How much should I pay a Party Wall Surveyor? Post Reply

[davethomas99999]

Go to:

www.partywallsurveyorsassociation.com

They provide a full list of approved Surveyors.

[Vernet66]

I am looking for people willing to talk about their experience of a party wall dispute to an audience of surveyors . Not about the neighbours but about the party wall surveyors who handled it (for good or bad). As much as I would like to be proven wrong, it seems to me that owners are sometimes treated as a commodity and the true nature of dispute resolution forgotten. If you are willing to travel to central London, please get in touch via the Party Wall Academy website.
www.thepartywallacademy.org.uk

[jenster68]

We are having a ground floor rear extension built and have provided both our adjoining neighbours with the party wall notice.  One of the neighbours has immediately appointed a party wall surveyor (I don't know why).  The neighbour has agreed for us to share their surveyor and the surveyor has given us a fixed fee for carrying out the process up to and including the award.  My question is:  is it common practice for the party wall surveyor to divulge the fee we have agreed to our adjoining neighbour?  As the building owners, the fee is payable by us so I am not sure that is the business of the adjoining owner to know the fee that we have agreed.  However, the surveyor has now copied the adjoining owner in on an email trail between me and him within which the fees were agreed.  Any advice appreciated.

[SVK]

As a party wall surveyor I'd like to offer a few pointers which may help some of you:

1. Once you've made the decision to go ahead with a project, pop over to your neighbour's house with a bottle of wine and speak to your neighbours (NO EMAILS) as soon as possible, informing them of your decision. Explain that you're putting in for planning/permitted development and you intend to notify them under the Party Wall Act (using an experienced surveyor) so that both of you are protected under it. Make them feel comfortable that you are doing your best to do everything above board and want to minimise disruption. Remember, for most people, their house is their biggest asset so building works will naturally spook them.

Where neighbours don't communicate is when problems happen and neighbours are more likely to appoint their own surveyor. Keep an open line of communication and just be transparent about it.

Almost everyday we hear "my neighbour just sent me a party wall notice and I don't know what to do" or "I've never met them and I'd like to appoint a surveyor."

Don't sit behind the screen, be proactive and be neighbourly.

2. If you are going to appoint a party wall surveyor, try and find one who belongs to a body such as the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors or the Pyramus and Thisbe Club, so that there is some sort of code of practice that they need to abide by, and make sure you ask them how they will mitigate costs, along with any other hidden fees. If they aren't transparent, forget it. If they aren't proactive, then expect delays in your project.

3. IF your neighbour decides to appoint their own surveyor, please be aware that they have probably received a handful of letters from party wall surveyors from all over the country marketing their services. These surveyors trawl the planning portal looking for people who are carrying out building works and then write to their neighbours informing them of their rights. Because there are low barriers to entry to become a party wall surveyor, you get some good surveyors but you get other surveyors who are all about their fees and charge extortionate amounts.

Ask your neighbour to get a surveyor from a party wall body, to make sure that they're local to the project (to avoid travelling expenses), to ensure they themselves aren't liable for any fees and most importantly...GOOGLE them.

4. If your neighbour does appoint a surveyor ask your surveyor to ask that surveyor for an indication of their fees, hourly rate and how long they think they'll spend on the project. Remember, you as the building owner are only down to pay reasonable fees. To give you an idea of how important it is to keep an eye on fees, I recently asked another party wall surveyor for his fee for a single storey rear extension. He came back to me with a fee of £2,250. We challenged this with one email and he quickly reduced it to £1,110.

There is a lot more I could write but I'm rushing out of the office, but happy to respond to specific questions.

Hi ricochernandez, I appreciate you posted the advice a while ago but just wondered if you wouldn’t mind offering some advice. We have just been granted planning on our property. We did visit both our neighbours before the build, but both have gone ahead and instructed their own surveyor. One of the surveyors is a city based surveyor who has already requested several bits of information, some of which, we have objected to as irrelevant to the party wall and in particular the foundations. In respect of the fees, I have a horrid feeling the bill will be extortionate. I am expecting a big bill from both. I will request a breakdown in fees and possibly pay for what is reasonable. My question is can they pursue us for the rest of their bill? Thanks in advance

[Callymum]

Hi there, I know I am jumping on this post a little late, but my husband runs a Chartered Surveying Practice, and after listening to many, similar 'complaints', published a Blog article which you may find helpful? 

https://www.calsurv.co.uk/surveyorsnote ... all-awards

If you would like a friendly chat or any other advice, do get in touch, he would be happy to help... 

[Rosie1ee]

Roughly from £1-2,000 I would say depending on the size?

Xx

[CallyAnna]

On a different note, if you are planning building works, this Blog may also be helpful in terms of cost saving....

https://www.calsurv.co.uk/surveyorsnote ... and-pounds 
 

[N J]

Hi
Just reading with great interest your post.
Bottom line for 2 simple single storey extensions. Our neighbours surveyor is charging £1850 + vat both sides. I was told by my architect it should be around £1000 each side.
As other people have said, it feels like they have you over a barrel. As unless you pay you don’t get the agreement. But I feel these costs are not justified especially as my surveyors fees are less and he has drawn up the agreement!
Any advice, much needed !
Thank you

[dredz]

Hi,

Am do to have learnt of your experience. RICS or CIOB accredited professional ls are not always competent in the party wall matters. The chartered status just gives them an excuse to charge more money. I would refer them to their governing body for advice to see if their costs are ethical?

[Lulubear]

They don't.  there is no regulation, its all very corrupt.
 

[Roundabout40]

We paid a total of £4400, £2100 for our surveyor, £2300 for adjoining surveyor, this covered the party wall award for the two detached properties either side that we were building an extension close to. This cost more than drawing up our plans.

My tips:
1) Speak to your neighbours about your plans and upcoming notice
2) Ask your builder to explain to the neighbours exactly what they are going to do and explain any risks and their likelihood. This is not always possible because the party wall agreement takes so long you often need to kick that off before appointing your builder. Ours took 11 weeks from appointment to award agreed.
3) Let the neighbours know the cost of their decision to you, the cost of dissent and choosing their own surveyor/agreed surveyor (I was happy if they wanted to choose the agreed surveyor)
4) Before appointing your surveyor check if they will recommend your neighbour dissents

Reasons for a neighbour to consent:
- Neighbour is considerate enough to serve the notice
- Act already covers causing unnecessary inconvenience and making good any damage caused by the works
- Retain a good relationship with your neighbours (likely to be more considerate and keep you informed regarding the build)
- If your planning to carry out extension yourself the neighbour is likely to reciprocate
- if you have any concerns these can often be agreed in writing with your neighbour without the need to dissent e.g. agree a record of condition by chartered party wall surveyor paid for by the building owner
- save your neighbour (building owner) thousands of pounds in party wall surveyor fees
- the award is limited to the party wall works (e.g. 2 days of a 6 month build, think bigger picture(
- the works are simple and issues are unlikely (Standard single storey extension to detached house v terraced having basement built)
- if you dissent it can delay the project start date which can cause projects to hit bad weather and the duration to extend

I have written to my MP to request Party Wall Act reform as it is an unnecessarily expensive, drawn out and stressful process to go through that causes a relationship breakdown with neighbours.

Many people don't serve the notice so not enough people are aware of the problems of the Party Wall Act and so there aren't enough people out there calling for change.

Reasons to reform the Act:
- Not many building owners serve the notice when they should
- Empowers your neighbour to make a decision that costs the building owner thousands of pounds
- Can cause the dispute in the first place (our neighbour said they would consent but once they received the notice they changed their minds)
- Unnecessary cost and duplication of two impartial surveyors (£150 per hour each)
- Surveyors are not following the government explanatory booklet, point 12 advises reaching an agreement where as surveyors recommend dissent
- Ruins relations with neighbours

[Viguev]

Reason for hiring a RICS surveyor is to outline the measurement of the land adjoining next door garden. He made the measurement correctly which matches the land title plan but his wordings DO NOT MATCH THE markings of HIS RED LINE INDICATING THAT THE NEIGHBOUR’s FENCE HAS ENCROACHED MY LAND! The neighbour claimed that a metal post that he planted had been there for 30 years but according to his Title Plan from HMLR he had only been there since 2003; the year when he bought it. I told him that wasn’t the post standing there; there were 3feet wooden posts with trelis attatched; low enough to allow both neighbour to manuovre a ladder to the sides of the garage in time of repair works. But he removed the trelis and planted the metal post next to my garage concrete wall and poured cement up to my shed’s wall. When I argued that the metal post wasn’t there he dug it out and took one of my concrete post holding my old fence and planted it again where he dug out the metal post. He thinks of me as a blind dumb! If the creator of heaven and earth care, why people like him do as they please?