The Act enables a building owner to attempt work within the scope of the Act and unless an adjoining owner consents to the works, the act sets out an operation whereby the matter is referred to surveyors for determination by Award. Find more information is supposed to supply a framework for preventing and resolving disputes with regards to party walls, boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings.
The Act provides a fair solution to the issues that are frequently encountered when building on or adjacent boundaries or in confined areas. The Act also covers "party structures" which include walls, floors or other partitions between parts of a building in separate ownership.
Does the Act affect the ownership of a celebration Wall? No, but in many cases the Act will prevent disputes arising to begin with.
The Party Wall Act offers a building owner, who wishes to handle various sorts of work to an existing party wall, with additional rights going beyond ordinary common law rights. The Act also provides a building owner should never cause unnecessary inconvenience. Although the Act contains no enforcement procedures, starting work without serving a notice could mean your neighbour could seek a court injunction or other legal redress. An adjoining owner cannot stop someone from exercising their rights given to them by the Act, but might be able to influence how and at what times work is undertaken. Adjoining owners should remember that the primary purpose of the Act is to facilitate development.
Beneath the Act, notice must be served and if agreement can't be reached, surveyors could be appointed.
If agreement can't be reached between neighbouring parties, the procedure is really as follows: A Surveyor or Surveyors is/are appointed to determine a fair and impartial Award, either: An 'Agreed Surveyor' (someone acceptable to all parties), or two surveyors representing both home owners. Both surveyors will nominate a third surveyor who be called in mere if the two surveyors cannot agree. In all cases, surveyors appointed under the dispute resolution procedure of the Act to draft an award must behave impartially and think about the interests of both neighbours.
The surveyor (or surveyors) will prepare an "award" (also known as a "party wall award"). This can be a document which: sets out the work that will be carried out, says when and how the work is to be carried out (for instance, not at weekends if the buildings are domestic properties), records the health of next door before the work begins (in order that any damage can be properly attributed and made good), allows access for the surveyors to inspect the works while they are going on (to see that they are in accordance with the award). The surveyor (or surveyors) will decide who pays the fees for drawing up the award and for checking that the work has been carried out in accordance with the award.
The owner undertaking the construction is manufactured legally in charge of putting right any damage caused by carrying out the works, even if the damage is caused by his contractor. Although minor works on a celebration wall are usually considered to be too trivial to come under the remit of the Act, the main element point to be considered is whether any planned work could have consequences for the structural strength and support functions of the party wall.