You must give your neighbour a break-up notice if you are working on the party wall or if you plan to dig up near the party wall (within three or six metres, depending on the depth of the new foundations). For home projects, participation bonuses are on the agenda if you do the following job: if one party does not accept the appointment of a surveyor from its party and does not appoint its own surveyor, the other party can make an appointment on its behalf. You inform your neighbour by providing your contact information and all the details of the work to be done, the conditions of access and the proposed start. In an urban environment, your project may involve several neighbouring neighbors, and you need to be informed about each of them. If a property is rented, you must inform the tenant and the owner of the building. The award is final and binding and can only be overturned by an appeal to the district court. Any party can appeal. The appeal must be filed within 14 days of the expiry of the arbitration period. While non-compliance is not a crime, your neighbours can take civil action against you and issue an injunction to stop the work until a contract to strengthen the party is concluded.
This delays your project and will probably increase your costs – your contractor may ask for compensation for the time he cannot work, or start another job and not return for several months. If you are an adjacent owner, you may find relief in the fact that Party Wall agreements also contain clauses dealing with the contractor`s work schedules. Indeed, the Party Walls Act of 1996 states that “a distinction may determine the time and manner in which each work is performed.” If the adjacent owner asks you to do additional work during planned work on an existing party wall or to accept the construction of a new party wall, the adjacent owner may be required to participate in the construction costs of the work. If you need advice about PWA or want to make sure the right process is followed, we can help. We will work with you to assess risks, costs and options to determine the best way to solve problems. The party surveyor can resolve any issues related to the works that are contentious between you and the adjacent owner. The decision of the party surveyor is qualified as a distinction. An agreement on party walls, covered by the party walls law, includes common walls between semi-detached houses and semi-detached houses or structures such as floors between apartments or duplexes, as well as garden walls.
In addition to changes that directly affect structures, the effects of excavations within 3 to 6 metres of the border may be covered by law if the foundations are considered probable (based on depth). More often than not, for you and your neighbours, it is to name only one surveyor between you. They must be impartial – their role will be to act solely in the interest of the wall. If you are doing work in accordance with the party walls law, you must send a party wall notification to your neighbors.