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Owners living next door to building works pay more attention to the condition of their property and may assume that those works are the cause of any cracks they find. That’s why it is so important to take a record of the condition prior to works commencing. If surveyors are appointed, they will prepare a schedule of condition but, even if an ... Read more >>

Where an adjoining owner suffers loss or damage as a result of works falling within the scope of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (the Act), and the statutory procedures have been followed, the Act provides a framework for how that damage should be made good or compensated for. Let me first explain why I included that “…and the statutory ... Read more >>

I’ve said many times during this series of posts covering party wall procedures that the Award is the document that resolves the dispute which arose when the notice(s) were dissented to so, as far as the surveyors are concerned, should that not be the end of the matter? Not always. Section 10 of the Act, the Section that deals with the ... Read more >>

Owners wishing to extend or alter their home often see the Party Wall Act as a bit of a headache or an opportunity for the neighbours to interfere with their plans.  The Act is actually designed to facilitate building works by conveying rights on owners allowing them execute certain works but sometimes it doesn't feel like that to an owner who ... Read more >>

If you’re familiar with party wall procedures you’ll know that the award is the document produced by the surveyor(s) to resolve the dispute which arose when an adjoining owner dissented to the notice(s) but that's not always the end of the story. The 6th Edition of the RICS template award included a clause stating that the surveyors ... Read more >>

Party wall procedures are built around a sequence laid down in the Act - the proposed work must one of the rights provided within the Act, those works must be formally notified to any affected adjoining owners and if the notices are dissented to, surveyors must be appointed to draw up an award authorising the works. Occasionally a building ... Read more >>

Section 10(12) of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 confirms that an award may cover the ‘time and manner of executing any work’. As one of the key principles of the Act is to avoid adjoining owners suffering unnecessary inconvenience, it is logical that the appointed surveyor(s) should have this power. This is the relevant clause from the RICS ... Read more >>

In an ideal world the appointed surveyors would have all the information they require available and be in a position to cover all aspects of the work in detail in the award but there are situations where that is either not possible or pragmatic. We refer to these as ‘reserved matters’ i.e. a matter where some additional information is required ... Read more >>

When a party wall award has been agreed it should be served on the owners without delay, or ‘forthwith’ as the authors of the Act put it, but how does that happen in practice? Until section 15 of the Act was amended by the Electronic Communications Act in 2016, all awards were generally served either by post or in person. The typical ... Read more >>

The next step in the party wall process after surveyors (or an Agreed Surveyor) have been appointed is the recording of the condition of the adjoining owner’s property; referred to as a schedule of condition. This is not part of the formal process, as in it’s not referred to anywhere within the Act, but it is routinely done and could prove ... Read more >>