If you are carrying out work on a boundary or close to a neighbouring property you will probably need a party wall agreement. In a terraced property this will include most extensions, basements and loft conversions. Your obligations are clearly set out on the gov.uk website with clear guidelines on what you need to do and how to do it.
“The Party Wall etc Act 1996 provides a framework for preventing and resolving disputes in relation to party walls, boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings.
A building owner proposing to start work covered by the Act should give adjoining owners notice of their intentions in the way set down in the Act. Adjoining owners can agree or disagree with what is proposed; if they don’t respond, this is taken as disagreement. Where they disagree, the Act provides a mechanism for resolving disputes.
The Act is separate from obtaining planning permission or building regulations approval.”
There is clear guidance available here about how it works and what it means for you and an explanatory booklet below gives further information on how to serve notices and letter templates.
At Hetreed Ross Architects we can advise you on the work that is covered by the Party Wall Act, we can help you if you need to appoint a party wall surveyor, and recommend one if required. Often for small domestic projects the majority of the work can be carried out by the client with a bit of guidance from the architect. This saves paying unnecessary fees when the work is very straightforward and a client has a good relationship with neighbours.
Below is an example of one of our project where we needed to serve several notices to the adjoining neighbours to achieve this extension.
