Party wall advice for London homeowners
You need a party wall notice in London when your work builds on the boundary, cuts into a shared wall or digs near a neighbour's foundations. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 sets the clock: one month before a new boundary wall, two months before work to an existing party structure. Silence from a neighbour counts as dissent.
Prefer to talk it through?
Three kinds of work that bring in the Act
The Act does not ask whether the house is old or the street is busy. It asks what you are about to do, and it names three situations. The first is building a new wall on the line of junction between your land and your neighbour's. The second is work to a wall or floor you share, such as cutting in a steel beam or raising the wall. The third is excavation close to a neighbouring building.
Typical London examples are a basement, a deep foundation for a rear extension and the flank wall of a side return extension, each of which sits close to someone else's property. Our glossary entry on the Party Wall Act gives the short definition if you only need the term explained.
How close is close enough to dig
Section 6 of the Act sets two distances. Notice applies to excavating within three metres of a neighbouring building or structure to a lower level than the bottom of its foundations (section 6(1)). It also applies within six metres where the excavation meets a plane drawn down at 45 degrees from the foundations of that building (section 6(2)). The legislation text is on legislation.gov.uk.
Those distances are measured horizontally, so a garden that looks generous can still fall inside the six-metre rule when the neighbour's house sits close to the fence. Ask for the foundation depth on the survey before you assume the Act does not apply. A deep trench for a basement or a lightwell is exactly the case the rule was written for, and our guide to planning permission for a basement conversion covers the rest of that project.
Our starting fixed fee for a party wall notice, prepared and served, is £45 per adjoining owner, from the published price list.
The notice periods in plain terms
The Act gives different lead times for different notices. A notice of intention to build a new wall on the line of junction must be served at least one month before the building work is to start (section 1(2)). A party structure notice, for work to an existing shared wall or floor, must be served at least two months before the proposed work begins (section 3(2)(a)).
Plan the programme around the longer period. If your builder wants to start in six weeks and a shared wall needs cutting, the notice is already late. Serving it early costs nothing and leaves room for the neighbour's reply, which the Act allows to take fourteen days.
What a neighbour's reply, or silence, does
An adjoining owner who has not consented within fourteen days of the notice is treated as dissenting, and a dispute is treated as having arisen (section 5). A dissent is not a veto. It starts the surveyor stage, in which both owners agree one surveyor or each appoints their own, and the surveyors set out in an award how and when the work may be done.
That is why a short, clear notice with sensible drawings tends to calm things down. A neighbour who can see what is proposed, and who has a written record of the state of their wall beforehand, has fewer reasons to dig in. Appointing the surveyors and making the award is their job under the Act. We prepare the notices and drawings and answer the questions the surveyors raise.
What our notices and condition records cost
Our starting fixed fee for a party wall notice, prepared and served, is £45 per adjoining owner, from the published price list. A schedule of condition, which records the neighbour's wall before work begins, starts at £245 per adjoining property.
Both sit alongside your drawings, not in place of them. The page for our party wall notices and drawings service explains what is prepared, and you can read the guide to planning permission timings to line the two processes up so neither waits on the other.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| one month | Party Wall etc. Act 1996 s1(2): notice of a new wall on the line of junction is served at least one month before the work is to start (source wording: "at least one month before he intends the building work to start") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| two months | Party Wall etc. Act 1996 s3(2)(a): a party structure notice is served at least two months before the proposed work begins (source wording: "at least two months before the date on which the proposed work will begin") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| fourteen days | Party Wall etc. Act 1996 s5: an owner who has not consented within fourteen days of the notice is treated as dissenting, and a dispute arises (source wording: "within the period of fourteen days") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| three metres | Party Wall etc. Act 1996 s6(1)(a): notice applies to excavating within three metres of a neighbouring building or structure to below its foundations (source wording: "within a distance of three metres measured horizontally") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| six metres | Party Wall etc. Act 1996 s6(2)(a): notice applies to excavating within six metres of a neighbouring building where the excavation meets a plane drawn down at 45 degrees from its foundations (source wording: "within a distance of six metres measured horizontally") | www.legislation.gov.uk |
| £45 | DrawingsDirect starting fixed fee for a party wall notice, per adjoining owner, prepared and served, from the published price list | drawingsdirect.co.uk |
| £245 | DrawingsDirect starting fixed fee for a schedule of condition, per adjoining property, from the published price list | drawingsdirect.co.uk |