Blog
Party Wall Injunction & Stay of Works
Thursday 25th July 2019
Carl O'Boyle BSc MRICS FCIOB MFPWS
What is a Party Wall injunction or a stay of works?
A Party Wall Injunction is obtained by the Adjoining Owner when a Building Owner commences the notifiable work to their property without having served a Party Wall Notice on the Adjoining Owner.
In Party Wall speak an 'injunction' is a restraining order stopping Building Owners from beginning or continuing an action such as unauthorised building works, trespassing or damage etc. which threatens the legal rights of another party.
What is likely to happen if you seek to serve a Party Wall injunction?
In my experience, most courts are reluctant to issue injunctions in Party Wall cases as these are quite troublesome and difficult to rescind and can cause or put a lot of burden on the affected party. Instead, they are more likely to put a stay on the works (a legal suspension) until Party Wall Surveyors have been appointed and Party Wall Notices served.
You do not necessarily have to go to a solicitor to get an injunction, some of our clients with our help have gone to the County Court clerk with an application form filled in with information supplied by us and on that application, had been able to get an injunction to put a stay on the building works until Party Wall Surveyors are appointed.
We have on file examples of stay injunctions and would be only too happy to guide you through the process.
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This article was written by Carl O'Boyle BSc MRICS FCIOB MFPWS. Carl is a full professional member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a member of the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building for which he currently sits on the CIOB professional conduct committee and adjudications panel.
If you have any Party Wall enquiries then please call us at our Pinner office on 0208 426 1448. We cover all of Pinner, Harrow, Stanmore, Northwood, Central London and the surrounding areas.
