Blog

The importance of a pre-party wall inspection before the service of notices-Grosvenor Square in London.

The importance of a pre-party wall inspection before the service of notices-Grosvenor Square in London.

Monday 14th March 2022
Jordan Misan

The importance of a pre-party wall inspection; before the service of notices-Grosvenor Square in London, in this particular situation cannot be under estimated.

Carl O'Boyle of Tayross Associates-chartered building surveyors were recently involved in a project just of Grosvenor Square in London.

The property was a mid-terraced house constructed most likely in the late 1700s Georgian period. The current owners are intending to extensively modernise the property internally and to replace the main roof covering and extend living space externally in a courtyard.

Under the party wall etc act 1996; statutory works such as exposing a party wall between properties, enclosing on an existing party wall (not notifiable but needs agreement), excavating within 3 m of a neighbour's foundation are all notifiable under the Act, and will need discussing with the neighbours, normally through their appointed surveyor.

Failure to notify statutory works could cause severe disruption to the works, should the neighbours object on the grounds; those statutory procedures have not been followed. It could lead to you carrying out illegal works, which if they cause your neighbour injury or cost.

To help avoid this Carl, a very experienced chartered party wall and building surveyor visited this site before the service of notices to determine exactly what neighbours would be affected by the works

This helped in reducing the number of notices that needed to be served and also pick up any anomalies that may not be obvious on the land registry but on site.

After the site visit our actual initial fee estimate fell by 15% as it was initially based on an office desk search on the Land Registry. As it was determined that not all the neighbours needed to be notified. Not just saving fee costs for the Building Owner; but also likely to lead to a reduction in the lead times in procedures to start the works.

Unnecessary party wall notification of neighbours can lead to other surveyors being involved and £££, thousands of pounds of wasted fees and severe delays to the works.

'Please contact Tayross before serving notices to save you £1,000.00's in unnecessary fees and time delays.

carl@tayross.com
www.tayross.com