Party wall surveyors who understand how architectural practices work
You know the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 well enough — every project that touches a shared wall or digs near a neighbour's foundations brings it back to the table, and every client asks the same three questions: what notice do we need, how long will it take, and what will it cost them? We've been answering those questions for London homeowners and the practices behind them since 2008, and a large part of our work comes straight from architectural practices, usually as a quiet referral between one more project and the next.
This page is written for you rather than for your clients. It explains which of your projects will actually trigger a notice, where the party wall process fits into your programme, and what a specialist surveyor should give you in return for the fee. Your clients get plain-English answers too — we'll explain their position to them, not just to you, so the questions stop coming back over the table.
The Act only bites in three situations, and all of them show up regularly in the work practices send our way. Our guide to the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 covers the detail, but the short version is this:
Where works are minor, our advice is sometimes that the simplest party-wall-free route is the best one — a new wall stepped back from the line, for instance, can keep a project entirely outside the Act. We'll happily have that conversation with you before the design is frozen, which is where the choice can still be cheap.
Once a project is caught, the mechanics are set by the Act, and the single most useful thing to know is the clock. Written notice must be served at least two months before works begin for building-on-the-line and digging works, and one month for works into a shared wall. The notice itself is only valid if it describes the works with drawings — which is why we ask for your drawings as soon as they exist, even at sketch stage, rather than waiting for issue for construction.
After that, three paths open up:
The practical rule we suggest is to serve notices as early as the design allows — ideally the moment you're confident the scheme is going to happen, well before structural design is complete. The notice clock then runs in parallel with planning, approvals and long-lead elements, and the party wall process stops being something that sits on top of the programme and becomes part of it. If a project is already running and the Act has crept up on you, our guide to the party wall notice timeline is a useful handout for the client.
A notice is not a threat to a neighbour, and we write and deliver them as if the other side will read it that way. Consents are signed before works start on the great majority of the notices we serve, which is exactly what a practice wants: the process done, in writing, with nothing left to negotiate while the contractor is on site. Where a neighbour has concerns — and in a tight London street they usually do — we work through them with the same tone, because a neighbour who feels looked after is a neighbour who signs.
Our fees for the building owner are quoted up front and capped — the fee does not rise with the number of calls, site visits or letters, and the quote includes dealing with reasonable damage claims once the works are complete. For your client that means a line in the cost plan that doesn't grow, and for you it means the party wall item stops being a source of surprise. There's no hourly meter running while we sort out a dispute that our notice drafting should have avoided.
You don't owe us a fee to ask us a question. If a scheme is borderline — a party fence wall with a question mark over its height, an excavation a metre short of the line, a wall you're not sure is a party wall at all — ring us before it gets costed. For smaller works in particular, that ten-minute call is often the difference between a two-month notice process and nothing at all.
We liaise directly with your structural engineer on the drawings, confirm which details the notice and any award will need to capture, and keep the surveyor side of the correspondence away from your desk. We've worked with London practices for over a decade, and most of our practice clients send us projects without a second thought. Our guide to choosing a party wall surveyor and breakdown of surveyor fees are both worth passing to clients who want to understand what they're being charged and why.
"As Chartered Architects working in London we frequently require assistance with party walls. Grey & Associates have provided such services for most of our clients over the last decade, including some very difficult sites and situations."
Neil Kahawatte — Chartered Architect
Send us the drawings — or just a description — and we'll tell you straight whether the Act applies, what notice you'd need, and what your client's fee would be. No obligation, and the advice is yours to keep either way.