party wall act

im just going through this with my neighbour. i intend to build an extension in the summer, has anyone got any advice and info about surveyors and their costs. thanksin advance

£100/hour for PW work is typical. And about 7 hours work if the award is straightforward. Much more if its not - or if the neighbour appoints his own surveyor, and much much more if a third surveyor is appointed.

And you typically pay it all!

Whatever you do, don't use the national firm of charlatans/chancers who scour the planning lists and send junk mail to try and drum up some work that way

You may be able to get the designer to act as the PW surveyor if he is experienced, and could negotiate a fixed fee

One school of thought is that the PWA just bumps up the building owners costs for little gain, so if you subscribe to this school of thought then you would only notify under the PWA if access is an issue or the neighbour is likely to be obstructive.

There are no penalties for not notifying under the PWA, and the neighbour has to get an injunction to force the PWA to be used.

im just about to go through this but am thinking of forgetting it. my next door nabour does not live there as she rents it out, not sure how often she visits either. but she is a solicitor. Is the PWA mainly due to the foundatuions being dug? once these are dug and filled is there no chance of an injucntion then? cheers

She would apply for an injunction to stop the works at whatever stage they are at, and then for the PWA to be applied or such investigation carried out to determine that the PWA does not apply. If the PWA did apply then the injunction would be granted

I'm not sure if there is any case law to determine what happens if the work which would have been under the PWA is complete (ie the foundations) - the ACT can not be applied retrospectively

^woody^ said:

£100/hour for PW work is typical. And about 7 hours work if the award is straightforward. Much more if its not - or if the neighbour appoints his own surveyor, and much much more if a third surveyor is appointed.

And you typically pay it all!

Whatever you do, don't use the national firm of charlatans/chancers who scour the planning lists and send junk mail to try and drum up some work that way

You may be able to get the designer to act as the PW surveyor if he is experienced, and could negotiate a fixed fee

One school of thought is that the PWA just bumps up the building owners costs for little gain, so if you subscribe to this school of thought then you would only notify under the PWA if access is an issue or the neighbour is likely to be obstructive.

There are no penalties for not notifying under the PWA, and the neighbour has to get an injunction to force the PWA to be used.

Click to expand...

hi woody im well down the route of the pwa act and am committed to it so i will go with it. i got some quotes today and the three quotes are between £1200-£1400 so i will have to pay double that. i was hoping to use one agreed surveyor but my neighbour wants her own. i was,nt bothered about that as long as he was impartial and reasonable and i would have agreed to him as a single surveyor but he wrote to me last night.
it was written to me but posted by hand from my neighbour about 9pm. no formal introduction ,saying the neighbours property was solid since 2002 when subsidence was put right but the man said that the neighbour required a full structural survey with photos before any work commences and all this without a site visit, in other words just repeating the neighbours wishes rather than acting in a impartial manner. he did,nt sign it and has acted as if it it was a done deal to use him without discussing costs i think its very unprofessional wat to act.
looks like these footings are going to be a struggle

Firstly there are strict procedural rules regarding appointment of surveyors, and I presume you have served notice under the relevant part of the Act and appointed your surveyor, and the neighbours have dissented by formal reply or non-reply, and then appointed their own surveyor within the required timescale?

With regards to costs, then the Act - section 10 (13), explicitly states that reasonable costs "of making or obtaining an award" should be paid according to the award made by the surveyors. Remember the reasonable bit.

Now, it is plain wrong for the neighbours' surveyor to state that "the neighbour requires a full structural survey" - that is the surveyors job to determine - both of them when appointed. Further, it does not require a "full survey" unless the work you propose is likely to influence the whole of the neighbours house. A partial survey if any, would do and anything more may be unreasonable. Make sure that the neighbour does not dictate what they want or what they think should be done

Further, only Structural Engineers do a "Structural Survey" and building surveyors do a "Building Survey (of condition)" - essentially these are the same thing. This is important as the PW surveyor should be competent to do a survey for the purposes of the Act, and should not engage any other person unless outside their expertise/competency. I see many PW surveyors try and sneak in costs for engineers/structural surveys, but in most cases these are not 'reasonable' and therefore the adjoining owner should pay for them.

Best advice to you now is watch the costs - you should have a fully itemised schedule of all the work done. And remind the surveyors that they work for the PW Act and not who appoints them

many thanks for your replies especially you woody, very informative.
talking with the neighbours and a big improvement in progress ,even a possibility of an agreed surveyor.,so my costs will be halved in that area

My old neighbour, I offered to put trelis up & remove a tree. He was as happy as larry, he just signed it. I wanted the trellis to stop future residence playing ball games up the wall. That was my concern