How to serve a party wall notice, and what it costs

If your work is notifiable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, you must tell your neighbours in writing before you start. This is the procedural guide: what to serve, when, what happens next, and what it costs.

What is notifiable

• Work on a shared wall: cutting in beams, raising it, rebuilding, removing chimney breasts, inserting a damp proof course.
• Excavating within 3m of a neighbouring building and to a lower depth than its foundations.
• Excavating within 6m of a neighbouring building where a 45 degree line from the base of its foundation would cross your excavation.
• Building a new wall on or astride the boundary line.

Painting, replastering your own side, and fitting shelves are not notifiable.

Which notice to serve

1. Line of junction notice, for building a new wall at the boundary. One month before work starts.
2. Party structure notice, for work on a shared wall or structure. Two months before work starts.
3. Notice of adjacent excavation, for the 3m and 6m rules. One month before work starts.

Notices are valid for twelve months. If you do not start within that period, you serve again.

What a notice must contain

• Your full name and address as building owner.
• The address of the work.
• A clear description of the proposed work, normally with drawings and, for excavation, section details showing depths.
• The proposed start date.
• The date of the notice.
• For excavation notices, plans and sections must accompany it.

Serve on every adjoining owner, which includes freeholders, long leaseholders and any absent owner. If ownership is unclear, address it to "the owner" and serve at the property.

What happens after you serve

1. The neighbour has fourteen days to respond.
2. If they consent in writing, no award is needed. Take a photographic schedule of condition anyway, before starting, so any later damage claim can be tested.
3. If they dissent, or say nothing within fourteen days, a dispute is deemed to exist and surveyors must be appointed.
4. Either both parties agree a single agreed surveyor, or each appoints their own and the two select a third surveyor to break deadlock.
5. The surveyors produce a party wall award: the agreed method and hours of work, access arrangements, a schedule of condition and who pays what.
6. Work can start once the award is served. Either party has fourteen days to appeal to the county court.

What it costs

• Agreed surveyor, single appointment, straightforward scheme: roughly 900 to 1,800 pounds.
• Two surveyors, one per party: roughly 1,000 to 2,500 pounds each, and the building owner normally pays both.
• Third surveyor, only if needed: charged at an hourly rate, commonly 200 to 350 pounds per hour.
• Schedule of condition, usually included in the above.
• Security for expenses, occasionally required, where the adjoining owner asks for a deposit against damage.

As the building owner benefiting from the work, you almost always pay the surveyors' reasonable fees, including your neighbour's surveyor.

How to keep it cheap and calm

1. Talk to your neighbour before the notice arrives. A notice that turns up unannounced is the main reason people dissent.
2. Serve early. Two months is the statutory minimum for party structure work; build it into the programme from day one.
3. Offer an agreed surveyor. One surveyor acting for both parties halves the fee.
4. Get the drawings right first. Amended schemes mean fresh notices and fresh fees.
5. Never start notifiable work without the award. An injunction stops the site and costs far more than the process.

What to do next

1. Ask your designer or engineer to confirm which of the three notice types your scheme triggers.
2. Identify every adjoining owner, including leaseholders.
3. Draft and serve notices with drawings and sections.
4. Diarise the fourteen day response deadline and the earliest lawful start date.
5. Keep the award, schedule of condition and correspondence with your project records.

BuildWise Workspace tracks party wall dates alongside the rest of your programme, so notices are served in time and the construction start date is realistic.