What happens once notice is served

The building owner serves written notice on every adjoining owner, setting out the proposed work and the intended start date. Where a property is divided into flats or shared between owners, each adjoining owner needs their own notice.

From the day they receive it, the adjoining owner has 14 days to respond. What they do — or don't do — in that fortnight decides everything that follows. There is no third route, and no way to skip this step.

Two outcomes, and only two. Consent keeps things simple and costs nothing further; dissent, or silence, brings surveyors in.

Either one agreed surveyor acts for both owners, or each owner appoints their own and those two select a third surveyor to sit above them. Whoever appoints them, a party wall surveyor's duty is to the Act — not to the owner who instructed them. You cannot act as your own surveyor.

Before anything starts, the adjoining property's existing condition is normally photographed and recorded in a schedule of condition. It isn't a statutory requirement, but it gives both sides an agreed baseline if damage is ever claimed once work is underway.

The surveyors issue a binding award: what work is permitted, how and when it is carried out, what protections apply to the neighbouring property, and who pays for what, including the surveyors' fees.

Either owner may appeal, but only to the county court and only within 14 days of receiving the award — in practice, very few are appealed. Once that window closes, work goes ahead on the award's terms, with rights of access on reasonable notice and the surveyors on hand if something changes on site.