Party Wall Surveyor London: Straightforward Pricing & Good Work
We understand you require a commercial or residential party wall surveyor London professional without incurring delay or excessive fees. The process is explained below.
The “building owner” carries out the works, whereas the “adjoining owner” is the neighbour not carrying out the works. Costs are generally paid by the building owner only.
Other than budget, the most important considerations are ensuring that the inspector is professional. The London Party Wall Surveyors on our panel have decades’ worth of combined experience. Some even have experience in party wall-related court claims, which can be of assistance; however, they work hard to ensure legal claims are avoided.
All prices herein are inclusive of tax. This will be a full party wall service charged as follows:
A: NOTICE (est. £290 per adjoining owner)
If someone carries out building works, they serve a legally compliant notice on their neighbour(s) where applicable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, which your inspector will serve/review. There are 3 possible notices:
Section 1 – New Building Notice: this is for building a new wall along the line of junction (typically for a ground floor extension). This can be up to the boundary and wholly on the building owner’s land (no consent required) or astride the line of junction (consent required).
Section 2 – Party Structure Notice: this is for works to the party wall. It is applicable to removing a chimney breast, raising or underpinning a party wall, cutting into the party wall or adjoining owner’s building to insert weatherproofing, or other works to the shared wall.
Section 6 – Excavation Notice: this is for digging within 3 or 6 metres (the latter measurement relates to pile foundations) and to a lower level than the foundations of the adjoining owner (typically for a ground floor extension), which is often required for building a new wall.
B: APPOINTMENT
An adjoining owner may consent or dissent to notices. In the event of dissent, both the building owner and adjoining owner must appoint an inspector. They can each have their own separate surveyor or have one “Agreed Surveyor” acting for both parties. In the former scenario, the two surveyors liaise with one another and agree a party wall Award, and the building owner is ordinarily responsible for the fees of both inspectors. In the unlikely event of disagreeing on an issue, they refer the matter to a Third Surveyor for a decision.
There are no “clients”; only appointing owners. A London party wall surveyor’s appointment is statutory, meaning that they must always act impartially and in accordance with the Party Wall Act. Your inspector negotiates on your behalf.
C: SCHEDULE OF CONDITION (est. £550 per property)
A Schedule of Condition is performed on the adjoining owner’s property prior to works. This involves recording any existing visible defects. Such a document protects both the building owner and adjoining owner, because it proves whether any damage has occurred as a result of the works and limits false claims. We encourage building owners to offer a free Schedule of Condition to their adjoining owners, as this can give them enough comfort to consent to notices.
D: PARTY WALL AWARD (est. £490 per Award as Agreed Surveyor)
Once the works have been agreed by the inspector(s), an award is drafted. This sets out what work is to be carried out, when, how, where, etc. as well as recourse if there is any deviation. It can include drawings, method statements, engineering calculations, CCTV surveys etc. and their associated disbursements.
Security for expenses may be requested if the works are risky (this is a separate sum of money to be held in escrow until works are completed). It is designed to make works safe in case they are not completed (often in the case of excavation).
After works are completed, inspectors may need to visit the adjoining owner’s property for sign-off. This revisit is at the adjoining owner’s discretion and a revisit fee of est. £350 is applicable per property. If multiple inspections can be carried out at the same appointment, each further adjoining owner’s property can be set at a reduced rate of est. £250.
If there is any damage to the adjoining owner’s property, reasonable compensation can be determined by the inspector(s) in good time. In this way, an award is a legally-binding agreement which protects both owners.
SUMMARY
For one standard party wall Award acting as “Agreed Surveyor”, including serving notice and schedule of condition (approx. 4.5 hours total), estimated fees are usually £1,330 (incl. tax) between both building owner and an adjoining owner (plus small disbursement costs for postage and Land Registry charges) without revisit.
Depending on seniority, the surveyor’s hourly rate is est. £100-350 (incl. tax) for (additional) time spent acting for either the building owner or adjoining owner. This becomes more relevant if complications arise, although uncommon.
Reminder: only building owners (persons carrying out works) pay for the aforementioned costs, whereas adjoining owners (neighbours of the works next door) do not.
Please now send us the following information:
- Description: outline of works being undertaken
- Drawings: illustration of the works (incl. existing and proposed plans, plus a section detail showing any new foundations for excavation work if applicable)
- Address: your and all your neighbours’ site addresses with postcodes. Contact details (telephone and email) would also be helpful if available.
From experience, the “Agreed Surveyor” framework is always cheaper in comparison to a different inspector representing each party. You may wish to speak with your neighbour about the option of your inspector representing them as well prior to their formal response.
Please contact us to confirm you are happy for us to organise appointment of a Party Wall Surveyor London specialist to carry out the above.
GET QUOTE
FAQs on Costs of Party Wall & the Process
How do I appoint a surveyor?
Contact us using the enquiry form and be sure to include all of your details.
We require basic background information following which we will get in touch with you to handle questions before establishing a suitable path to assist you with your party wall matter.
What if I can get cheaper?
Various factors should be examined when you see lower prices at first glance:
Any lack of care by the inspector increases the likelihood the neighbour will choose two inspectors instead, therefore you would need to pay more for theirs and your own surveyor’s fees.
Your inspectors may lose interest in the project quickly when they learn that your job requirements exceed their fees budgeted for. The job may therefore take longer because a rogue inspector can “create work” for themselves.
The project delays may also result in additional costs.
As with selecting a doctor, you would want the most professional (not the cheapest). Otherwise, it becomes false economy.
Will I get a good service?
The inspectors on our panel restrict their acceptance of projects to a limited capacity, which ensures each client receives high-quality service. An enhanced service quality is therefore provided to each appointing owner.
Are prices fixed?
The costs for Party Wall Notices and Schedules of Condition remain at a standard rate.
A Party Wall Award fee includes a standard price of up to 8 hours that you pay as a discounted amount. Most Party Wall Awards require this amount of time, so actual work durations rarely exceed it, after which we apply hourly rates. The system allows you to pay a reduced price while the inspector maintains coverage against unexpected neighbour behaviours or project changes.
What is included in the quoted price?
Our pricing strategy involves full transparency because we provide complete proposals to help you keep within budget.
Each service included in the display price remains limited to a single dispute (party wall notice with schedule of condition and party wall award). The provided services include basic postage fees as well as expenses for telephone services and other materials. One inspection of sites up to reasonable distance from the inspector’s office is included in the Schedule of Condition and Party Wall Award services.
Price listings do not necessarily cover projects that involve basement building and/or underpinning and so you should allow for higher cost estimates.
We established this pricing method to deliver reasonable cost services to owners while safeguarding inspectors against unforeseeable neighbour complications.
The completion of the first award marks the end of the service until your inspector conducts supplemental work such as a post-works inspection.
Which areas do you cover?
Our panel operates nationwide including London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, etc.
Are there other costs?
Depending on the project, there may be other costs such as the following:
Advising Engineer: the surveyor may want an engineer to check the calculations relating to structural works.
Third Surveyor: if the two surveyors reach an impasse, they may refer matters to the Third Surveyor for determination, but that may result in you bearing the costs, depending on which surveyor is held in favour. Costs may be apportioned to the the building owner or adjoining owner, depending on outcome.
Movement Monitoring: if the works are risky, often due to large excavations, drilling vibration, and/or heavy load being imposed on the ground, then the inspectors may require devices to be placed on the adjoining property to monitor for any movement (subsidence).
Security for Expenses: if the works may cause damage to the adjoining property if they are left unfinished, then the adjoining owner can request “security”, which is money paid by the building owner into Escrow and which would be accessed by the inspectors to make good any unfinished work.
Multiple surveyors: building owners need to bear in mind that, if they have multiple adjoining owners to serve notice on, they may all appoint their own inspector and may not want to accept an Agreed Surveyor acting for both sides. This means additional cost for the building owner.
Enclosure Fee (“Making Use Payment”): if an adjoining owner wishes to connect to a party wall which the building owner has built, then the adjoining owner has to contribute roughly half of the present cost to build that wall because they are benefitting from it. This enclosure fee can be at least £200 per square metre.
Damage: if the building owner causes damage to the adjoining owner’s property, then the building owner will be liable for repair. This means that the building owner will need to either pay his contractor to fix the defects or pay the adjoining owner compensation, whichever the adjoining owner prefers.
There may be other costs, such as specialist reports that need to be commissioned, but these are fairly uncommon. The main concern is whether a project becomes complicated and/or inflicts damage on adjoining owners, which will result in costs increasing for the building owner.
