This blog is not an authoritative interpretation of the law; it is intended as a general guide.
In this blog Icon Surveyors will be considering firstly, what the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 requires an adjoining owner to do on receipt of a Party Wall Notice, and secondly what options may be available.
Legal Requirements of Adjoining Owner’s?
In the simplest of terms; under the provisions of the, Party Wall etc Act 1996, any adjoining in receipt of a Party Wall Notice is legally obliged to respond in writing to the building owner and/or their representative within a specified period of time.
What are my Legal Options?
Indication of Consent
Under section’s 1 or 6 of the Act an adjoining and/or building owner has a statutory duty to respond in writing to the named building owner or their representative, ‘indicating consent’ within a period of 14 days from the date the notice was served. Under section 3 of the Act there are no provisions for an adjoining owner to respond within a specified time limit to a Party Structure Notice for works being carried out in accordance with section 2 of the Act. However, any adjoining owner that is served with a, Party Structure Notice must, under section’s 5 of the Act, respond within 14 days of receipt of the Notice if, and only if, consent is being indicated.
A building owner, who is served a counter notice pursuant to section 4 of the Act, is, under section 5 of the Act, statutorily required to indicate his or her consent to the adjoining owner and/or their representative within 14 days of being served with the counter notice.
Dissent
The Act stipulates that an adjoining or building owner in receipt of a Party Wall Notice or Counter-Notice has a mandatory duty to respond to that notice indicating whether consent has been given for the proposed works to be carried out. Any owner may also indicate an outright disapproval of the works being carried out. Such dissent may be outright, or, be used by an adjoining owner as a levy when seeking to ensure consent be withheld until certain conditions, pertaining to a counter-notice to be served under section 4 of the Act, are met.
Section 10
Any dissent that is deemed to have occurred as a result of works that are being proposed to be carried out by a building owner exercising their statutory rights under section 2 of the Act, must be remedied in accordance with the provisions as stipulated under section 10 of the Act. In short, either the building owner or the adjoining owner or indeed both parties, are required to appoint a surveyor to resolve the dispute.
Counter Notice
An adjoining owner, in accordance with section 4 of the Act, has the statutory right to respond to a Party Wall Notice served under section’s 1, 3 or 6 of the Act, by way of a Counter- Notice. Under section 5 of the Act, the adjoining owner has 1 month from the date of service of the Party Wall Notice to serve their counter notice on the named building owner and/or their representative.
Under the provisions of the samesaid section, a building owner in receipt of a Counter-Notice has 14 days in which to indicate their consent in writing. Any failure to do so will be constituted as an outright dissent, thereby triggering statutory measures of action to be taken in accordance with section 10 of the Act.
Failure to Respond to a Party Wall Notice
Any adjoining owner, who simply chooses to ignore a Party Wall Notice served under the Act and/or fails to respond in accordance with the provisions of the Act, is automatically deemed to have dissented to the proposed works, thus, triggering the appointment of a surveyor or two under section 10 of the Act.
Icon Surveyors are happy to provide a free consultation to any building or adjoining owners who may be affected by the subject matter raised in this blog.
