Jurisdiction, appointments, Third Surveyors, ex parte procedure, awards, appeals, fees and the limits of a Party Wall Surveyor’s role.
A served award is intended to be conclusive subject to the statutory appeal. Surveyors should not simply rewrite a substantive decision because a party is unhappy with it. A further award may be possible for a genuinely new or unresolved matter within jurisdiction, while obvious clerical correction is a different issue.
Only within the limits of the statutory costs jurisdiction. Section 10(13) permits reasonable costs arising from the Party Wall dispute, but surveyors cannot use an award to transfer the costs of separate court litigation merely because it is connected with the project.
No. A Party Wall Surveyor has no general injunction or stop-work power. Surveyors can determine matters within section 10 and regulate the time and manner of statutory work by award; a court, not the surveyor, grants an injunction.
Yes, where a further matter within the surveyors' continuing statutory jurisdiction genuinely needs to be determined. A supplemental award is not a device for reopening a final decision simply because one party dislikes it.
Yes. Section 10(11) expressly allows either owner, as well as either appointed surveyor, to call upon the selected Third Surveyor to determine disputed matters.
Generally no. Section 10(2) says appointments and selections under section 10 must be in writing and cannot be rescinded by either party. Replacement is possible only through the statutory mechanisms for death, incapacity, refusal or neglect, depending on the type of appointment.
Yes, but a complaint and a statutory appointment are different things. You may have a contractual complaint or, where applicable, a professional-body complaint, but that does not by itself remove the surveyor or alter an award. An award appeal has its own 14-day court deadline.
Legally, the Act does not require a particular professional qualification: a surveyor is any person who is not a party to the matter. But independence, relevant experience and conflicts still matter, and Government guidance cautions against appointing someone already engaged to supervise the building work.
No. Section 20 defines a surveyor as a person who is not a party to the matter, so an owner cannot appoint themselves to exercise the section 10 surveyor function in their own dispute.
It can affect whether time and expense were reasonably incurred and how reasonable statutory costs are allocated, but section 10 is not a general punishment regime. The question is what work and cost were reasonably necessary to resolve the statutory dispute.
No one has a statutory blank cheque. Section 10(13) is concerned with reasonable costs, so repetitive, irrelevant or unnecessary correspondence can be challenged by asking what issue it advanced and why the time was reasonably incurred.
Often the building owner pays the adjoining owner's reasonable surveyor costs where the works are for the building owner's benefit, but liability is not an unlimited entitlement. The surveyor or surveyors determine reasonable costs under section 10(13), subject to the facts and any cost-sharing provisions in the Act.
Only if there is a dispute within section 10 about a matter connected with work to which the Act relates. The Party Wall Act is not a general tribunal for every boundary, planning, contract, nuisance or neighbour dispute.
Membership may indicate training, standards or access to a complaints process, but the Act does not make RICS, FPWS or P&T membership a statutory qualification. Relevant Party Wall experience, independence, judgment and transparent fees still need to be assessed separately.
An award is conclusive unless successfully appealed, and sums payable under the Act are recoverable as civil debts. If a party ignores non-monetary obligations, court enforcement or other legal remedies may be needed; the surveyors themselves are not enforcement officers.
If you want the award rescinded or modified, the statutory route is an appeal to the County Court within 14 days beginning with the day the award is served. Disagreement with the reasoning does not by itself suspend or cancel the award.
Treat this as urgent. The statutory appeal period is 14 days from service. The courts have recognised only a very narrow possibility of extending a statutory deadline in exceptional circumstances, so a late appellant should obtain specialist legal advice immediately rather than assume extra time is available.
A surveyor appointed under section 10 performs a statutory dispute-resolution function and should act impartially, not as an advocate. Raise concrete examples in writing, distinguish disagreement from bias, and consider the Third Surveyor, professional complaint or legal advice where the conduct materially affects the process.
A potential conflict should be identified and disclosed early. The Act does not provide a simple owner-controlled power to rescind an appointment, so the response depends on whether the issue is disclosure, professional conduct, incapacity to act or a dispute requiring determination.
The Act contains specific remedies for refusal or neglect. With a two-surveyor appointment, refusal to act effectively or failure to act effectively for 10 days after a proper request can permit the other surveyor to proceed ex parte within the statutory limits; an agreed-surveyor appointment is dealt with differently.
That is not necessarily misconduct. A Party Wall Surveyor is not appointed as an advocate to follow every instruction; the surveyor must exercise an independent statutory judgment within the Act while keeping the appointing owner properly informed.
Only reasonable statutory costs are recoverable. Ask for the hourly rate, time record, tasks undertaken and why each task was reasonably required. A high invoice is not automatically unreasonable, but neither is a surveyor's time automatically recoverable because it was spent.
An Agreed Surveyor can be an efficient option where both owners trust one suitably experienced person to determine the dispute impartially. The appointment is joint, not the building owner's appointment, and if the agreed surveyor later falls within section 10(3) the dispute-resolution process begins again.
Delay alone should be distinguished from the statutory tests. If an appointed surveyor refuses to act effectively, or neglects to act effectively for 10 days after a proper request, sections 10(6) and 10(7) can allow the other surveyor to proceed ex parte in the circumstances specified by the Act.
That can raise a jurisdiction problem. Section 10(10) authorises an award of matters connected with work to which the Act relates and which are in dispute between the owners. Surveyors do not have a free-standing power to decide unrelated or undisputed issues.
A surveyor can ask for information that is reasonably needed to determine a matter within the statutory dispute, but there is no unlimited right to demand documents simply because they may be useful. Ask what disputed issue each request addresses and why the material is necessary for an award.
An award may determine the right to execute statutory work, the time and manner of doing it, and other matters arising out of or incidental to the dispute, including the costs of making the award. Those powers remain limited by the surveyors' statutory jurisdiction.
Section 10 uses a specific statutory test, not a general complaint about slowness or disagreement. Under section 10(7), an appointed surveyor must have neglected to act effectively for 10 days beginning with a proper request before the ex parte consequence in that subsection can arise.
Ignoring an award does not make it disappear. Unless successfully appealed, an award is conclusive under section 10(16); sums payable under the Act can be recovered as civil debts and other obligations may require court enforcement.
Only when the statutory conditions are met. Under section 10(6), one appointed surveyor may act ex parte if the other refuses to act effectively; under section 10(7), neglect to act effectively for 10 days after a proper request can permit ex parte action on the subject matter of that request.
The Third Surveyor is selected at the outset of a two-surveyor appointment but need not be involved routinely. Either owner or either appointed surveyor can refer a disputed matter under section 10(11) when a determination is genuinely required.
Any person who is not a party to the matter can satisfy the Act's definition of 'surveyor'; no RICS or other membership is legally required. In practice, the person should understand construction, the Act, jurisdiction and impartial dispute resolution.
There is no automatic 'loser pays' rule. The reasonable costs of the statutory process are allocated under section 10(13), and a Third Surveyor's award will normally determine responsibility for the costs of that referral. A Third Surveyor may require payment of the award costs before service under section 10(15).