What are Party Wall Notices and when should they be served?
Within this blog post, I will discuss what formal Party Wall Notices are, explain when it becomes incumbent upon the Building Owner (the person doing the notifiable works) to serve them upon all relevant Adjoining Owners (the person affected by the notifiable works).
A Building Owner is duty bound under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 to serve what is called a ‘Notice’ on all affected Adjoining Owners. This is often the start of the process of proceeding with Party Wall matters legally to then allow you to commence works on site for your much awaited project whether that be a rear extension or a loft conversion for instance. The first port of call is identifying the Adjoining Owners and serving your Notices on them.
The primary objective is to provide knowledge, share expertise, make them aware of the latest and innovative products, give them financial guidance in a more systematic and authentic manner.
What exactly is this Party Wall Notice?
A Party Wall Notice informs the affected Adjoining Owners of your intentions to carry out works to a party structure, build a wall up to or on the line of junction (alternatively called the boundary line) or excavating below or near to an Adjoining Owner’s structure. Depending on the nature of the notifiable works. the Notice will provide a statutory time frame of either 1 month or 2 months before works can commence. Unless the Adjoining Owners opts to waive this period through their consent.
The Notice will mention clearly the specifics of the notifiable works, statutory timeframes, identify the legal owners of the property where the works are taking place and are in most cases accompanied with technical plans from the architect.
