How to Deal with Party Wall Damages and Its Costs?

Business TalkDecember 22, 202039 Comments01.4k

Party Wall Surveyor is responsible to take care and ensure that the damage to the owner’s property should be as low as possible. They should have taken numerous steps towards healing of occurred damages that they should be dealt with enough skills. Such damages can be fixed with 2 options.

Option 1: The building owner’s contractors can make a good for the damage.

Option 2: The building owner will pay the adjoining owner a sum of money for those damages.

Party Wall Damage can be a stressful matter to deal between the two neighbours. Party Walls and Structures include the following:

A common wall between two neighbouring properties.
One building’s wall on a boundary line of two properties.
The floors and ceilings horizontally separating flats.

The combination of the building owner giving notice and receiving permission from the adjoining owner is called a Party Wall Agreement. In this agreement, if party wall damage is noticeable and neighbouring walls get affected then Party Wall Surveyors also propose to repair the neighbour’s wall. Once you have a party wall agreement you must wait for the adjoining owner’s response to repair the party wall. In Party Wall Act, both have their own Surveyor for protection of the common wall that’s the boundary wall.

Party wall agreement has two benefits, are as follows:

Neighbour is protected in the event of damage.
The person doing the work is protected against proper claim of damage.

If the adjoining owner does not respond to your notice within 14 days or if they do not appoint a surveyor, then you can process. If a less experienced surveyor handles the party wall damages, then they can add lots of money for the cost to repair them but if you have a highly-qualified surveyor, they can cost very nominal. Many owners think that if they concentrate on a party wall notice the building owner is not responsible to fix damages caused by their proposed works. Many adjoining owners’ properties will not be recorded to the works commencing but that needn’t be the case. The option needs to be made clear. The cost of recording a schedule of conditions is likely to be approximately a quarter of the cost of 2 appointed surveyors’ fees. Where a building owner builds a new party wall to which the adjoining owner consents, the expenses is shared between two owners having regard to the use made by each owner.

As someone that regularly prepares a party wall fee proposal, you generally have no idea how the adjoining owners will respond to the notices. For this reason, to choose a quote as per award basis. There is a scope to negotiate with your surveyor for fees. If you know how your neighbour will respond you should ask for an overall fixed party wall cost. The party wall surveyors select the most appropriate contractor for the job and arrange to get funds to the adjoining owner and then give the contractor have to correct the damage. The design stage to avoid the surveyors spending time on them later as that adds to cost and causes a delay. Having some additional time should also allow your surveyor to combine priority visits and pass the savings on to you. Many surveyors taking on such an appointment will agree to defer the cost of undertaking a final inspection on the basis that they may not get the opportunity to make it.

Obtaining comparative quotes from reputable contractors.
The Broker services of a reputable quantity surveyor.
Utilise Industry-standard cost guides.

These aforesaid three are included to repair costs. Once a costing has been determined then the party wall surveyor will not give any obligation to the building owner to transfer funds and allow joining the adjoining owner to required repair work.

In party wall damages the party wall surveyor surveys the wall and identifies the damage and takes actions to repair it by following a party wall agreement. Building owner and adjoining owner both are the same responsible for the repair of damage on an agreement basis.