Who Pays for a Party Wall Surveyor?

The usual answer given online is that the building owner pays. That is roughly right for the building work, and it is not the rule at all for the surveyor’s fees.

These are two separate questions

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 deals with them in different sections, and they work differently:

Who pays for the works is section 11. It has a stated default, subject to nine exceptions.
Who pays for the surveyor is section 10(13). It has no default in favour of either owner. The surveyors decide.

Most guidance collapses these into one rule. Keeping them apart is the key to understanding a party wall bill.

Who pays the surveyor: section 10(13)

Section 10(13) provides that the reasonable costs incurred in making or obtaining an award, in reasonable inspections of the work to which the award relates, and in 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.

Three things follow from the wording:

There is no presumption. The section does not say the building owner pays. It says the surveyors determine who pays.
Costs must be reasonable, and must fall within one of the three listed categories.
It is a determination, not a negotiation between the owners.

Government guidance describes the usual outcome, and qualifies it carefully. The GOV.UK explanatory booklet states that usually the building owner will pay all costs associated with drawing up the award including the adjoining owner’s surveyor’s fees, if the works are solely for the building owner’s benefit. It goes on to say that in certain circumstances, where work is necessary due to defect or need of repair, the adjoining owner may have to pay costs, split according to the use each owner has of the wall and responsibility for the defect. It closes by repeating that the surveyors decide who pays the fees.

That conditional — if the works are solely for the building owner’s benefit — is doing a lot of work, and it is why “the building owner always pays” is not a safe statement.

One practical point: where the third surveyor makes the award, section 10(15)(a) allows them to serve it after payment of the costs of the award. A third surveyor can require their fee before releasing the document.

Who pays for the works: section 11

Section 11(1) provides that, except as provided under that section, expenses of work under the Act shall be defrayed by the building owner.

The opening words matter. The default is expressly displaced by the rest of section 11, and GOV.UK states the general principle the same conditional way: the building owner who initiated the work pays for it if the works are solely for his benefit.

The main exceptions:

Section 11(4) and 11(5) — where work is done to underpin, thicken or raise a party structure, or to repair or rebuild one that is defective, expenses are shared between the owners in proportion to the use each makes of the wall, and to responsibility for the defect. That second limb applies only if more than one owner uses the wall.
Section 11(6) — where the adjoining premises are laid open, the building owner pays the adjoining owner a fair allowance for disturbance and inconvenience.
Section 11(7) — where the adjoining owner serves a counter notice requiring an existing height to be maintained, they pay a due proportion of the extra cost.
Section 11(8) — where the building owner must make good damage, the adjoining owner may instead require the expense to be determined and paid to them in cash, rather than having the work done. The election belongs to the adjoining owner.
Section 11(9) — work carried out at the adjoining owner’s request, or to meet a requirement they made, is paid for by them.
Section 11(11) — where the adjoining owner later makes use of work paid for solely by the building owner, they pay a due proportion. Importantly, the sum is calculated by reference to what that work would cost at the time the later use is made, not what it cost originally.

Any dispute about responsibility for expenses is settled through the section 10 procedure.

The account, and the time limits

Where an adjoining owner has to contribute, section 13 sets a strict timetable:

The building owner must serve an account within two months of completing the work, showing particulars and expenses and any deductions for old materials.
The adjoining owner has one month from service of the account to object in writing. An objection creates a deemed dispute, which returns to the section 10 machinery.
If no objection is served within that month, the adjoining owner is deemed to have no objection.

Security for expenses

Section 12 works in both directions.

An adjoining owner may serve notice requiring the building owner, before beginning any work, to give security. The building owner may in turn require security from the adjoining owner, where the adjoining owner has required work whose expenses they must partly defray, or where they have served a security notice themselves.

In Kaye v Lawrence [2010] EWHC 2678 (TCC), the court held that section 12(1) applies to all cases where the building owner exercises rights under the Act, including adjacent excavation under sections 6(1) and 6(2), and is not limited to work physically on the adjoining owner’s land. That decision was given by a High Court judge sitting as a county court judge, so it is persuasive rather than binding.

RICS guidance is that security is usually appropriate only where there is a particular risk, such as non-completion or a real risk of damage, and that it is for the owner rather than the surveyor to request it.

If you think a fee is unreasonable

There is no official scale to measure it against. GOV.UK states plainly that surveyors’ fees are a matter for individual surveyors, that there are no set charges, and that it is for clients to negotiate fees. It adds that an owner who feels a surveyor’s costs are unreasonable may ask for a breakdown, such as the hourly rate and the number of hours charged.

Beyond asking, the routes are statutory:

Refer the quantum to the third surveyor. Under section 10(11), either party or either appointed surveyor may call on the third surveyor to determine disputed matters. Four people can trigger it, so an owner does not need their own surveyor’s cooperation.
Appeal the award. Section 10(17) allows either party to appeal to the county court within fourteen days of the award being served.

The courts have addressed what happens when surveyors themselves disagree about fees. In Patel v Peters [2014] EWCA Civ 335, one surveyor treated another’s refusal to accept his fee claim as a failure to act effectively, and made costs awards without him. The Court of Appeal quashed those awards, holding it was a classic situation for involving the third surveyor. A surveyor who gives a reasoned justification and puts forward a reasonable alternative basis for the fee is engaging with the issue, not neglecting to act.

RICS guidance reflects the same route: where surveyors cannot agree the reasonable amount of a claimed cost, that should not stop them serving an otherwise agreed award, with an interim sum on account and the balance referred to the third surveyor.

What section 10 costs cannot cover

In Reeves v Blake [2009] EWCA Civ 611, the Court of Appeal confirmed that appointed surveyors may in principle order one owner to pay another’s legal costs, but that the power is restricted to costs connected with the statutory dispute resolution mechanism. Court proceedings to enforce common law or equitable remedies, such as damages or an injunction for trespass or nuisance, fall wholly outside the Act, and so does preparation for them.

If no notice was ever served

In Power v Shah [2023] EWCA Civ 239, a building owner served no party structure notice, taking the view the Act did not apply. The adjoining owners appointed a surveyor, who appointed one on the building owner’s behalf, and the two produced an award requiring compensation plus surveyors’ fees of £4,630.

The Court of Appeal held that in the absence of a notice the dispute resolution mechanism was never engaged. The award, and with it the fee claim, was null and void.

The statutory machinery for recovering fees only exists once the Act has been properly engaged by a notice. Where none was served, an adjoining owner’s remedy lies in the courts, not in appointing surveyors.

Can the adjoining owner end up paying?

Yes, in defined circumstances: under section 11(4), (5), (7), (9) and (11) as set out above, and under section 12(2) where security is required of them.

There is also a behavioural exposure. RICS guidance states that an adjoining owner may be exposed to costs if they make excessive demands on either surveyor, or cause additional and unnecessary time to be spent, for example by requiring abortive visits.

Is there a published scale of fees?

No. Government guidance states there are no set charges. Neither the GOV.UK booklet, nor the RICS professional standard, nor the RICS consumer guide contains a single fee figure.

Any figure quoted elsewhere as a typical party wall fee comes from commercial sources rather than from government or from RICS, and this guide does not repeat them. What the law provides instead is a test — reasonableness under section 10(13) — and a route to test it, through the third surveyor and the county court.

The Party Wall surveyor cost guide explains the factors that affect a quoted fee. The party wall agreement guide explains the award itself, and the Party Wall surveyor guide explains the role. You can also post your Party Wall job — free for manual review, or read our other guides.