Party wall matters vary greatly in their simplicity, or indeed complexity, and this case study offers an interesting example with multiple layers of complications and challenges.

In this case the wall in question was an external party wall, dividing two properties and their land. The party wall itself was a historic, characteristic brick wall that reached 2 meters in height. It was cracked in multiple places, and one of the pier supports had fallen down, with scaffolding holding it in place. The individual building owner whose garden it had fallen into had young children, prompting him to instigate party wall services. His building was an individual dwelling house, and the adjoining building was a block of 5 flats with 5 owners, each with different ownership rights. This meant there were 6 parties in total. To further complicate matters, the garden space belonging to the flats was split, with some shared garden areas demised to all five owners, and some individual sections demised on an individual exclusive basis. In addition, some owners lived abroad and rented their flats out, which meant communication could be more difficult.  

With 6 parties and each party entitled to appoint their own surveyor, there was the potential for 6 party wall surveyors to be working on this. Fortunately in this case, 4 parties appointed one surveyor (us) and 2 appointed another surveyor they were acquainted with.

The residents preferred the original brick wall, but had been exploring replacing the broken wall with wooden panelled fencing due to the poor state of repair of the wall and the cost of erecting a new one. In line with the act, both sides are equally responsible for costs, so in this case the individual owner is therefore responsible for 50%, and the 5 flat owners are therefore responsible for 1/5th of the other 50% (i.e. 10% each). The difference in cost responsibility meant there were differences in opinion on how to proceed, as they faced different costs. For example, a £2000 solution would have cost a flat owner £200 (10%) , whereas it would have cost the individual building owner £1000 (50%). This added to the complicated process.

Party Wall surveyors are not necessarily qualified building surveyors, and so whilst they might be experts in party walls they are not necessarily equipped to diagnose building related issues and may not be technical. We exclusively use RICS Chartered Surveyors for all matters, which means we have all the knowledge, skills and expertise to manage any building related challenges arising in the course of any party wall matters. In this case, we were also able to diagnose the core issue leading to the disrepair, and establish a remedial solution. The roots from a large tree in the flats’ garden was causing the brick wall to lift, though responsibility of the tree and ownership of the garden section the tree was located in was unclear, and further the tree was protected by a TPO (Tree Preservation Order). Again, these layered additional complications onto the matter. However, with an engineered solution for beams to bridge the large roots to allow movement and enable growth of the tree not to impact the wall, and an expansion joint to allow movement with the wall, a repair with reasonable costs was possible and low risk of recurring future issues meant residents were able to go with the preferred option of keeping the existing wall.  

Adopting a common sense approach with all parties, and bringing everyone together on their united objective to resolve the dangerous wall, we represented 4 households and worked with the surveyor for the other 2 households. Navigating the numerous challenges and complexities, we established a sensible way forward to agree the wall repair and a sensible cost contribution from all parties, which ultimately led to the Party Wall award being created and subsequent completion of works.