ÆANDREW EDWARD & CO.
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For adjoining owners

They've started work and
you were never served a notice.

Carrying out notifiable work without serving a valid party wall notice is a breach of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Your neighbour loses the statutory authority the Act would have given them, and you gain remedies you did not have before. Including, in the right circumstances, an injunction.

Your position is strongest at the beginning and weakens as the build progresses. If work has started in the last few days, treat this as urgent rather than something to raise at the weekend.

Get urgent advice todayDamage has already happened
First, check

Is the work actually notifiable?

Not all building work engages the Act, and it is worth establishing that before anything is said to anyone.

A garden shed, a conservatory on shallow pads well away from your house, internal alterations that do not touch the shared wall, or a loft conversion that avoids bearing into it, none of these necessarily require notice. Getting this wrong in either direction is costly: accusing a neighbour who has done nothing wrong is hard to walk back, and assuming you have no rights when you do means losing the moment when you had most leverage.

Usually notifiable

  • Cutting beams into the shared wall for a loft conversion
  • Removing a chimney breast from a shared stack
  • Forming a large opening in a party wall
  • Raising or underpinning the party wall
  • Building a new wall up to or astride the boundary
  • Excavating foundations within 3 metres and deeper than yours
  • Basement excavation, piling or underpinning near your building
  • Cutting away a projection, or inserting a tray or flashing

Usually not

  • Internal work that does not affect the shared wall
  • Replastering or decorating their own side
  • A freestanding garden building away from your boundary
  • Shallow pad foundations well clear of your house
  • Re-roofing that does not alter the party structure
  • Fence replacement on the boundary (a fence is not a party wall)
  • Landscaping that does not involve deep excavation

If you are not sure, ask before you act

Send us photographs of what you can see, and tell us what you have been told is happening. We will tell you whether the Act is engaged. That advice is free, and it is a great deal easier than un-sending a solicitor's letter to someone who had done nothing wrong.
What to do

The order matters more than the speed.

The instinct is to go straight round and confront them. Do the first two steps first, they take an hour and they are what everything afterwards depends on.

  1. Record everything, today

    Before it changes
    Photograph your property inside and out, especially the shared wall and anything near the works, with the date visible in the file metadata. Photograph what you can see of the works themselves. Note when work started and what has been done. This is the closest thing to a schedule of condition you can still create.

  2. Do not confront the builders

    Speak to the owner
    Site staff cannot resolve a party wall issue and an argument on site helps nobody. If you say anything at all, say it to the owner, briefly, and in writing afterwards.

  3. Get it assessed

    Free, and quick
    We will tell you whether the work is notifiable, what has already been done that cannot be undone, and what your realistic remedies are. This is the point at which the position becomes clear enough to act on.

  4. A letter setting out the position

    Usually enough
    In most cases a clear, unemotional letter explaining that the work is notifiable, that no notice was served, and what needs to happen now, is what resolves it. Most building owners did not know and would rather regularise it than litigate.

  5. Regularise by agreement

    The usual outcome
    Work pauses, a notice is served for the remaining works, and the surveyors produce an Award that also addresses what has already been done. You get the schedule of condition and the protections you should have had, and your neighbour gets to finish their build.

  6. Injunction, if it comes to it

    A serious step
    Where a building owner refuses to engage and the works pose real risk, an injunction is available through a solicitor. It is discretionary, it carries a cross-undertaking in damages, and it gets harder as the build progresses. Which is why the earlier steps are not delaying tactics but the fastest route to a good outcome.
Tell us what's happening next doorRead your rights as an adjoining owner
Worth knowing

Your neighbour has more to lose than you do.

It rarely feels that way when you are the one watching a digger arrive, but the legal position is not as one-sided as it looks.

By failing to serve notice, your neighbour has forfeited the statutory authority that would have made their works lawful. Without it, cutting into a shared wall or excavating beside your foundations is potentially a trespass or a nuisance at common law. Claims that are not limited by the Act, not resolved by two surveyors, and not covered by an Award. They have also lost the Act's protections for themselves: no agreed schedule of condition means that if your house has a crack in it next year, they have no dated evidence that it was there before they started.

That is why most of these matters settle sensibly once the position is explained. It is almost always in the building owner's interest to stop, serve properly and get an Award. And a letter from a party wall surveyor setting that out is usually all it takes.

When no notice was served

Can I get an injunction to stop the work?

It is possible, and the courts have granted injunctions where notifiable work has begun without a valid notice. But it is a discretionary remedy and it weakens as the works progress: the further along the build, the more the balance of convenience shifts against stopping it. An injunction also carries a cross-undertaking in damages, meaning you may be liable for your neighbour's losses if you turn out to be wrong. It is a real remedy and a serious step, and the first thing to do is establish the facts quickly.

Is my neighbour breaking the law?

They are in breach of a statutory procedure, which is not the same as committing a criminal offence. There is no prosecution and no fine. What it means practically is that they have no statutory authority for work that would otherwise be a trespass or a nuisance, so they lose the protection the Act would have given them and expose themselves to common law claims. Often a worse position for them than serving the notice would have been.

Can a notice be served after work has started?

The Act does not provide for retrospective notices, but in practice matters are very often regularised by agreement: the building owner stops, serves a notice covering the remaining works, and the surveyors produce an Award dealing with what has already been done as well as what is to come. That is usually the sensible outcome for everyone, and it is what most of these cases end in.

They say they didn't know they needed to serve a notice.

That is often true and it is not a defence. Awareness of the Act among homeowners and small builders is poor, and most of the cases we deal with are ignorance rather than bad faith. It makes no difference to the legal position, but it does affect the tone: a clear letter explaining the position resolves a great many of these without anything more.

What if damage has already happened?

Then the absence of a schedule of condition is your immediate problem, and evidence becomes urgent. Photograph everything now, with dates. Look for anything showing the previous condition. Estate agent photographs, a mortgage valuation, a homebuyer report, insurance photographs, even family pictures with a wall in the background. Then get a surveyor to record the current state before any making good happens.

Work has started. Let's establish where you stand today.

Tell us what is happening and send whatever photographs you have. We will tell you whether it is notifiable, what your options actually are, and how quickly you need to move.

  • The building owner normally pays your surveyor's reasonable fees
  • A named surveyor on your case from start to finish
  • We will tell you honestly if you do not need us
Appoint us as your surveyorTalk to us first, freeor call 01174420259

No card details. No obligation. Nothing is final until you sign the appointment. A member of our office team reads every message, and a surveyor replies, usually within one working day.

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