Party Wall Casebook

So finally you have settled on a particular Party Wall Surveyor and he has provided you with the 'appointment paperwork'. Look carefully at the paperwork and you will see that there are two parts to the it, 'authorisation' and 'appointment'. But what do these two mean to you the Building Owner looking to undertake works? At this early stage before Notices have been served on the Adjoining Owners, it is impossible to be in 'dispute' with the neighbours and without there being a dispute there can not be an 'appointment' of a Party Wall Surveyor to resolve the 'dispute'. So the only appointment that can be valid is a future one contingent on the Adjoining Owner's subsequent 'dissent'. Thus the wording will state something to the effect, that 'in the event that following service of Notice, the Adjoining Owner dissents to the works, thus creating a dispute, then the said Surveyor will be the appointed Party Wall Surveyor'. ...

So what are the rights of an adjoining owner who has just received a Notice with regards proposed works to be undertaken by his neighbour ('the building owner)'? Can he simply refuse to allow the works to go ahead? The answer to that is not as straightforward as it may first appear. Listed below are various possibilities: Q 1) The building owner has served notice to build an extension with the wall to be built wholly on the building owner's land but has stated in his notice that the foundations will straddle the boundary line. The adjoining owner is concerned about damage to the lawn of his back garden should the proposed wall be built. A 1) The adjoining owner cannot prevent the wall being built wholly in the building owner's land, however he can usually insist that the foundations do not straddle the boundary line but rather, are constructed as 'eccentric' ones wholly on the land of the building owner. Only where the building owner can show ...