Party Wall Notice Template: What a Notice Must Say

There is no prescribed form for a party wall notice. The Act does not publish one, and no template is legally required.

What the Act does do is state what a notice must contain. Get those elements right and a notice on plain paper is valid. Miss one and a professionally designed template will not save it.

This guide sets out the statutory requirements for each of the three notices, and points to the official example letters.

Where the official examples are

The government publishes example letters alongside its explanatory booklet on the Act. They are the closest thing to an official template, and they are free.

Be aware of what they are: the booklet describes itself as “not an authoritative interpretation of the law, but intended as a general guide”. The example letters are a starting point, not a guarantee that a notice is correct for your circumstances.

First decide which notice you need

Three different notices exist under the Act, and they are not interchangeable. Using the wrong one is a more common error than getting the wording wrong.

The party wall notice guide covers which notice applies to which work in more detail, and the guide to whether a surveyor is needed at all covers whether you are in the Act’s scope at all.

What a party structure notice must state

This is the only notice whose contents the Act specifies in terms. Section 3(1) requires it to state:

(a) the name and address of the building owner; (b) the nature and particulars of the proposed work including, in cases where the building owner proposes to construct special foundations, plans, sections and details of construction of the special foundations together with reasonable particulars of the loads to be carried thereby; and (c) the date on which the proposed work will begin.

Three elements. Your name and address, what you propose to do, and when you propose to start.

“Nature and particulars” is where notices most often fall short. A line saying “rear extension” is not particulars. The adjoining owner has fourteen days to decide whether to consent, and they can only do that if the notice describes the work in enough detail to be understood — which wall, what is being cut into, removed, underpinned or rebuilt, and how.

Section 3(2)(a) requires the notice to be served at least two months before the date on which the proposed work will begin.

What a line of junction notice must state

Section 1 does not list contents in the same way. What it requires is a notice which “indicates his desire to build and describes the intended wall”, served at least one month before the work is intended to start.

Which limb applies depends on where the wall goes:

• Section 1(2) — where you wish to build a party wall or party fence wall astride the boundary. This needs the adjoining owner’s consent. Without it, section 1(4) obliges you to build wholly on your own land at your own expense.
• Section 1(5) — where you wish to build a wall wholly on your own land at the line of junction.

Note the difference from a section 3 notice: silence does not create a dispute here. Section 5’s fourteen-day deemed dissent applies only to party structure notices and counter notices.

What an adjacent excavation notice must state

Section 6(5) requires a notice “indicating his proposals and stating whether he proposes to underpin or otherwise strengthen or safeguard the foundations” of the neighbouring building or structure, served at least one month before beginning to excavate.

Then section 6(6) adds a requirement the other two notices do not have. The notice must be accompanied by plans and sections showing:

(a) the site and depth of any excavation the building owner proposes to make; (b) if he proposes to erect a building or structure, its site.

So a section 6 notice without drawings is incomplete on the face of the Act. That is worth knowing before you send one.

Section 6(4) also means you may owe this notice to someone whose property does not touch yours: owners of buildings within the three or six metre distances are deemed to be adjoining owners.

Practical points that make a notice work

Serve it on the right people. Section 20 defines an owner broadly — it includes a person entitled to receive rents or profits, and a person in possession other than a tenant from year to year or for a lesser term. A flat may have a freeholder and one or more qualifying leaseholders, and each is an adjoining owner. Where a property is let, the tenant may be an adjoining occupier with protections under section 7 even where they are not an owner.

Say what happens next. The Act does not require this, but a notice that explains the fourteen-day period helps. Under section 5, if the adjoining owner does not serve a notice indicating consent within fourteen days of service of a party structure notice or counter notice, they are deemed to have dissented and a dispute is deemed to have arisen. Section 6(7) does the same for excavation notices. Silence is dissent, not agreement — and many neighbours do not know that.

Date it and keep proof of service. The notice period runs from service, and the fourteen days for consent run from service too.

Do not backdate the start date. The date in the notice must leave the full statutory period. Serving a two month notice five weeks before you intend to start does not work.

A notice does not last indefinitely. Under sections 3(2)(b) and 6(8), a notice ceases to have effect if the work has not begun within twelve months beginning with the day the notice was served and is not prosecuted with due diligence. Both conditions have to be met before it lapses.

What a notice cannot do

A notice does not grant planning permission, and planning permission does not remove the need to serve one. They are separate regimes and one says nothing about the other.

Serving a notice also does not give you the right to place special foundations on a neighbour’s land. Section 7(4) provides that nothing in the Act authorises that without their previous consent in writing, and no award can confer it.

And a notice does not authorise interference with an easement. Section 9 provides that nothing in the Act authorises interference with an easement of light or other easements, so a right to light question sits outside the Act entirely.

If the notice is not consented to

You do not need a template for what follows. Once a dispute arises or is deemed to have arisen, section 10 engages: either both owners appoint a single agreed surveyor, or each appoints their own and those two select a third. The what the Act calls an award guide explains the document that results, and the Party Wall surveyor guide explains what the role involves. More are listed in the guides index.

If you need quotes for that stage, you can post your Party Wall job — free. An administrator reviews each request and invites suitable surveyors.

A note on sources

Statutory requirements above are taken from the revised text of the Act on legislation.gov.uk. Where this guide describes government guidance rather than statute it says so; the explanatory booklet states that it is not an authoritative interpretation of the law. The Act extends to England and Wales only, by section 22(4).