, the Act requires a building owner to notify any applicable neighbouring property owners known as adjoining owners under the Act by serving a Party Wall Notice upon them.
The Act also specifically confirms the timings for which a Party Wall Notice is to be served:
Section 3(2) confirms:
A party structure notice shall be served at least two months before the date on which the proposed work will begin
In short, this means that a building owner will need to plan ahead and ensure the legally required Party Wall Notice is served at least 2 months in advance of the planned works.
PARTY WALL NOTICES
We will now briefly touch on exactly what Party Wall Notices are.
These are statuary Notices which are in place to invoke the Party Wall etc Act 1996 upon an adjoining owner. The Notice will formally notify an adjoining owner of the building owner’s proposed and planned works.
In practice, Party Wall Notices should be simple in their form, the notification should also include sufficient information so that the adjoining owner can make a fully informed decision in response to the Party Wall Notice received.
PARTY WALL NOTICE RESPONSES
Once a Party Wall Notice is served, the adjoining owner has three formal response options available to them:
- Consenting to the works
- Dissenting, with the Agreement of an Agreed Surveyor
- Dissenting, with the appointment of an independent Surveyor
The selection of option 1 results in the conclusion of the Party Wall procedures. However, it should be worth noting that adjoining owner can still rely upon the Act further down the line if a dispute arises.
Following the selection of options 2 and 3, the next stage would be to arrange for access to the adjoining owner’s property for a Schedule of Condition Report to undertaken by the Party Wall Surveyor.
Following the Schedule of Condition Report, the Party Wall Surveyor would then agree a Party Wall Award, also commonly referred to as a Party Wall Award.