Other Services
Party Walls. Simplified
Party Wall etc. Act 1996
The Party Wall etc Act 1996 provides a framework for preventing and resolving disputes in relation to party walls, boundary walls and excavations near neighbouring buildings.
A building owner proposing to start work covered by the Act must give adjoining owners notice of their intentions in the way set down in the Act.
Adjoining owners can agree or disagree with what is proposed. Where they disagree, the Act provides a mechanism for resolving disputes.
Added Value
Whilst RF Gill & Associates has the skills to act as Party Wall Surveyor for clients as well as provide advice to adjacent owners on their rights under the Act, as Structural Engineers we can also provide a variety of different services to cover the implementation of aspects of the Act which other building professionals are not fully qualified to advise on:
Providing design advice, details and calculations to allow Party Wall awards to be arranged.
Provide detailed technical advice to other Party Wall surveyors.
Acts, Acts and More Acts
Regulations in the UK relating to walls between neighbours have existed in some form for hundreds of years. The collation of these into a single volume by Lord Mayor of London Richard Whitington in 1419 perhaps represents the formulation of the modern day Act.
Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, its spread attributed to close proximity of timber framed buildings, King Charles II sign “An Act for Rebuilding the City of London” whereby solid masonry walls between adjacent properties came in force.
Several acts followed with Part IV of the London Building Acts (Amendment) Act 1939 being the precursor to the present Party Wall etc. Act 1996.