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Party wall Dunstable matters
This details only applies in England and Wales.
You’ll need a party wall agreement for repair work if you’re a home owner who has concurred minor repair work works with a neighbour of a shared boundary. For more extensive works, you’ll require to serve a party wall notice.
What is the legal background to party walls?
The Party Wall Act applies to most work carried out to party walls. If it uses, it implies that you will have to serve notice of the proposed works on your neighbour( s) and, if they do not consent to the work, you’ll have to designate a property surveyor to prepare a Party Wall Award.
However, if works to the party wall are so minor, that service of notice under the Act is not required (eg uncomplicated repair work, such as replastering, or cutting into the party wall to include or replace recessed electric electrical wiring and sockets) you can use an easy Party Wall Agreement to tape the work to be carried out.
What is a party wall?
The term “party wall” includes the following:
- a wall that bases on the land of 2 (or more) owners and kinds part of a building – this wall can be part of one structure just or separate buildings belonging to different owners
- a wall that bases on the land of two owners however does not form part of a structure, such as garden wall (but not consisting of wood fences).
- a wall that is on someone’s land but is used by 2 (or more) owners of separate properties.
What works are covered by the Party Wall Act?
- Developing a new wall or structure on or at the border of two homes.
- Cutting into or carrying out work to a party wall or structure.
- Making a party wall taller, much shorter or deeper.
- Eliminating chimney breasts from a party wall.
- Knocking down and restoring a party wall.
- Digging listed below the structure level of a neighbour’s home.
Kinds of notification.
- Party structure notice, for alterations that straight affect the party wall and include common jobs, such as cutting holes to insert padstones and beams, cutting in flashings and removing chimney breasts.
- Notification of nearby excavation, for when you are excavating within 3 or 6 metres of your neighbour’s structure.
- Line of junction notification, for the building of a new wall adjacent to a boundary, or the building and construction of a new wall astride a border.
When do you require to serve notice?
If your works are governed by the Party Wall Act, you’ll need to serve a party wall notice on every neighbouring property impacted at least two months prior to the works start. Once notification has been served, you can take up to a year to start work.
Your neighbours may seek to stop your work through a court injunction or look for other legal redress if you begin work without having first offered notification in the proper way.
What takes place after you serve notice?
As soon as observe about desired work is served, your neighbour may either:.
- Offer their consent in writing, or.
- Disagree with the works proposed in writing, or.
- Do nothing.
If, after a duration of 14 days from the service of your notification, the person getting the notice has actually done nothing, a disagreement is regarded as having arisen. Any disagreements will be dealt with by a surveyor.
When do you need a party wall agreement or award?
You’ll require a party wall agreement if you’re going to carry out building and construction or modifications which involve:
- Work performed on a wall,.
- Floor or ceiling shared with another residential or commercial property,.
- Structure on the border with another residential or commercial property,.
- Excavating within six meters of an adjacent structure,.
- Repairing a party wall or spouts, fall pipes, sewers, drains, wire channels, flues, chimney stacks, eaves or troughs used in common with neighbours.
For more details, see the Department for Communities and Local Government (Guidance for performing structure work under the Party Wall Act 1996).
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Learn More about Party Wall
A party wall (occasionally parti-wall or parting wall, also known as common wall or as a demising wall) is a dividing partition between two adjoining buildings that is shared by the occupants of each residence or business. Typically, the builder lays the wall along a property line dividing two terraced houses, so that one half of the wall’s thickness lies on each side. This type of wall is usually structural. Party walls can also be formed by two abutting walls built at different times. The term can be also used to describe a division between separate units within a multi-unit apartment complex. Very often the wall in this case is non-structural but designed to meet established criteria for sound and/or fire protection, i.e. a firewall.
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