Party Wall Surveyor Havering: Compare Quotes
Post a Party Wall job for a property in the London Borough of Havering. The administrator reviews the complete enquiry and invites suitable qualified surveyors to provide independent quotes.
Post your Havering Party Wall job — free
The most house-dominated borough in London
At Census 2021 Havering recorded 101,277 households:
- 41,729 in a semi-detached house
- 24,643 in a terraced house
- 20,101 in a purpose-built block of flats or tenement
- 11,276 in a detached house
- 1,729 in part of a converted or shared house
- 1,156 in a commercial building
- 369 in part of another converted building
Houses of all kinds account for 77,648 households — 76.67 per cent, the highest proportion of any London borough, ahead of Bexley at 75.28 per cent. Havering also has the second largest count of semi-detached homes in London, behind Bexley.
The age profile is even more concentrated than the type. 34,690 dwellings — 31.92 per cent of the entire stock — were built between 1930 and 1939. That single decade is the largest band by a wide margin. Only 1,840 properties predate 1900, which is 1.7 per cent, the reverse of the inner London boroughs where pre-1900 stock runs to tens of thousands.
This is interwar suburbia, and it defines the party wall work. A 1930s semi shares a substantial flank wall with its pair, usually with a chimney stack inside it, and the works these houses attract — rear extensions, side extensions, loft conversions with dormers, chimney breast removals, garage conversions — sit squarely within sections 1, 2 and 6 of the Act. 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 above.
Havering is also 54 per cent Green Belt, the highest proportion of any London borough. So a large householder workload is concentrated into a comparatively small built area.
In the year ending March 2026 the borough determined 1,019 householder development decisions — 6th of 33 London boroughs — against just 9 listed building consents to alter or extend, joint 28th. A great deal of ordinary domestic work, and almost no heritage work. Both are decisions rather than grants.
The council tells you to serve notice, and gets a detail right that many miss
Havering’s Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD carries a dedicated Party Wall Act section — something most London boroughs do not publish at all. Its paragraph 2.21:
The Act states that anyone intending to carry out work of the kinds described in the Act must give adjoining owners notice of their intentions. Where the intended work is to an existing party wall (section 2 of the Act) a notice must be given even where the work will not extend beyond the centre line of a party wall.
That last point is the one homeowners most often get wrong. Working only on your own side of a shared wall is still notifiable. The council states it plainly.
The guidance also defines a party wall in its glossary as a wall standing astride the boundary of land belonging to two or more different owners, and points to the government’s explanatory booklet.
Where the council encourages neighbours to build together
Havering goes further than describing the Act. Its guidance actively suggests that neighbours coordinate — and gives a planning reason rather than a neighbourly one.
On two storey rear extensions to terraced houses, paragraph 5.10:
Two storey rear extensions to terraced houses are rarely acceptable as they inevitably affect one or both of the adjoining properties. However, where neighbours jointly build their extensions side by side, neighbourliness issues may be overcome.
Paragraph 5.11 adds that simultaneous joint proposals by adjoining neighbours “may overcome this problem and ensure a visual symmetry of the properties is maintained”, and paragraph 2.16 encourages neighbours to liaise over joint proposals generally.
The consequence under the Act is worth understanding before you go down that route. Where two neighbours each build, each is a building owner in respect of their own work and an adjoining owner in respect of the other’s. Notices still have to be served both ways and an award still has to be made, but the works, and often their cost, become genuinely shared.
The numeric standards, and the problem with where they live
The adopted Havering Local Plan 2016 to 2031, adopted in November 2021, contains no householder extension policy at all. Searching it returns no occurrence of “householder”, “residential extension”, “loft”, “dormer” or “outbuilding”. It also contains no basement or subterranean development policy — no basement impact assessment is required anywhere in Havering.
Every numeric standard sits instead in the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD of March 2011. Several are boundary standards, which is where they intersect with the Act:
- rear extensions of up to 3 metres for a terraced house and 4 metres for a semi-detached or detached dwelling, with anything deeper kept within a 45 degree line taken from that dimension on the property boundary;
- single storey extensions generally no more than 3 metres high with a flat roof;
- two storey rear extensions set in from the common boundary with any attached dwelling by not less than 2 metres, projecting no more than 3 metres, and not normally acceptable built up to the boundary of a non-attached dwelling;
- two storey side extensions set back at least 1 metre from the front wall at first floor level;
- side extensions refused where they break a 45 degree line from the sill of a primary original window serving a habitable room on the side wall of an adjoining house;
- guttering located within the boundary of the property, not overhanging public or private property;
- dormers “set well in from any gables or party walls”, no wider than 1.2 metres where they face the highway, with combined width no more than half the roof width; and
- hip to gable conversions resisted on a semi-detached pair where hipped roofs are characteristic, because they unbalance the pair.
Two cautions. First, the SPD’s own appendix restates national permitted development limits, which are not Havering standards and reflect an older version of the rules — do not read those as council policy. Second, and more significantly, the SPD states that it supplements a set of Development Control Policies which the Local Plan superseded on adoption in November 2021. The SPD remains listed as current and is the only source of numeric standards, but every policy it names as its parent has been revoked. Confirm the current position with the council before relying on any figure for a specific scheme.
The Emerson Park Policy Area, which has its own guidance, uses party wall vocabulary in a numeric standard directly: no part of a new building or extension within a minimum of 1 metre from an adjoining common party boundary at ground floor, or 2 metres at first floor, with those described as minimums the council expects to be exceeded.
Gidea Park has two levels of control, and the rest is unresolved
The Gidea Park Article 4 direction came into force on 31 December 2015 and was confirmed on 24 June 2016. Unusually, it operates at two levels:
- Control Level 1 withdraws Class A, Class C and Class F — enlargement and alteration, other roof alterations, and hard surfaces — to the front and sides only.
- Control Level 2 withdraws Class A and Class C to the front, sides and rear, plus porches, outbuildings and hard surfaces, and Part 2 rights covering enclosures, means of access and exterior painting.
The practical difference is large. At a Control Level 2 address a rear extension and any roof alteration need planning permission; at a Control Level 1 address they do not. The direction lists affected properties street by street across roughly two dozen streets, so the level applying to a specific address needs checking with the council rather than inferring from the street.
Beyond Gidea Park the position is genuinely unclear, and this page will not guess. The council’s Article 4 page lists Gidea Park alone. Its heritage pages additionally refer to directions at Havering-atte-Bower covering satellite dishes and at Cranham covering means of enclosure. Its 2011 heritage guidance lists both of those plus North Ockendon. No direction document is published for any of the three, and the conservation area appraisals for Cranham and Havering-atte-Bower treat such a direction as something to consider in future rather than as already made. If your property is in one of those areas, ask the council directly.
The council states there are 11 designated conservation areas in Havering. One further heritage control is worth knowing because it reaches party fence walls: conservation area consent is required to demolish a boundary wall over one metre in height next to a road, or over two metres elsewhere.
Explain the property and proposed work
Provide:
- the full property address;
- whether the property is detached, semi-detached, terraced or a flat;
- which walls are shared, and with whom;
- whether the works involve a flank wall, chimney breast, roof line or dormer;
- whether a neighbour is extending at the same time, since joint schemes change the position;
- how far the works project from the rear wall, and how close they come to the boundary;
- whether excavation is proposed, how deep, and how close to a neighbouring building;
- whether the property lies in a conservation area, and if in Gidea Park, which control level applies;
- whether you are carrying out work or responding to a neighbour’s work;
- a clear description of the proposed construction;
- drawings where available;
- notices, responses and correspondence already exchanged; and
- known dates and access constraints.
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. Where two neighbours are building at once, ask how that affects the proposed scope.
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. Local guidance covers Party Wall surveyors for Romford properties; neighbouring coverage includes Party Wall surveyors for Bromley properties and the wider Party Wall surveyor east 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.