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Party Wall Surveyor Fees

If you need to appoint a surveyor for serving notice then that will be under a simple contract between you and the surveyor, as it would with any other person or company that you asked to do work for you. Once there is a dispute however, you are required by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 to ‘appoint’ a party wall surveyor. There is a difference between appointing and contracting with one under simple contract. Where there is a dispute the appointed surveyor has an appointment by statute and you have effectively just ‘picked’ him. He is there to resolve the dispute/s and not advocate for you, fight your corner or take instructions from you. The whole point is to resolve the dispute as quickly and efficiently as possible.

There are two things to point out if you are the building owner who is proposing the work and serving notice on your neighbour.

Firstly, you are responsible for the costs of your own party wall surveyor and also the costs of your neighbour’s party wall surveyor.

Secondly, depending where you are the rates per hour could be anywhere from £100-£200 per hour.

You can obtain a cost for your own party wall surveyor to include serving notice and then after if there is a dispute. What you have no control over is the surveyor who is appointed for your neighbour. He or she is unlikely to agree to fix a cost, firstly because you have not picked them and secondly because they are allowed under the Act to charge ‘reasonable costs’. Therefore, there is no cap on fees.

A.K.Assistance Ltd are happy to provide fixed costs which are £75.00 for a notice plus Land Registry search fees which are £3.00 per search to find out the legal names of the adjoining owners and leaseholders names.

Party Wall awards for simple works (such as chimney breast removal etc.) are fixed at £550.00 per award to include all correspondence between both surveyors.

If we are appointed as agreed surveyor we charge an additional £150.00 per award fixed fee.

A schedule of condition is charged at a flat rate of £450.00. If there is more than one property then as long as access can be arranged on the same visit we cap this at £650.00.

All costs are inclusive.

Unfortunately we cannot do anything about next doors surveyor apart from check the logged time to make sure it is reasonable and raise a dispute if we think it is not.