What Does a Party Wall Surveyor Do?
A party wall surveyor is not your representative. That single point explains most of what follows, and it surprises people who have just paid for one.
The Act defines the job in one sentence
Section 20 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 defines a surveyor as:
any person not being a party to the matter appointed or selected under section 10 to determine disputes in accordance with the procedures set out in this Act
Read what that does and does not say. The function is to determine disputes. Not to argue your case, not to negotiate for you, not to protect your interests against your neighbour’s.
There is also only one disqualification in the whole Act: being a party to the matter. The Act imposes no qualification, no registration, no professional membership, no insurance requirement and no minimum experience. It never mentions RICS or any other body. You cannot act for yourself, and that is the only statutory bar.
Government guidance goes further than the statute, and it is worth keeping the two apart. The GOV.UK explanatory booklet says the person “should not have already been engaged to supervise the building work” and “should also have a good knowledge of construction and of procedures under the Act”. That is a recommendation in guidance, not a rule in the Act. The booklet says of itself that it “is not an authoritative interpretation of the law, but intended as a general guide”.
Appointed by you, but not acting for you
The booklet puts the distinction plainly:
Where separate surveyors are appointed by each owner, the surveyors must liaise with their appointing owners and put forward the respective owners’ preferred outcome. However, beyond that the surveyors do not act as representatives for the respective owners. They must always act consistently with the terms of the Act to reach a fair and impartial award.
The Act itself never calls a surveyor an agent of the owner who appointed them. The word “agent” appears twice in the entire Act, both times in section 8, and both times about the building owner’s own workmen entering premises. It is never used of a surveyor.
Four features of the wording point the same way:
- Section 20 describes a person “not being a party” appointed “to determine disputes”.
- Section 10(2) provides that appointments “shall not be rescinded by either party”. You cannot sack the surveyor you appointed. An ordinary agent can be dismissed by their principal.
- Section 10(10) obliges the surveyors to “settle by award any matter … which is in dispute” — a duty owed to resolving the dispute, in the imperative.
- Section 10(16) makes the award “conclusive”, questionable in court only as section 10 allows.
Section 8(5) also gives the surveyor a right of entry in their own right, “for the purpose of carrying out the object for which he is appointed or selected”. That is a power attached to the office, not one lent by the owner who appointed them.
Three ways the surveyors can be arranged
Section 10(1) offers two routes, and the choice has consequences most people are never told about:
either— (a) both parties shall concur in the appointment of one surveyor (in this section referred to as an “agreed surveyor”); or (b) each party shall appoint a surveyor and the two surveyors so appointed shall forthwith select a third surveyor
One agreed surveyor. Both owners concur in a single appointment. Cheaper, and there is no third surveyor at all on this route.
Two surveyors, plus a third. Each owner appoints their own. Those two surveyors — not the owners — then select a third “forthwith”. That word matters: the third surveyor is chosen at the start, not when the other two later fall out.
Under section 10(10) the award can be made by “the agreed surveyor or as the case may be the three surveyors or any two of them”. Two of the three can bind both owners.
The agreed surveyor route carries a specific risk
If an agreed surveyor refuses to act, neglects to act for ten days after a request, dies, or becomes incapable, section 10(3) provides that “the proceedings for settling such dispute shall begin de novo” — everything starts again from the beginning.
Nothing like that happens on the two-surveyor route. If a party-appointed surveyor dies or becomes incapable, section 10(5) lets the appointing owner appoint a replacement. If one refuses to act effectively, section 10(6) lets the other surveyor “proceed to act ex parte”, and what they do is as effective as if they had been an agreed surveyor. If one merely neglects to act for ten days after a request, section 10(7) gives the same power but confined “in respect of the subject matter of the request”.
So a failure that restarts the whole process on one route merely gets worked around on the other. That is a genuine argument the Act itself supplies, and it is rarely mentioned.
If your neighbour will not appoint anyone
Section 10(4) covers it. If a party refuses to appoint a surveyor, or neglects to do so for ten days beginning with the day a request is served on them, “the other party may make the appointment on his behalf”.
The third surveyor is not only for deadlock
This is widely misunderstood. Section 10(11):
Either of the parties or either of the surveyors appointed by the parties may call upon the third surveyor selected in pursuance of this section to determine the disputed matters and he shall make the necessary award.
Either party can call in the third surveyor directly. You do not have to wait for the two appointed surveyors to disagree, and you do not need your own surveyor’s permission. The booklet makes the practical point: you cannot rescind your surveyor’s appointment, “but you can approach the Third Surveyor to resolve the matter for you”.
If the two surveyors will not select a third, section 10(8) lets either surveyor apply to the local authority’s appointing officer — defined in section 20 as the person appointed by the local authority to make such appointments — who may select one instead.
What the award can decide, and what it cannot
Section 10(12) sets the boundaries:
An award may determine— (a) the right to execute any work; (b) the time and manner of executing any work; and (c) any other matter arising out of or incidental to the dispute including the costs of making the award; but any period appointed by the award for executing any work shall not unless otherwise agreed between the building owner and the adjoining owner begin to run until after the expiration of the period prescribed by this Act for service of the notice in respect of which the dispute arises or is deemed to have arisen.
That final clause is usually left out of online summaries and it matters: an award cannot be used to shortcut the statutory notice period, unless both owners agree otherwise. Appointing a surveyor quickly does not buy you an earlier start date.
Some things are outside the award entirely. Section 9 provides that nothing in the Act authorises interference with “an easement of light or other easements”, so a right-to-light question is not a party wall matter. The booklet is equally clear that the Act “does not contain any provision that could be used to settle a boundary line dispute”, and that surveyors “cannot decide a dispute concerning the location of the boundary”.
A schedule of condition — the record of the neighbouring property before work starts — is not mentioned in the Act at all. The booklet describes it as “not a requirement of the Act but it is most prudent to do so”. Many guides imply it is mandatory. It is not.
Fees are decided by the surveyors, not fixed by the Act
Section 10(13):
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, shall be paid by such of the parties as the surveyor or surveyors making the award determine.
Two things follow. Only reasonable costs are recoverable. And there is no statutory default that the building owner pays — the surveyors decide. The common claim that the building owner always pays is a practice norm, not a rule. Government guidance frames it conditionally: usually the building owner will pay all costs “if the works are solely for the Building Owner’s benefit”. The booklet also states that “Surveyor’s fees are a matter for individual surveyors. There are no set charges.”
The who pays for a party wall surveyor guide covers this in full, including the separate question of who pays for the building work.
Serving the award, and the fourteen days that follow
Under section 10(14) the appointed surveyors “shall serve it forthwith on the parties”. Where the third surveyor makes the award, section 10(15) allows service “after payment of the costs of the award”.
Then section 10(17):
Either of the parties to the dispute may, within the period of fourteen days beginning with the day on which an award made under this section is served on him, appeal to the county court against the award
Note the counting. “Beginning with the day on which” means the day of service is day one, not the day after. The clock also runs from service on that party, so two owners served on different days have different deadlines. Outside that window, section 10(16) makes the award conclusive.
What this means in practice
The surveyor you appoint is required to consider your neighbour’s position as well as yours, cannot be dismissed by you, and decides who pays their own fee. Understanding that before you appoint prevents most of the disappointment that follows.
The do I need a party wall surveyor guide covers the prior question of whether a surveyor is needed at all — often the answer is no. The party wall agreement guide explains the award as a document, and the Party Wall surveyor guide explains what a quote should cover. More are listed in the guides index.
If you need quotes, you can post your Party Wall job — free. An administrator reviews each request and invites suitable surveyors.
A note on sources
Every statutory quotation above is taken from the revised text of the Act on legislation.gov.uk. The Act has been amended textually once since 1996, inserting subsections 15(1A) to (1C) in 2016 to allow service by electronic communication. Sections 1 to 14 and 16 to 22 stand as enacted. The Act came into force on 1 July 1997 and, by section 22(4), “extends to England and Wales only” — it does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland.