A Party Wall notice is formal notification served upon the Adjoining Owners before works are carried out under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 (the Act).
The Notice outlines certain proposed works to the Party Wall, Party fence wall, party structure, horizontal floors or ceilings separating two different properties. The Act also covers excavations in certain situations and at certain distances and depths to properties that are up to 3 or 6 metres away.
Before works commence all applicable notices must be formally served and the Adjoining Owners given a timescale to respond as determined by the Act.
The wording of the Act requires notices need to be specific to the property where the proposed notifiable works are to be undertaken. In certain situations, section drawings of excavations showing location, width and depth are a requirement of the Act and could be deemed invalid if not included with the notice served. A site plan must also be included.
We strongly recommend, given the pertinent information required to be included in a Notice, that you only employ an experienced Party Wall Surveyor to draft the notices in the correct format which is thus considered to be valid. If the notice was deemed invalid this would delay matters and increase costs.
It should be noted that a Party Wall notice cannot be served retrospectively even in the situation where notifiable works under the Act have commenced or even completed. For this reason, notices should be served at an expedient point in time to lessen the risk of delays to notifiable works, costly augments or allegations of damage.
At Certified Building Surveyors we have a six strong team specialising in Party Wall matters in an independent and impartial manner.
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