The Party Wall Act - Implications for several Parties
The UK Party Wall Act of 1996 was enacted to avoid and solve disputes between neighbors who share a standard boundary. It defines the rights of owner's of buildings as regards any building, alteration, renovation or repair work to boundaries and walls between adjacent properties.
MOSTLY Used Rights
The most commonly used rights by building owner's are the following:
Adjacent excavation and construction
Construction of new party and boundary walls
Cutting into walls to take beam bearings or even to insert damp proofing
Demolish and rebuild a common boundary
Increase the height of a wall
Raise the thickness of a wall
Underpin the party wall
Your Duties Beneath the Act
If you plan to carry out any work to common boundaries, you must give notice to all or any adjoining property owners. You cannot cut into your side of the party wall without informing your neighbors of one's intentions. The act does not give any specific enforcement procedures but in the event that you neglect to serve notice, you risk being served with a court injunction or your neighbor(s) may seek various other legal redress.
Your neighbors cannot stop you from exercising your rights under the Party Wall Act however they have a say in when and how the work is undertaken. The act also expressly states that you might not cause unnecessary inconvenience to your neighbors. Inconvenience in this instance specifically refers to any additional nuisance in addition to that which would predictably occur once the work is carried out in the proper manner.
Owners of adjoining properties should take notice that the main reason for the Party Wall Act would be to facilitate development and is not meant to be a hindrance. In the event you fail to react to a notice given under the act, the developer/building owner may appoint a surveyor on your behalf and the dispute resolution process will proceed without your consent.
Appointing a celebration Wall Surveyor
In the case an agreement can't be reached between adjoining property owners, the legal requirement would be to appoint a Party Wall Surveyor. Surveyors are legally mandated to act impartially; they should not favor the appointing owner. The house owners could also appoint a surveyor each for them to come to an agreement with the person. However, this is usually a more costly and time-consuming option. In https://outzendale337.livejournal.com/profile , the owner intending to undertake work pays the surveyors fees including fees reasonably incurred by his neighbor(s).
When selecting surveyor, one should be careful to appoint a specialist with a history of surveys of the nature. http://budtrader.com/arcade/members/indexairbus1/activity/5492172/ is because this is the highly specialized field with serious legal implications in the case an error or omission is committed.
If you are planning some work and your neighbor has didn't respond to your notice or you're currently involved with a dispute, call AA Projects and get help from top notch Party Wall Act surveyors.
