Building Owner

In general, he must serve a formal notice on the Adjoining Owner telling him what is going on. Notices must be served either one month or two months before work is due to start (depending on the proposed work).

If the Local Authority have served a Dangerous Structures Notice, the Building Owner does not have to serve a Party Structures Notice for work he is compelled to do by the Local Authority. If he chooses to do more, then he must serve notice in respect of the additional work.

The Act confers rights to do work to a party wall, subject to first serving notice on "any adjoining owner". The Act defines an adjoining owner as "any owner of land, buildings, storeys or rooms adjoining those of the building owner". It appears that you need to serve notice on any owner whose storeys or rooms adjoin the party wall even if they do not physically adjoin at the point where the work is taking place.

You may wonder how relevant it is to serve notice on someone two storeys below for, say, cutting in a flashing at roof level. It is for this reason that many surveyors suggest serving notice on the adjoining owners whose flats are immediately adjacent to the work and perhaps one storey higher or lower, but possibly not on others who are more remote.

At least one or two months before the planned start date (depending on the proposed work- refer also to our flowcharts on this website, or feel free to contact us.

The Notice is only valid for a year from the date of serving.

No, so long as the Adjoining Owner(s) agree in writing.

Only by obtaining the agreement of the Adjoining Owner.

Generally speaking, the Building Owner pays the costs of the work and all the surveyors' fees. However, there are provisions for certain costs to be borne by the Adjoining Owner as well, such as:

Where a new party fence wall is built, then generally the costs are shared between the Owners equally, otherwise the Building Owner builds the wall in his own land and it is their wall, the Adjoining Owner having no rights in it.

If the Adjoining Owner has already raised the party wall and the Building Owner now wishes to enclose on it, they must pay the Adjoining Owner a proportion of the present cost of building the wall.

Where a party structure has to be rebuilt because of a lack of maintenance, the costs are usually shared equally.

The Building Owner can place mass concrete foundations in the adjoining land without compensating the Adjoining Owner but not reinforced concrete foundations.

The Building Owner must pay the Adjoining Owner for any losses or damage caused by their exercise of their rights under the Act. Just being next to a building site does not count, but if the works materially affected the Adjoining Owner's business, they might well have a justified claim. Any physical damage done to the adjoining property must either be made good by the Building Owner or they must pay a proper sum to the Adjoining Owner to allow them to have the damage made good.