Planning a loft conversion, extension or basement? If your works touch a shared wall, sit on or near the boundary, or involve deeper excavations close to your neighbour, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is likely to apply.
The Act creates a clear, legal pathway that lets you build while protecting your neighbour’s property and minimising avoidable disruption. Here’s the party wall procedure in five practical steps—plain English, no fuss, the Simple way if you like!
Step 1: Decide whether the Act applies
Start by mapping your design against the Act’s three trigger categories.
First, work to a party structure—that includes cutting steel into a shared wall for a loft, removing a chimney breast on a dividing wall, rebuilding or raising a garden wall that straddles the boundary, or exposing a party wall during demolition.
Second, new walls at the boundary—either up to the line of junction or astride it.
Third, adjacent excavation—digging for foundations or basements within three metres of a neighbouring structure to a deeper level than its foundations, or within six metres where a 45‑degree line from the bottom of their foundation would intersect your excavation. If your project falls into any of these, the notice-and‑award machinery of the Act is engaged.
Two details matter at this stage. The Act applies across England & Wales (not Scotland or Northern Ireland). And the term “adjoining owner” is broad: freeholders, long leaseholders (a term exceeding a year) and anyone entitled to receive the rent can all be “owners” for service purposes. Flats often mean multiple adjoining owners; identify them early.
Step 2: Serve the correct notice, the correct way, at the correct time
Once you know the Act applies, you must serve written notice on every adjoining owner before works begin. For most party‑structure works the minimum notice period is two months. For line of junction walls and adjacent excavations the minimum is one month.
The notice must describe the proposed works clearly and give a proposed start date; excavation notices must include plans and sections showing the site and depth of the dig.
Notices can be delivered by hand or post; email is valid only if the recipient has agreed in advance to electronic service and provided an address for it.
Timings are not a box‑ticking exercise. An invalid or late notice can derail your programme with injunctions, redesign and avoidable cost. Serve early, serve properly, and keep proof of service.
Step 3: Manage your neighbour’s response
After service, an adjoining owner has 14 days to reply. There are three outcomes.
Consent means they’re content for you to proceed under the Act without surveyors being appointed. You still remain responsible for carrying out the notified works lawfully and without unnecessary inconvenience, and for making good any loss or damage caused by those works.
Dissent triggers the Act’s dispute‑resolution process. The owners can jointly appoint one impartial “Agreed Surveyor,” or each can appoint their own surveyor. Those two surveyors must then select a Third Surveyor who only becomes involved if the two cannot agree or if either owner refers a specific point for determination.
No reply within 14 days is treated as a dissent for party‑structure and excavation notices, and the process moves on as above. There is a nuance with line of junction notices: if you proposed to build a wall astride the boundary and your neighbour does not consent in writing, you must build it wholly on your land; if you proposed to build up to the boundary, you may proceed after the one‑month period (subject to the Act’s rules on foundations).
Step 4: Let the surveyor(s) produce the Party Wall Award
Where there’s a dissent, the appointed surveyor(s) resolve the dispute by making a Party Wall Award. This is a binding, legal document that enables the project to go ahead while setting fair, enforceable conditions to protect both sides. A well‑drafted Award will do four things.
First, it identifies the statutory rights you are exercising (for example, cutting into a party wall under section 2(2)(f) or excavating within three metres under section 6) and records the drawings on which those rights are based.
Second, it controls the time and manner of the works—for example, limiting noisy demolition to specific hours, sequencing excavations in short bays near the neighbour’s foundations, or requiring temporary weathering and support where walls are exposed.
Third, it sets out access arrangements where a temporary right of entry to the neighbour’s land is necessary to carry out the notifiable works safely and lawfully; the Act allows access on reasonable notice for works “in pursuance of the Act.”
Fourth, it allocates costs and risk in a principled way—usually the Building Owner pays the reasonable costs of the Award (including the Adjoining Owner’s surveyor if separately appointed), and remains liable to make good loss or damage caused by the notifiable works.
Once the Award is signed by the agreed surveyor or by two of the three surveyors, it is served on both owners. Either owner has 14 days to appeal to the County Court if they believe the surveyor(s) have erred in law or exceeded their jurisdiction. An appeal does not automatically pause the works; a formal stay is required if a temporary halt is sought.
Step 5: Build in accordance with the Award—and the Act
With the Award served (and the statutory notice period expired or waived), you can begin the notifiable works—but only in the way and at the times the Award specifies.
Keep the site team briefed on the Award’s requirements; most enforcement issues arise because a contractor unknowingly deviates from agreed methods or hours.
If you need to change design details that affect the notifiable works, raise them with the surveyor(s) promptly: material changes should be authorised by a further or varied Award so everyone stays on the right side of the Act.
If a dispute arises during or after the works about compliance, damage or cost, refer it back to the appointed surveyor(s) under the Act’s procedure—this is usually quicker, cheaper and more predictable than starting separate litigation.
Final word
The party wall process does not exist to block development. When handled early and correctly—valid notice, constructive dialogue, clear Award—it keeps projects moving and relationships workable.
The most common causes of delay are invalid notices, missing owners in flats, thin drawings for excavations, and trying to compress a legal process into a last‑minute programme. Start early and you’ll finish sooner.
Need help navigating your notices or Award?
Simple Survey provides fast, compliant party wall advice and fixed‑fee Awards across England & Wales.
Email: team@simplesurvey.co.uk