Party Wall etc Act 1996

(asked on 21st April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of amending the Party Wall Act 1996 to compel homeowners undertaking works subject to the Act to serve a party wall notice.


Answered by
Stuart Andrew Portrait
Stuart Andrew
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This question was answered on 26th April 2022

Anyone intending to carry out any of the works mentioned in section 2 of the Party Wall Act 1996, must inform all adjoining owners. The Act contains no enforcement procedures for failure to serve a notice. If work starts without a notice being given, an adjoining owner can seek to stop the work through a court injunction or seek other legal redress.

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the average legal costs of pursuing a civil court injunction to enforce compliance with the Act or the potential merits of amending the Act. The Act provides for surveyors to be paid the reasonable costs of drawing up an award. However, if the building owner or the adjoining owner feels that a surveyor’s costs are unreasonable, they may ask for a breakdown of costs, e.g. the hourly rate and number of hours of time being charged for.

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