Party Wall Agreement: What the Act Calls an Award

Most people searching for a party wall agreement are looking for the document that lets building work go ahead next to a neighbour. The law has such a document. It is not called an agreement.

What is a party wall agreement?

In everyday use, a party wall agreement is the document that records what work may be done to a shared structure, how it may be done, and what happens if the neighbouring property is damaged. In law it is an award, and the difference is not just wording — an award is determined by surveyors rather than negotiated between the owners.

The Act does not use the phrase

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 calls it an award. Section 10(10) requires the appointed surveyor or surveyors to settle by award any matter which is connected with any work to which the Act relates and which is in dispute between the building owner and the adjoining owner.

The phrase “party wall agreement” appears nowhere in the GOV.UK explanatory booklet, nowhere in the RICS consumer guide, and nowhere in the RICS professional standard. GOV.UK does acknowledge the everyday usage, describing the surveyors as settling the matter by making an award, “also known as a ‘party wall award’”.

The distinction matters because an award is not a negotiated agreement between the two owners. It is a determination made by surveyors.

There is a route that avoids an award entirely. Section 3(3)(a) preserves the building owner’s ability to exercise rights with the consent in writing of the adjoining owners and occupiers. If consent is given, there is nothing in dispute, and no award is required.

Do I need a party wall agreement?

You need one where notifiable work is proposed and the neighbour has not consented. That is the whole test, and it is really two questions: is the work notifiable under sections 1, 2 or 6, and did the adjoining owner consent within fourteen days. When do you need a party wall agreement therefore depends on their answer.

When a party wall agreement is needed does not turn on the size of the job. A modest loft conversion that cuts into a party structure is notifiable; a large rear extension that touches nothing shared may not be. Party wall agreement loft conversion is a common search for exactly that reason — beam bearings cut into the shared wall, which engages section 2(2)(f), the right to cut into a party structure “for any purpose”.

How to get a party wall agreement

There is no application to make and no form to complete. You serve the correct notice, and if the neighbour dissents or says nothing for fourteen days, surveyors are appointed and they produce the award. The guide to whether a surveyor is needed at all covers the prior question.

Consent is not a discharge of the Act, though. GOV.UK is explicit that where consent is given you are not relieved of your obligations, and that the notice of consent is simply confirmation that, at that time, there is nothing in dispute. A later disagreement re-engages the procedure.

What counts as a party wall

Section 20 of the Act defines the terms, and they are narrower than everyday use:

• A party wall is a wall forming part of a building that stands on lands of different owners, or so much of a wall as separates buildings belonging to different owners.
• A party structure is a party wall and also a floor partition or other structure separating buildings or parts of buildings approached solely by separate staircases or separate entrances. This is what brings flats within the Act: the floor between two flats can be a party structure.
• A party fence wall is a wall, not part of a building, standing on lands of different owners and used to separate them. A wall built entirely on one owner’s land is not a party fence wall.
• An owner includes freeholders, those entitled to rents and profits, those in possession, and purchasers under contract. A tenant holding year to year or for a shorter term is not an owner for these purposes.

Three separate sections create notifiable work. Section 1 covers building on the line of junction where the boundary is not already built on. Section 2 confers rights over an existing party structure, including underpinning, thickening or raising it, cutting into it, and demolishing and rebuilding it where it is defective or of insufficient strength.

Section 6 covers excavation near a neighbouring building, and it catches work that never touches a shared wall. Section 6(1) applies to excavation within three metres of a neighbour’s building that will go deeper than the bottom of their foundations. Section 6(2) applies within six metres where the excavation meets a plane drawn downwards at forty-five degrees from the bottom of those foundations. Section 6(4) deems owners within those distances to be adjoining owners, so a detached house can be caught.

The notice, and how far ahead it must go

A party structure notice must state the name and address of the building owner, the nature and particulars of the proposed work, and the date on which it will begin. A section 6 notice must be accompanied by plans and sections showing the site and depth of the proposed excavation.

Notices do not last indefinitely. Under section 3(2)(b) a party structure notice ceases to have effect if the work has not begun within twelve months of service and is not prosecuted with due diligence. Section 6(8) is in materially the same terms for excavation.

An adjoining owner served with a party structure notice may serve a counter notice under section 4 requiring specified additional works. It must be served within one month of the party structure notice.

Silence does not always create a dispute

This is the point most guides state too simply.

Under section 5, if an owner served with a party structure notice or counter notice does not serve a notice indicating consent within fourteen days, they are deemed to have dissented, and a dispute is deemed to have arisen. Section 6(7) makes parallel provision for excavation notices.

Section 1 is different. Where a line of junction notice proposes a wall astride the boundary and the adjoining owner does not consent within fourteen days, no dispute is deemed. Instead, under section 1(4), the building owner may only build the wall at their own expense and placed wholly on their own land. Disputes that do arise under section 1 reach the same machinery through section 1(8).

So fourteen days of silence produces a deemed dispute for a party structure notice and for an excavation notice, but not for a proposal to build astride the boundary.

How an award is made

Where a dispute arises or is deemed to have arisen, section 10(1) gives two routes. Either both parties concur in appointing one agreed surveyor, or each party appoints a surveyor and those two forthwith select a third surveyor.

Several features of section 10 are worth knowing before appointing anyone:

• Appointments must be in writing and, under section 10(2), cannot be rescinded. An owner cannot dismiss the surveyor they appointed because they dislike the outcome.
• If a party neglects to appoint a surveyor for ten days after a request, section 10(4) lets the other party appoint on their behalf.
• If a party-appointed surveyor neglects for ten days to select a third surveyor, section 10(8) lets the local authority’s appointing officer select one.
• Under section 10(11), either party or either surveyor may call on the third surveyor to determine the disputed matters. The third surveyor is a referral route, not only a tie-breaker.

What an award can decide

Section 10(12) allows an award to determine the right to execute any work, the time and manner of executing it, and any other matter arising out of or incidental to the dispute, including the costs of making the award.

It also contains a limit that is easy to miss: unless the owners agree otherwise, any period appointed by the award for executing work does not begin to run until the statutory notice period has expired. An award cannot be used to shorten the two-month or one-month notice period.

Section 10(13) provides that the reasonable costs of making or obtaining an award, of reasonable inspections of the work, and of any other matter arising out of the dispute are paid by whichever parties the surveyors determine. Who actually pays is covered in the Party Wall surveyor cost guide.

Under section 10(14) surveyors must serve the award on the parties forthwith.

What an award usually contains

There is no prescribed format. GOV.UK describes an award as a document that sets out the work to be carried out, says when and how it is to be done, specifies any additional work such as protection to prevent damage, often contains a record of the condition of the adjoining property before work begins, and allows access for the surveyors to inspect while work is going on.

The GOV.UK glossary describes four parts: the applicable sections of the Act and the parties’ names and addresses; the description of the works; the duties and rights of the two owners; and the conclusion with signatures and dates. It adds that an award should confine itself to the notified work and should not deal with easements, covenants, restrictions or personal matters between the parties.

RICS states that while there is no prescribed award format, an award will usually include a schedule of condition, relevant drawings and method statements. Two points from the RICS professional standard are worth carrying:

• A schedule of condition is not a statutory requirement, though a surveyor is recommended to record one and append it.
• Surveyors should not present the draft award to their appointing owners for approval. The owners do not sign the award off.

GOV.UK also suggests keeping a copy of the award with the property deeds once works are complete.

Once the award is served

Section 10(16) provides that the award is conclusive and shall not, except as provided by that section, be questioned in any court.

The exception is section 10(17): either party may appeal to the county court within fourteen days beginning with the day the award is served on them, and the court may rescind or modify the award and make such order as to costs as it thinks fit.

RICS notes that section 10(16) might be thought to preclude any challenge other than an appeal, but that it has been held a party may contend an award is ultra vires and therefore not a valid award. The distinction RICS draws is between a valid award, challengeable only by appeal, and an award that is invalid because the surveyors had no jurisdiction to make it.

If no notice was served at all

In Power v Shah [2023] EWCA Civ 239, the Court of Appeal considered what happens where a building owner serves no party structure notice and the adjoining owner appoints a surveyor anyway.

Coulson LJ held that in the absence of a notice, the dispute resolution mechanism in section 10 was not engaged, and the award produced in purported compliance with it was null and void. Lewison LJ put it shortly: “no party structure notice, no Act.”

That does not leave an adjoining owner without a remedy. The court noted that they retain their rights at common law to sue in trespass or nuisance, and GOV.UK states that where work starts without notice an adjoining owner can seek to stop it through a court injunction or seek other legal redress. What they cannot do is generate a valid award unilaterally.

Three things people get wrong

An award is not planning permission. GOV.UK states that the Act is separate from planning and building regulations control, that reaching agreement under the Act does not remove the need for planning permission, and that gaining planning permission does not remove the need to comply with the Act. Many local authorities mention the Act when granting permission, but none is required to.

A party wall surveyor does not have to hold a particular qualification. Section 20 defines a surveyor as any person not being a party to the matter. GOV.UK says you can appoint almost anyone, subject to two real limits: the person should not already have been engaged to supervise the building work, and you cannot act for yourself. In Power v Shah, Lewison LJ referred to a surveyor as one “who need not have any qualifications”. RICS recommends choosing only chartered surveyors using the designation MRICS or FRICS, and is clear that this is a recommendation rather than a legal requirement.

The Act does not apply across the whole UK. Section 22(4) provides that it extends to England and Wales only. GOV.UK confirms it does not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland.

How long does an award take?

No authoritative source publishes a figure, and this guide will not invent one.

The only durations fixed by law are the notice periods of two months and one month, the fourteen days to consent, the one month to serve a counter notice, the ten days before the default appointment powers in section 10 apply, the twelve months before a notice lapses, and the fourteen days to appeal. Anything beyond that depends on the property, the works and the surveyors involved.

If you need a surveyor for a party wall matter, you can post your Party Wall job — free and an administrator will review it. The Party Wall surveyor guide explains the role in more detail, and there are more explanations in our guides.