Q. I need a party wall agreement 'fast', can you help?
We are often approached by building owners who have contractors booked in to start work (often next week!) only to realise at the eleventh hour that a Party Wall Award is required before they can legally begin work.
Can we learn anything from ants?
If only homeowners, landlord and developers were as organised as ants when it comes to building work, this question would be phrased without the word ‘fast’, and the world of party wall would be a much less stressful exercise for party wall surveyors.
According to the Guardian ant behaviour reveals the secrets of their construction rituals.
It turns out that ants perform these complex tasks by obeying a few simple rules.
For Party Wall related matters with a few simple tasks and prior consideration the process will be a lot more efficient and less stressful.
Top Tips for Efficiently Obtaining a Party Wall Agreement
TK Surveying Group have previously published an article on the Party Wall Agreement (Award) turnaround times (read here) which highlighted a number of key considerations as to the likelihood of agreeing a Party Wall Award with a neighbour, these are:
1) Are the Party Wall Notice(s) valid?
2) Do you have the required technical plans?
3) Do you have the required design calculations?
4) Is site access readily available?
5) Is the likelihood of damage negligible?
6) Is the scheme of proposed work straightforward?
7) Is the adjoining owner willing to waiver the notice period required?
8) Is the adjoining owner willing to concur on an ‘Agreed Party Wall Surveyor’ appointment?
In other words, if you have dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s, your proposed project is low risk and you have answered YES to the questions above, with the right party wall surveyor on board a Party Wall Award should not take longer than a week or two to be published.
Do you have a question for our party wall surveyors?
You can email your questions to us at info@tksurveyinggroup.co.uk questions cannot be answered individually but we will try to feature them on our blog.
Please note these answers provide a brief commentary as to the issues raised and should not be relied on, as such, no liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar issues, you should obtain advice from a suitably qualified party wall surveyor.
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