This is probably the most asked question we get from adjoining owners and the opposite from Building owners i.e do I have to pay their fees?
Who Pays the party wall surveyor’s fees?
In all most all cases it will be the building owner who is seeking a Party Wall award that will be expected to pay the fees of the surveyor or surveyors, who have been appointed and this is also the case for 3rd surveyor fees and consulting engineers.
There are various reasons why this is the case, after all, they are the ones undertaking the works which they will almost entirely benefit from so why should the neighbour have to pay for the Party wall surveyor(s) to make an award? It is generally understood and agreed that the building owner will cover the cost of all surveyors in the undertaking of the award. We offer our building owners fixed fees for our building owner surveyors work and can do both a fixed fee or an hourly rate for our agreed surveyor / adjoining owners appointments but this isn’t always the case.
What is included within a Party Wall Surveyors fee?
In accordance with Section 10 of the Party Wall etc Act 1996, the fee will include,
“The reasonable costs incurred in—
(a)making or obtaining an award under this section;
(b)reasonable inspections of work to which the award relates; and
(c)any other matter arising out of the dispute,”
The Party Wall Surveyors roles will include everything from the file set up to correspondence, to drawing review, to Schedule of Condition Inspections, to agreeing on the Party Wall Award itself.
So I have to pay regardless? why doesn’t the adjoining owner have to pay Party Wall Surveyors fees?
Normally it is fair and the agreed procedure that the building owner will pick up the costs of the surveyors and making the award as detailed above it is clear from the Party Wall Act that the building owner should cover the fees. ut there are circumstances within the act where a fee split is more appropriate where they share the agreed surveyor’s fee’s or each pay there own or each other. This is the rebuilding of a defective party fence wall due to ill repair.
However, in accordance with the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and in particular Section 11(4):
“Where work is carried out in exercise of the right mentioned in section 2(2)(a), and the work is necessary on account of defect or want of repair of the structure or wall concerned, the expenses shall be defrayed by the building owner and the adjoining owner in such proportion as has regard to—
(a)the use which the owners respectively make or may make of the structure or wall concerned; and
(b)responsibility for the defect or want of repair concerned, if more than one owner makes use of the structure or wall concerned.”
So is that the only time they are responsible?
No, it is not and it there has been recent case law Amir-Siddique-v-Kowaliw and the Agreed Surveyor which you can read about here where there are key benefits for appointing an agreed surveyor for small domestic extensions and it is something we always try to explore regardless of which party approaches us as long as they are happy for us to do so.
So why not book your residential, dilapidation or commercial survey today, so we have another opportunity to use the pole cam, one of our services where the pole cam is particularly useful is our Listed Building Surveys and historic building consultancy
Home Heroes Limited are a Construction Consultancy based in Canterbury, Kent Specialising as Party Wall Surveyors, Building Surveyors Canterbury and Historic Building Consultants you can contact us by filling in the contact form, emailing info@home-heroes.co.uk or calling 01227 806334
We cover Canterbury, Margate, Ramsgate, Whitstable, Herne Bay, Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Ash, Sandwich, Sittingbourne and Other Kent Locations for all Our Party Wall, Building Surveys, Home Buyer Reports.