Notice for Excavation Near a Neighbour
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Neighbour performing Works without a Party Wall Agreement
What is a notice for excavation near an adjoining property? If you are planning to do any excavation work close to a neighbour, you must notify them under the Party Wall Act.
Section 6 of this Act covers what you need to know if you’re going to be digging in the vicinity of a neighbouring property and lower than their foundations.
The purpose of section 6 is to manage the range of excavation projects that are possible in the United Kingdom under the Party Wall Act 1996. It is important to follow this section of the Act so you know your obligations before you begin works near your adjoining owner’s home.
It also sets out the rights of the “adjoining owner” if they are served notice.
The notice mandated by Section 6 must be delivered to any adjacent property owner whose building is located 3-6 meters or less from the proposed work, depending on the type of foundations being made.
If the adjacent structure is within 6 meters of the worksite, Section 6 really only comes into play if the worksite is using piled foundations. To summarise:
- If we are digging within 3m of any part of the adjacent property owner’s building/structure, the bottom of our new foundations extend below the existing foundation of the neighbouring property owner.
- If we are excavating within 6m of the adjacent property owner’s building/structure (which we must measure horizontally), the foundational work you are doing must be below a plane defined by a line drawn down at a 45° angle from the bottom of the adjoining property owner’s existing foundations.
1 month’s notice is given here. The principal aim of giving notice under Section 6 is to let the adjoining owner know what is happening and to give them the chance to either agree or disagree with it. If the work is going to be very close to the boundary of the properties and could potentially affect the adjoining owner, then the Building Owner has to give them notice. They have to do it in person or by post, and it must go together with certain documents, such as plans and sections of the proposed work and a copy of Section 6 of the Act.
When you must give Party Wall Notice?
If you own a building where you plan to carry out any excavations covered by the Act, you must notify the adjoining owner(s) at least 1 month before you intend to start your work.
This advance notice serves a dual purpose. One, it allows the involved parties to discuss and hopefully reach an agreement about the impending works; two, in the event that no agreement can be reached, it allows for the appointment of a surveyor, who acts as the necessary liaison, to reach that agreement.
What must be included in the Party Wall Notice?
It falls upon you, the building owner, to draft the necessary notification. There are two ways to serve notice. You can either give it in person to the adjoining owner or send it in the post. After the adjoining owner has been served, they have 14 days to respond. Their response will be one of two things: they will either consent to the work being planned or they will dissent.
How do I serve a Party Wall Notice?
To serve a notice under the Party Wall Act, which concerns building work on a shared wall, there must be at least a 2-month waiting period before the actual building can begin. The notice must be directed to the proper legal owner and/or leaseholders of the property.
If these necessary details are not included in the notice, then it has not been served properly, and the notice period does not start. The notice can be served without planning permission and up to a year in advance of when the work is scheduled to start.
Once the adjoining owner receives the Party Wall Notice, they have 14 days to reply to it. They can either accept the notice (and allow the building owner to get on with the work) or dispute it (in which case they shouldn’t get on with the work until the dispute is resolved).
If neither party hears in 14 days, the building owner’s surveyor serves the adjoining owner with a further notice to help move things along. If they still don’t accept or dispute, we start assuming the adjacent owner disputes the notice and proceed to appoint surveyor on their side.
