Guide

Do I need a party wall agreement?

Probably, if your work touches a shared wall, sits on the boundary, or digs deep near next door. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 makes it your duty to serve written notice on your neighbour before you start — two months ahead for work to a party wall, one month for boundary walls and excavation.

The short answer

There is no such thing as a "party wall application".

You do not apply to anyone and the council has nothing to do with it. What the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 requires is that you serve a written notice on the neighbours affected, and then either they consent in writing, or a party wall surveyor (or two) settles the terms in a document called an award.

The Act runs in England and Wales. It applies to a great deal of ordinary domestic work — a rear extension on a semi in Caterham, a loft conversion in Purley, taking out a chimney breast in an Oxted terrace, underpinning in Redhill. If you own a detached house and the work is nowhere near the boundary, the Act very likely does not touch you at all.

The Act does not stop work happening. It sets out how it happens, and who pays if something goes wrong.

The three kinds of work the Act covers

1. Work to an existing party wall or party structure (section 2). A party wall is one that stands on the land of two different owners — the wall between two semis, or between terraced houses. A party structure also covers a floor separating flats reached by separate entrances. The Act gives you specific rights over it, including to underpin, thicken or raise it; to demolish and rebuild it where it is defective or not strong enough; to cut into it for any purpose, which is how a steel beam for a loft conversion takes its bearing; and to cut away a chimney breast, jamb or flue.

2. Building on or at the line of junction (section 1). This is new building on the boundary itself where the land either side is not already built on — a new flank wall of an extension, or a new garden wall. It covers building astride the line, and building wholly on your own land right up against it.

3. Excavating near a neighbouring building (section 6). Two separate rules, and you only need to trip one:

The 3 metre rule. You propose to excavate within three metres, measured horizontally, of any part of a neighbour's building or structure, and any part of your excavation will go deeper than the bottom of their foundations.
The 6 metre rule. You propose to excavate within six metres, and your excavation will cut a line drawn downwards at 45 degrees from the bottom outside edge of their foundations. This one catches deep work — piles, a basement, a deep drainage run — further out than people expect.

Standard extension footings next to a Victorian terrace with shallow foundations very often trigger the 3 metre rule. It is worth checking before you dig, not after.

How long before you start

The periods are fixed in the Act and are minimums, not guidance.

Two months for a party structure notice — work to an existing party wall or party structure under section 2.
One month for a line of junction notice under section 1, and for an excavation notice under section 6.

The notice must give your name and address, the address of the building, a full description of what you propose to do, and the date the work will begin. An excavation notice must also say whether you propose to underpin or otherwise strengthen your neighbour's foundations, and come with plans and sections showing the site and depth of the dig.

A notice is only good for a year. If the work has not started within twelve months of service, and is not then carried on with due diligence, the notice lapses and you serve again. Notice can go by post, delivered by hand, or by email only where the adjoining owner has said they are willing to receive it that way.

One point that catches people out: "adjoining owner" is not only the freeholder. Leaseholders count too. Tenants on short lets of a year or less do not.

What your neighbour can do next

They have three choices, and the clock is fourteen days from the day the notice was served.

Consent in writing. The matter ends there. No surveyor, no award, no fees. Get it in writing and keep it — a verbal yes over the garden fence is worth nothing later.

Dissent. A dispute is deemed to have arisen and surveyors are appointed. Dissenting is not hostile and does not mean they object to the work; plenty of neighbours dissent purely so the job is recorded properly.

Say nothing. Silence is not consent. Under sections 5 and 6 of the Act, an owner who does not serve a notice of consent within fourteen days is deemed to have dissented, and a dispute is deemed to have arisen. The one exception is a line of junction notice: if they do not consent to a wall astride the boundary within fourteen days, you may still build, but only at your own expense and wholly on your own land.

On a section 2 notice, a neighbour also has one month to serve a counter notice asking you to build in extra works for their own convenience — flues, piers, recesses, deeper foundations. You must comply unless doing so would be injurious to you, cause unnecessary inconvenience, or unnecessarily delay your job. They pay for the extras.

The party wall award, and who pays for it

Once a dispute is deemed to exist, the owners either appoint one agreed surveyor between them, or each appoints their own, and those two then select a third surveyor to settle anything they cannot agree. If one owner refuses or neglects to appoint a surveyor for ten days after being asked in writing, the other may appoint one on their behalf so the job can move.

The appointments must be in writing and cannot afterwards be rescinded. A surveyor does not act as your representative even if you appointed and paid them — under the Act they must act impartially and reach a fair award.

The award sets out the right to carry out the work, the time and manner of doing it, and any other matter arising out of the dispute, including costs. In practice it says what can be built, the hours, access arrangements, and how any damage will be put right.

Costs. The general rule in the Act is that the building owner — the one doing the work — pays the expenses, because the work is for their benefit. Where a party wall is being repaired because it is defective or has not been maintained, costs are split between the owners in proportion to the use each makes of it and to who is responsible for the defect. Surveyors' fees for making the award are paid by whichever party the surveyors determine. There is no statutory scale and fees vary, so ask for them in writing before you appoint.

Either owner has fourteen days from the date the award is served on them to appeal it in the county court.

The schedule of condition, and why both sides want one

Before work starts, the surveyor normally walks the neighbouring property and records its condition in writing and in photographs — existing cracks in the plaster, a dropped door, a hairline in the render, the lot. That record is the schedule of condition, and it is usually attached to the award.

It is not strictly required by the Act, but the government's own guidance says it is most prudent to do one, because without it, if damage does appear, it can be very hard to prove whether the works caused it.

Read that both ways. It protects the neighbour, because a genuine new crack is obvious against the record. It protects you just as much, because the crack that was already there in the photographs is not something you can be asked to make good.

Separately, the Act says a building owner must not exercise their rights so as to cause unnecessary inconvenience, and must compensate an adjoining owner or occupier for loss or damage resulting from the works. There is also a right of entry to carry out the work, on fourteen days' notice.

What happens if you do not serve notice

The Act has no council enforcement behind it. It does not need any — the remedies sit with your neighbour, and they are quick.

If you start notifiable work without having served notice properly, your neighbour can apply to the court for an injunction stopping the job, or seek other legal redress. An injunction can land with the scaffold up, the roof open and a steel on order. That is far more expensive than the notice would ever have been.

There is a second problem, less obvious and more lasting. The rights the Act gives you — to cut into a shared wall, to place projecting footings under next door's land, to take a beam's bearing — exist because you followed the procedure. Skip the notice and you are doing that work without the Act's authority, and any damage argument afterwards starts from a much worse position. There is no schedule of condition, so it is your word against theirs about what the wall looked like before you touched it.

Serving notice costs a stamp. It is not the part of the job to save money on.

What it does not replace

A party wall agreement is not planning permission and it is not building control. The government's guidance is explicit that the Act is separate from planning and building regulations control, and that having planning permission or building regulations approval does not excuse you from the party wall procedure. The three run in parallel and none of them substitutes for another.

Round here, building regulations for Tandridge District Council and for Reigate and Banstead Borough Council are handled by Southern Building Control Partnership. Planning goes to your district or borough — Tandridge for Godstone, Oxted, Caterham, Warlingham, Lingfield and Bletchingley; Reigate and Banstead for Redhill, Reigate, Horley, Merstham, Banstead and Tadworth; Croydon for Purley, Coulsdon and Kenley; Sevenoaks for Edenbridge and Westerham; Mid Sussex for East Grinstead.

None of them will administer your party wall notice, chase your neighbour, or resolve a dispute. That is a civil matter between the two owners, start to finish.

If you are unsure whether your job is notifiable, the honest answer is that it depends on where the wall sits, how deep you are going, and what is on the other side. Those are things someone needs to look at on site.

Common questions

Q.01Does a loft conversion need a party wall notice?

In a semi-detached or terraced house, almost always yes. Cutting into the party wall to take the bearing of a steel beam is one of the rights listed in section 2 of the Act, so it needs a party structure notice served at least two months before work starts. Dormers and roof work at the party wall line can be notifiable too. A loft conversion in a detached house with no shared wall usually is not caught.

Q.02What if my neighbour ignores the notice completely?

Silence is treated as dissent, not consent. Under the Act, an owner who does not serve a written notice of consent within fourteen days is deemed to have dissented, and a dispute is deemed to have arisen — which means surveyors get appointed and an award is drawn up. If they then refuse or neglect to appoint a surveyor for ten days after a written request, you may appoint one on their behalf so the job is not held up indefinitely.

Q.03Do I need a party wall notice for a garden wall?

It depends where it stands. A wall that stands on the land of both owners and separates the two gardens is a party fence wall, and work to it is notifiable. Building a new wall on the boundary line, or right up against it on your own land, is a line of junction notice under section 1 with one month's notice. A wall built well inside your own garden, away from the boundary, generally is not covered.

Q.04Who pays the party wall surveyor?

Usually the owner doing the work, because the work is for their benefit. The Act's general rule is that expenses are met by the building owner, and the reasonable costs of making the award are paid by whichever party the surveyors decide. Where a shared wall is being repaired because it is defective or badly maintained, costs are split between the owners in proportion to the use each makes of it and to who is responsible for the defect. There is no statutory fee scale, so agree fees in writing up front.

Q.05Can I serve the party wall notice myself, or do I need a surveyor?

You can serve it yourself. The Act sets out what the notice must contain — your name and address, the property, a full description of the work, and the start date — and it does not have to be drafted by a professional. Free template notices are published with the government's explanatory booklet. If the notice is wrong or incomplete, though, the period can start again, so on anything complicated it is worth having it checked.

Q.06How close to my neighbour's house can I dig before the Act applies?

Two tests, and either one brings you inside the Act. Within three metres horizontally of their building, if any part of your excavation goes deeper than the bottom of their foundations. Or within six metres, if your excavation cuts a line drawn down at 45 degrees from the bottom outside edge of their foundations. Older houses with shallow foundations are caught more easily than people expect, so check the depths before the digger arrives.

Where this came from

Sources

Rules change. These are the pages this guide was written from — check them against your own property before you act on anything here.

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