The Party Wall etc Act 1996 requires property owners to notify their neighbours before carrying out certain types of building work that affects shared walls, boundaries, or involves excavation near neighbouring foundations. The formal document used to do this is called a party wall notice. Understanding how to serve one correctly protects you legally and keeps the project on schedule.
There are three types of notice under the Party Wall Act. A Party Structure Notice is required when work is planned on a party wall or party floor, such as removing a chimney breast, cutting in for beams, raising the height of the wall, or inserting a damp proof course. A Line of Junction Notice is required when you plan to build on or at the boundary with a neighbour, for example when building a new wall up to the boundary. A Three Metre Notice, sometimes called an Adjacent Excavation Notice, is required when you intend to excavate within three metres of a neighbouring building to a depth below the bottom of that building foundations.
A Party Structure Notice must be served at least two months before the planned start of party wall works. A Line of Junction Notice or Three Metre Notice must be served at least one month before the work begins.
The notice itself must be served in writing and must include the name and address of the building owner serving the notice, the address of the property where work is to be carried out, a description of the proposed works, and the intended start date. It is addressed to the adjoining owner, which means the owner of the neighbouring property, not just the occupier.
The neighbour then has fourteen days to respond. They can consent in writing, in which case the work can proceed without a surveyor. They can dissent, in which case each party appoints a surveyor or they agree on a single agreed surveyor. If they do not respond within fourteen days, they are deemed to have dissented and surveyors must be appointed.
Where surveyors are appointed, they produce a Party Wall Award, which is a legal document that sets out the rights and obligations of both parties, the works to be carried out, the schedule of condition of the neighbouring property before work begins, and the hours during which work can take place. The building owner pays the reasonable costs of the process.
RCB Design and Build serves party wall notices on behalf of our clients as part of the pre-construction process and coordinates with party wall surveyors where required.