Party wall notices for extensions and lofts

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies across England and Wales. It's separate from planning and building regulations: you can have both approvals and still need to serve notice.

When you need to serve notice

• Work to a party wall, for example cutting in steel beams for a loft conversion or raising the wall. Notice is at least two months before work starts.
• Building a new wall on the boundary line, common with side-return extensions. Notice is at least one month.
• Excavating near a neighbour's foundations: within 3 m and deeper than their foundations, or within 6 m in some cases. Notice is at least one month.

What happens next

Your neighbour has 14 days to respond. They can consent, or dissent and appoint a surveyor. If they don't reply, a dispute is treated as having arisen, and surveyors are appointed to agree a party wall award setting out how the work will be done. As the building owner, you normally pay the surveyors' fees.

Plan it early

Notice periods can hold up the start on site, so it's best to serve notice as soon as the building regulations design is settled. We prepare and serve the notices as part of your project when needed.

Related services

• House extensions: Drawings for every kind of house extension, from a kitchen side return to a double-storey rear extension, priced before we start.
• Loft conversions: Drawings for loft conversions of every type, with the stair, headroom and fire escape route worked out from the start.
• Basement conversions: Drawings for converting a cellar or digging a new basement, coordinated with the structural design and waterproofing from the outset.
• Party wall surveys: Party wall notices, awards and schedules of condition in London, acting as building owner's surveyor or agreed surveyor for extensions, lofts and basements.