Party Wall Surveyor Hammersmith and Fulham
Post a Party Wall job for a property in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The administrator reviews the complete enquiry and invites suitable qualified surveyors to provide independent quotes.
Post your Hammersmith and Fulham Party Wall job — free
You should already have the engineer’s report before a notice arrives
If you are the neighbour of a basement scheme here, this is the most useful thing on this page.
The Hammersmith and Fulham Local Plan, adopted 28 February 2018, requires more than that a construction method statement be filed. Paragraph 12.66 requires it to be shared:
the council requires applicants to submit a Construction Method Statement (CMS) (carried out by a qualified structural or civil engineer) with the planning application and to make the statement available at the same time to neighbouring owners to demonstrate that the development accords with the policy.
That obligation runs at planning stage, which normally comes well before a party wall notice is served. So an adjoining owner in this borough should ordinarily be holding a qualified engineer’s account of the ground conditions, the temporary propping and the excavation sequence before any statutory process under the Act has begun.
If a basement scheme next door has reached planning and you have not been given the statement, that is worth asking about. The requirement is in the adopted plan, and the same wording is carried into the council’s emerging draft policy, so it is not being dropped.
The council names the Act, and says it wants more than that
The same paragraph is unusually candid about the limits of planning control:
Basement excavation often raises concerns about the structural stability of adjacent properties because of works to party walls and foundations, in particular. These issues may be properly dealt with by means of a party wall agreement under the Party Wall Act 1996. However, the council wishes to encourage good neighbourliness and avoid planning applications which cannot be implemented due to the lack of agreement between the applicant and the owners of neighbouring properties or land instability.
Read that carefully. The council accepts the Act is the proper route for structural stability between neighbours, and then explains why it asks for the method statement anyway — it does not want to grant permissions that cannot be built.
The practical reading for an adjoining owner: planning permission for a basement here is not a finding that your property is safe, and it is not a substitute for an award. The council has said as much in its own plan.
One small point of precision. The plan writes “Party Wall Act 1996”. The correct short title is the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
What Policy DC11 actually restricts
Policy DC11, Basements and Lightwells, permits new basements and extensions to existing basements only where they:
- do not extend into or underneath the garden further than 50 per cent of the depth of the host building, measured from the principal rear elevation;
- do not extend into or underneath the garden further than 50 per cent of the depth of the garden;
- are set back from neighbouring property boundaries where the basement extends beyond the footprint of the host building;
- do not comprise more than one storey, with exceptions on large sites;
- include a minimum of one metre of soil above any part of the basement beneath a garden;
- are designed to safeguard the structural stability of the existing building, nearby buildings and other infrastructure; and
- provide a construction method statement, and a construction traffic management plan as part of it.
The supporting text defines a single storey as one that cannot later be subdivided, generally about 3 to 4 metres floor to ceiling, with a small extra allowance for a swimming pool. The 50 per cent garden test applies to the front, rear and side gardens individually rather than as an aggregate.
The assessment required here is a construction method statement, not a Basement Impact Assessment. That phrase appears nowhere in the adopted plan. Neighbouring boroughs differ on this, and asking an engineer for the wrong document wastes time and money.
Basement guidance sits in the council’s Planning Guidance Supplementary Planning Document, adopted the same day as the plan, rather than in a standalone basements document.
Every domestic basement needs permission — except where the council is not the authority
A borough-wide Article 4 direction withdraws permitted development rights for
The enlargement, improvement or other alteration of a dwellinghouse by way of a basement development, lightwells or any other development below the dwellinghouse or its curtilage.
It was made on 25 April 2017, confirmed by Cabinet on 16 April 2018, and came into force on 26 April 2018.
Its second schedule carries an exclusion that matters: it covers the entire borough excluding the area designated as the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area. That corporation has been the local planning authority for part of the north of the borough since 1 April 2015 and adopted its own Local Plan in June 2022.
So before assuming which rules apply, establish which authority governs the site. The published planning decision figures for the council exclude applications determined by the corporation.
Separately, the council lists 44 conservation area Article 4 directions covering named addresses. The two examined restrict alterations to roofs, gables and dormers at the front of a dwellinghouse. None withdraws basement or excavation rights — that is done by the borough-wide direction. The published documents state on their face that they are non-technical summaries and do not form part of the legal documentation, so check the position for a specific address.
An old, heavily converted borough with little listed stock
At Census 2021 the borough recorded 81,243 households:
- 39,074 in a purpose-built block of flats or tenement
- 19,940 in part of a converted or shared house, including bedsits
- 15,280 in a terraced house
- 3,790 in a semi-detached house
- 1,187 in a commercial building
- 944 in part of another converted building
- 933 in a detached house
About a quarter live in a house of any kind. The converted-house figure is the one that shapes party wall work: nearly twenty thousand households live in subdivided houses, where the structure between two ownerships is a floor that was never designed to be one.
The stock is old to match. The borough recorded 45,750 properties built before 1900 and 7,160 between 1900 and 1918, from a total of 95,070 as at 31 March 2025. These Valuation Office Agency counts are rounded to the nearest ten and count dwellings on the Council Tax list rather than households, so they do not share a denominator with the census figures.
Old does not mean listed, and the contrast with some neighbours is sharp. In the year ending March 2026 the borough determined 560 householder development decisions and just 44 listed building consents to alter or extend. In Westminster the same year the position is inverted, with 1,553 listed building consents against 418 householder decisions. Both are decisions rather than grants. The practical consequence is that work next door here is far more likely to be an ordinary domestic extension than an alteration to a protected building.
Explain the property and proposed work
Provide:
- the full property address;
- whether the property is a house, a purpose-built flat or a flat in a converted house;
- if a flat, which floors or ceilings are shared, and with whom;
- whether a basement or lightwell is proposed or already exists, and the intended depth;
- whether the property lies in a conservation area or an Article 4 direction address list;
- whether you are carrying out work or responding to a neighbour’s work;
- a clear description of the proposed construction;
- whether a construction method statement has been prepared, and whether you have been given a copy;
- the freeholder and any leaseholder details, since more than one owner may need to be served;
- drawings where available;
- notices, responses and correspondence already exchanged; and
- known dates and access constraints.
For Fulham’s named conservation areas and the precise meaning of making a basement method statement available to neighbours, see Party Wall surveyors for Fulham properties. For the Chelsea Harbour and Lots Road edge, where the borough boundary must be checked from the address, use Party Wall surveyors for Chelsea properties.
The address-specific guide for Party Wall surveyors for Hammersmith properties separates the borough’s controls from the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area.
Compare the proposed appointment
Each quote should explain who would appoint the surveyor and the work included. That may involve reviewing drawings, notices, inspections, a schedule of condition, preparation of an award, liaison with another surveyor or later visits.
The party wall notice guide explains which notice applies to which work and how far ahead it must be served. The Party Wall surveyor guide explains when a surveyor may be needed, and the Party Wall surveyor cost guide explains the factors that can affect the proposed fee. Neighbouring coverage includes Party Wall surveyors for Kensington and Chelsea properties and the wider Party Wall surveyor west London guide.
What happens after you post
The administrator reviews each complete enquiry before deciding whether to invite suitable qualified surveyors. Before selection, any invited surveyor receives only the outward postcode and a restricted, non-identifying brief.
If a quote is received and passes the administrative-completeness check, it is shown in the authenticated customer portal with the surveyor’s private documentary profile. Availability varies, so a request may receive several quotes, one, or none. Submission does not guarantee an invitation, quote or introduction.
If the administrator makes an introduction, only that surveyor receives your full contact and property details. FindTheSurveyor charges neither party a fee. You pay the professional fee directly to the surveyor.