Starting a building project is exciting. Planning the layout, choosing materials, imagining the finished result, it’s a process most homeowners genuinely enjoy. What tends to get overlooked, however, is the legal groundwork that needs to happen before a single brick is moved. If your project involves work near or on a shared boundary, you are almost certainly required to serve a Party Wall Notice before works begin.
At ALD Surveying, we speak with homeowners every week who have either served a notice incorrectly or, more commonly, didn’t realise they needed to serve one at all. Getting this right from the outset protects you legally, keeps your project on schedule, and maintains a workable relationship with the people living next door.
The Legal Foundation Behind the Notice
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 introduced a statutory framework for managing building work that affects shared or boundary structures. It applies across England and Wales and came into force on 1 July 1997. Under the Act, anyone carrying out notifiable work must give their adjoining neighbours formal written notice. This is the Party Wall Notice. Without it, you risk injunctions, legal disputes, and financial liability for any resulting damage.
There is no single type of notice. The Act requires different notices depending on the nature of the work you’re planning, and selecting the wrong one is one of the most common errors we see.
The Three Types of Party Wall Notice
A Line of Junction Notice under Section 1 is required when you intend to build a new wall at or astride the boundary line between two properties. This must be served at least one month before works begin. It applies where no party wall currently exists and you are effectively creating one.
A Party Structure Notice under Section 3 covers work to an existing party wall or party fence wall. This includes cutting into the wall to insert beams, raising or underpinning the wall, or demolishing and rebuilding it. Because this work is more intrusive, the Act requires a minimum of two months’ notice before works start.
The third type is an Adjacent Excavation Notice under Section 6. This applies when you plan to excavate within three metres of a neighbour’s building to a depth lower than their foundations, or within six metres if your excavation cuts a line drawn downward at 45 degrees from the bottom of their foundations. Extensions with deep foundations and basement conversions frequently trigger this notice.
What a Valid Notice Must Include
A common misconception is that a brief letter or a conversation over the fence is sufficient. It isn’t. For a notice to be legally valid, it needs to include your name and address, the address of the property where works will take place, a clear description of the proposed works, the planned start date, and a statement that the notice is being served under the relevant section of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
It must be served in writing and delivered either in person, by post, or by recorded delivery to each adjoining owner. If there are multiple owners, for instance a property held jointly, notices must be served on each individual.
What Happens After You Serve the Notice?
Once your neighbour receives the notice, they have 14 days to respond in writing. They can give written consent, in which case works can proceed without any further formal process. They can dissent, which triggers the appointment of party wall surveyors. If they do nothing at all within those 14 days, the Act treats this as dissent, a point that consistently surprises building owners. Silence is not consent.
Where dissent occurs, the parties must appoint an agreed surveyor or each appoint their own. From there, the surveyors produce a Party Wall Award, a legally binding document that governs how the works are carried out.
Should You Serve the Notice Yourself?
Technically, yes. Building owners can serve their own notices. In practice, however, errors in description, timing, or notice type can invalidate the process entirely, causing delays that knock weeks off your build programme. We always recommend instructing a qualified party wall surveyor to draft and serve notices on your behalf.
At ALD Surveying, we manage the entire notice process for clients across Kent and London, ensuring notices are valid, served on time, and clearly described. Disputes are expensive and stressful, and most of the ones we deal with could have been avoided with a properly served notice at the start.
For a full overview of how the Party Wall Act works and what it means for your project, visit our Party Wall Act service page.