As the party planning the works, you will have complete control over whom the surveyor you appoint and what they charge. You will either agree a fixed fee or an hourly rate. The same cannot be said of your neighbour’s surveyor (if you cannot agree on an Agreed Surveyor) as he is chosen by your neighbour and is not required to state his fee until just before the award is published. If you or your surveyor consider the fee demanded to be unreasonable, it should be referred to the ‘Third Surveyor’ for review although this will incur a further fee and take another couple of weeks. The Third Surveyor is selected by the two appointed surveyors at the start of the process to resolve disputes.

Party wall disputes? Here are several advices: What is not covered by the Act? The Act relates only to certain specific types of work and is permissive in nature. It should not be seen as a method of objecting to or preventing works and it is not intended to be applied to minor jobs that do not affect the structural integrity or loading of a party wall. It is generally agreed that works such as fixing plug sockets, screwing in shelving or replastering walls are minor works and do not require a notice. Notices: The workings of the Act are always instigated by the of issuing notices. This is the first stage of the process and, without the issue of valid notices, no further action can be taken under the provision of the Act. Written notice must be served on adjoining owners at least two months before starting any party wall works (one month for works to the line of junction or excavations). All adjoining owners must be served a notice and there are likely to be instances where there is more than one adjoining property and more than one owner of each property (ie: if the adjoining property is split into flats and owned on a leasehold basis, notices will be required to both leaseholder and freeholder of all flats affected by the works). Works to a party wall, or those affecting a ceiling or floor, will also require a notice to adjoining owners living above or below.

If you have items lying around or blocking spaces or areas of the property where problems have arisen in the past, it is important that you expose these areas so that the surveyor can assess the area and potentially come up with a solution to the problem. You should avoid looking to hide any problem areas and instead focus on decluttering your property.

A potential buyer can also request for a specific focus to be made on certain areas that may cause concern within the property. So say for example one of the walls within your home is bowed slightly and the potential buyer notices this, they can request for a specific focus to be made on that wall to elaborate on the possible causes for the bowing. This is why it is crucial that you keep your home in good shape if you plan to sell it on for a reasonable price.

Our Director Nathan Foley is a degree qualified building surveyor with over 20 years of construction experience starting out as a plumbing and heating engineer and then moving on to construction and building surveying. Having worked within the construction industry covering a number of different disciplines including project management and contract management, this wealth of experience working at all levels of the construction industry is backed up by educational standards including a BSc (Hons) in Building Surveying and NCRQ health and Saftey Diploma in addition he has also achieved the following technical levels of recognition. Discover extra details at Party Wall Surveyor Herne Bay.

The Party wall act, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 act to give its full name is a piece of legislation that was mainly transferred from Part VI of London Building Acts (amendment) Act 1939, it applies in England and Wales. The main purpose of the act is to provide a framework for amicably preventing and resolving disputes between neighbours in relation to Party Walls, boundary Walls and Excavations near neighbouring buildings. Building owners are given statutory rights that did not exist in existing common law, when undertaking certain types of construction as defined by the Act. As well as these rights it obliges Building owners to give appropriate notice and for the relevant notice period if they intend on carrying out the defined work.

The most frequent question we get asked is, but we’ve had a survey the bank arranged it while it true that you can have a Level 2 or 3 survey through your mortgage provider. It is more likely a valuation report that has been commissioned and these are there purely to make sure the bank has the ability to get back from the property in resale what you’ve asked it to lend you. It doesn’t report on lots of things and in most cases, you never get to see it. The full Building/ Structural Survey cost will vary from 500 to 1,300; the survey cost will depend on the property type, size and location. To save you money on your survey, compare fees by filling in our simple and quick form and receive up to four instant quotes from our RICS regulated Chartered Surveyors. As one of the most comprehensive surveys available, more often than not a building survey will be requested by potential buyers of your property. It is a wide range inspection of the entirety of a property done in more specific depth than a Homebuyers Report or a Mortgage Valuation. A Building Survey’s purpose is to give a detailed report of the condition of the property in question.

Home and building survey tips and tricks : Watch out for Vegetation, It may be lovely to have wisteria or ivy growing up your home, but beware that vegetation can cause damp in your walls as it retains water and some, like ivy can get in between the mortar joints and cause further damp areas. Electrical and Gas Safety, I don’t know why, but every home I’ve ever bought has had a really useless boiler! As a result I’ve had to fork out between 1,000 to 2,000 to get a new one fitted. So, after having this happen twice, I now make sure I ask the surveyor to have a quick look and then I get a Gas Safety Registered plumber to check it out – albeit at an extra cost of up to 75. However, this has saved me over 10,000 due to the number of properties I’ve bought over the years! See additional details on www.home-heroes.co.uk.