Guides
Party Wall notes, in plain English
52 short guides on notices, neighbour replies, surveyors, typical London works and fees. They explain the process. They do not decide your project.
This is general information for England and Wales. It is not a decision on your building. House-style review 27 September 2026.
52 guides
Notices
Party structure notices in plain English
A party structure notice is the usual letter when work may affect a wall, floor or other structure you share with a neighbour.
Notices
Line of junction notices
A line of junction notice is about a new wall at the boundary line, not about cutting into a wall that already exists.
Notices
Adjacent excavation notices
An adjacent excavation notice is about foundations close to a neighbour’s building. Depth and distance are the tests. A website cannot measure either from a postcode.
Notices
When one project needs more than one notice
A rear extension on a terrace can need a party structure notice and an adjacent excavation notice. They are not interchangeable.
Notices
The 14-day response period
Adjoining owners are generally given 14 days to respond. That is a general rule, checked against the notice they were actually given.
Notices
My neighbour has not replied
If the response period appears to have passed with no answer, the next step is a human review of what was served, on whom, and how.
Notices
How a Party Wall Notice is served
The method, the date, the recipient and the proof are what make a notice something the case can rely on later.
Notices
Freeholders, leaseholders and who must be served
Flats, houses split into maisonettes, and buildings with a separate freeholder catch people out. Serving only the neighbour you have met may leave someone off the notice.
Notices
The drawings changed after the notice
If the steel moves, the foundation deepens, or the extension grows towards the boundary, the notice that was served may no longer match the work.
Notices
Urgent Party Wall Notices
Urgent preparation is a faster human review, shown from a higher fee. It is not a promise to compress a statutory period.
Notices
A notice does not let you start
People conflate four permissions. They are different documents, often from different people.
Notices
Party Wall and planning permission
Councils decide planning applications against planning policy. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is a separate piece of legislation between owners.
Notices
Party Wall and building regulations
Building regulations are about how the work is built: structure, fire, energy, drainage. They are not a substitute for telling the neighbour under the Act, where the Act applies.
Neighbours
I received a notice: the first 48 hours
A Party Wall Notice is a statutory letter. It is not a builder’s flyer and it is not a demand that you agree.
Neighbours
Should I consent to my neighbour’s work?
Consent in writing can be the simplest path when you have seen the drawings and you are comfortable with them. It is not compulsory.
Neighbours
What a dissent is
It is a normal step. It is not a quarrel you have to justify on a form, and it is not an invitation for this website to appoint a surveyor for you.
Neighbours
Work has started next door and I have had no notice
If notifiable work appears to have started with no notice, the file is urgent and it is for a person. A late standard notice is not an automatic remedy.
Neighbours
Protecting your side of the wall
A Schedule of Condition is a note of what the adjoining property was like, usually with photographs. It is often commissioned even where the neighbour has consented.
Surveyors
What a Party Wall Award is
Where owners do not both agree in writing, section 10 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 sets out a surveyor process. The Award can deal with how work is done, access, protection, and often fees.
Surveyors
Agreed surveyor or two surveyors?
An agreed surveyor is a single person appointed by both owners. If either owner wants their own surveyor, the two-surveyor route is the ordinary alternative.
Surveyors
Who pays the surveyors?
In a great many residential files the person doing the work pays the reasonable fees of the process, including an adjoining owner’s surveyor. Reasonable is the word that causes arguments, and it is decided on the file, not on a webpage.
Surveyors
The third surveyor
When two surveyors are appointed they select a third, who can be called on if they do not agree. The third is not a helpline and is not appointed by this website.
Surveyors
Security for expenses, carefully
Security for expenses is a statutory idea about money being set aside against the risk of the work. It is not a deposit for every extension, and it is not something software will demand.
Surveyors
Schedule of Condition, without the fog
It is taken before work, on the adjoining property, so later cracks can be compared with what was already there.
Surveyors
How long a Party Wall file usually takes
A complete, straightforward notice file can be drafted in days. The statutory lead-in, where it applies, is then counted in weeks or a month or two, not in our turnaround time.
Works
Loft conversions and party walls
The usual questions are whether the party wall is cut or loaded, whether a chimney breast is coming out, and who owns the house next door.
Works
Rear extensions
A single-storey rear extension on a terrace may cut into or bear on the party wall and may dig a trench close to the neighbour.
Works
Side-return extensions
Infilling the side alley can mean a new wall at the boundary and new foundations near the neighbour’s flank, sometimes as well as work to the existing party wall.
Works
Wraparound extensions
Rear plus side means more wall, more foundation, and sometimes more than one adjoining owner.
Works
Steel beams in a party wall
The engineer’s layout shows the bearing. A verbal description that “there will be a steel” is not enough to draft from.
Works
Chimney breast removal
Removing it, and supporting what remains, may be work the Act covers. The neighbour’s breast and the stack in the loft are part of the question.
Works
How deep foundations can go
The excavation tests use depth measured against the neighbour’s foundations and the distance from their building. Both numbers come from a drawing, not from a rule of thumb in a blog.
Works
Basements
Lowering a floor, digging under a terrace, and underpinning a party wall are not priced as ordinary extensions. They are not auto-quoted and they are not matched to a partner who has not accepted that work.
Works
Underpinning
It changes how the wall is supported. That is why the file is marked for a senior reviewer and why partners must have said they accept it, with insurance in date.
Works
Piling near a boundary
Vibration, sequence and proximity are why these files are not offered to a general residential partner.
Works
Dormers and roof work
Planning and the Party Wall Act part company here. A dormer can need planning, or fall under permitted development, and still be either inside or outside the Act.
Works
Taking a wall down inside the house
Knocking through a dining room in a detached house is often outside the Act. Knocking through in a terrace, with a steel taken into the shared wall, often is not. The name “internal” does not decide it.
Money
Notice fees and Award fees
Notice-only work, shown from £99 plus VAT per adjoining owner for a straightforward house, is the preparation and service of the notice. It is not the later surveyor process.
Money
What an adjoining owner might pay
The practical answer depends on the notice, the appointments and what is reasonable. This page cannot invoice you or clear you.
Professionals
Architects: when to flag a Party Wall issue
You do not need to become a Party Wall surveyor. You do need to avoid a start date that ignores the notice period.
Professionals
Builders: do not start notifiable work early
Opening up a party wall, digging the trench, or dropping a chimney because the client is keen is how straightforward files become urgent ones.
Professionals
Developers and several houses
Multiple owners, phased drawings and a contractor’s programme need a bespoke scope. Use the referral desk. Do not expect the public from-price to survive contact with the site.
Professionals
Shops, flats and mixed-use buildings
The commercial occupier, the flat leaseholders and the freeholder may all need to be thought about. That is at least medium complexity, and often higher.
Professionals
Work has already started
Say so on the form. Do not soften it. A reviewer needs to know what has actually been built, not what the planning drawing showed.
Professionals
Damage during the works: what to record
A dated photograph, a short description, and the part of the building are enough to start a post-work or mid-work issue on the file.
Professionals
Moving house with a Party Wall file still open
If you are selling or buying a house with a notice served or an Award in place, tell your conveyancer and tell this file. We do not give the conveyancing advice. We can say what stage the Party Wall papers have reached.
Professionals
What to ask about a surveyor’s insurance
“Fully insured” is a phrase we do not use. Cover has a limit, a scope and an expiry date.
Works
Converting a house into flats
Cutting new structure, shifting stairs, and working on walls that will soon have several owners is a multi-interest file.
Notices
Signing a Party Wall paper digitally
Where a signature is needed, the platform keeps who signed, which version, and when. The building owner’s authority to serve is a separate tick from the professional’s approval.
Surveyors
After the Award is served
Once an Award has been served by the surveyors, keep it with the drawings it refers to. If the work changes, the Award may need to be looked at again. That is an amended-Award conversation, not a quiet revision on site.
Neighbours
Talking to the neighbour first
Many jobs go better when the neighbour has seen a drawing before a formal letter arrives. The conversation does not start the statutory clock, and it does not replace service.
Money
VAT, extra owners and travel
Notice fees are described per adjoining owner. A second neighbour is not a free copy. Travel beyond the area a partner has stated is agreed before a visit. Third-party engineers are their own invoices.