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Section 10 (4) Party Wall Notices - When are they used?
Friday 26th July 2019
Carl O'Boyle BSc MRICS FCIOB MFPWS
A Section 10(4) Party Wall Notices is served when an Adjoining Owner fails after 14 days to respond to an initial Notice.
At Tayross Associates, we find there are a number of reasons why an Adjoining Owner may not respond to the initial Notice - the main reasons are likely as follows:-
The Adjoining Owners do not live at the property and is rented out.
The Adjoining Owners have been away on holidays and have not had a chance to respond.
The Adjoining Owners do not understand nor do they take seriously the paperwork that has been sent through.
The Party Wall Notices are misplaced.
Adjoining Owners feel that if they do not respond to the Notices they will frustrate the process.
It's important, in order to keep your project on target, that the Surveyor diarise the dates the Notices were initially sent and then on the fourteenth day (the permitted response time) to issue the second Notice which is called a Section 10(4) Notice.
After 14 days, the Adjoining Owner is deemed to have dissented, however under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 and in order to progress matters, when no response is received you will then need to serve a further Party Wall Notice which is referred to as a Section 10 (4) notice.
This gives the Adjoining Owner further 10 days to respond. Upon expiry of the 10 day period, you are then able to appoint a Surveyor on their behalf to ensure matters progress and your proposed work is not delayed as a result of the absentee or non-responsive Adjoining Owner.
We would advise before serving the Section 10(4) Notice that you contact us as it's very important that the Notice served initially is valid for the 10(4) appointment to stand legally, should it be challenged.
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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 London and the surrounding areas.
