Ealing, London W3 | Party Wall Appointment
Acton, Brentford, Chiswick
Background: The works required the insertion of beams into the Party Wall in order to support the loft floor above, and the additional cutting into the Party Wall in order to support the retained chimney stack.
We were appointed by the building owners. The adjoining owner did not respond to the Notices so it became necessary to appoint a Surveyor on behalf of the adjoining owner.
There was one adjoining owner to the works.
The works involved the construction of a loft dormer and the removal of internal chimney breasts
Conclusion:
When an Adjoining Owner does not respond to the Notices, the 'other party' must appoint a Surveyor on their behalf. In practise the Building Owner's Surveyor is usually the one to make that appointment on behalf of the Building Owner.
In order to keep a limit on Party Wall Surveyor costs we came to an agreement with the Adjoining Owner's Surveyor that he would be appointed on the basis of a fixed fee and not on the basis of an hourly fee. The exact quantum of the fee was agreed from the start. This Surveyor has a previous working relationship with us and knew that we would not make onerous demands on his time and on that basis was prepared to agree to a relatively low fee amount.
The Building Owner wanted access to the neighbour's land in order to erect scaffolding. The appointed Adjoining Owner Surveyor agreed that such access could be described as 'necessary' given that the Building Owner's existing rear extension would complicate the placement of scaffolding against the rear façade of the house. He also took into consideration that the Adjoining Owner is not resident of the building and hence would not be adversely affected by such access.
Given that it was not possible to contact the Adjoining Owner, the Schedule of Condition was undertaken of the external parts of the Adjoining Owner's building only. Because the Party Wall separating the two houses could not be viewed from the Adjoining Owner's side, the Surveyors instead, photographed it from the Building Owner's side - including within the loft space, as this was the best that could be done in the circumstances, in terms of recording the existing condition.
The Adjoining Owners were in a hurry to get the works started and the two Surveyors collaborated on the Award in order to allow it to be produced quickly so that the works could go ahead.