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Free Party Wall Notices
Fill in the short form below and this page writes your party wall notices for you, with an acknowledgement form and a covering letter for your neighbour, and a plain guide to serving them.
Do you need a notice?
Under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, you must give your neighbours written notice before starting certain building work. There are three kinds of notice:
- Line of junction notice (section 1): building a new wall on, or up against, the boundary line where there is no shared wall. One month's notice.
- Party structure notice (section 3): work to a wall, floor or other structure you already share, such as cutting in steel beams for a loft conversion or extension, removing a chimney breast from a party wall, raising the wall, underpinning it, or inserting a damp-proof course. Two months' notice.
- Adjacent excavation notice (section 6): digging foundations within 3 metres of your neighbour's building and deeper than its foundations, or within 6 metres where the dig would cross a line drawn down at 45 degrees from the bottom of their foundations. One month's notice.
Many projects need more than one. A rear extension often needs a party structure notice and an adjacent excavation notice. Minor work, such as putting up shelves, fitting sockets or replastering, doesn't usually need notice.
This page gives general guidance only. It isn't legal or professional advice on your project, and you are responsible for the details you enter. A notice with the wrong details or served on the wrong people may not be valid. If you're unsure, ask a party wall surveyor before you serve.
Please read these terms before using the tool.
Terms of use for the free tools
- These terms apply to the repair cost estimator, the fixed-price quotes pack and the party wall notices on this website (the tools). They are provided free by Prescott Chartered Surveyors, the trading name of Richard Prescott MRICS. By ticking the box before using a tool, you agree to these terms.
- Personal use only. You may use the tools only for your own home or another property you own, for your own personal use. You must not use the tools, or copy, sell or reproduce their prices, content or documents, for any commercial purpose, including pricing or advising on work for others or running another website or service.
- Automated tools, not advice. The tools are automated and give general information only. No one checks what you enter or what the tools produce. They are not a quotation, a survey, or professional or legal advice on your property, and using them does not make you a client of Prescott Chartered Surveyors.
- Estimates. Prices are estimates based on published price guides, and what you are charged may be quite different. Always get at least three written quotations and agree a fixed price before work starts.
- Your decisions. You decide what work is done, which contractor to use and what you agree with them. You are responsible for the details you enter and for checking every document before you send or serve it. Any contract is between you and your contractor or neighbour; Prescott Chartered Surveyors is not a party to it. The contractor is responsible for their own work.
- Safety.
- Do not climb a ladder, go onto a roof or work at height to measure or inspect anything; take all measurements from the ground.
- Do not carry out building work yourself because a tool shows a price for it. Work at height should be done by a competent contractor using a tower or scaffold where needed, and you should check that your contractor holds public liability insurance.
- Structural work, such as removing a wall or chimney breast, or digging foundations near a neighbour's building, needs calculations from a structural engineer or chartered surveyor and Building Regulations approval before it starts.
- Buildings built before about 2000 may contain asbestos. Do not drill, cut, sand or break materials that might contain it; they should be tested, and removed only by a suitably qualified contractor, licensed where required.
- Older paint may contain lead and should not be dry-sanded or burnt off.
- Gas work must be done only by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and electrical work by a registered electrician.
- Never cap or block a chimney or flue that is still in use, including a neighbour's. A disused flue should be capped and ventilated by a competent contractor.
- Liability. Because the tools are free and automated, Prescott Chartered Surveyors does not accept liability for any loss arising from your use of them or reliance on their results. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
- These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
1. Which notices do you need?
Tick every one that applies.
Use this only where there's no wall on the boundary line, or only a wall standing wholly on one side. If there's already a shared wall, you need a party structure notice instead.
Special foundations need your neighbour's written consent, and the notice must come with plans, sections and details of construction, with particulars of the loads. Your engineer can provide these. This is a good point to ask a surveyor.
If you don't know how deep your neighbour's foundations are, your designer or engineer can advise. If in doubt, serve the notice.
The law requires plans and sections showing where and how deep you'll dig, and where any new building will stand, to go with this notice.
2. You and your property
Name everyone who owns your property. Every owner should sign the notices.
3. Your neighbour
If you can't find out who owns the property, leave the names blank and the notice will be addressed to "The Owner". If the neighbouring property has separate owners, such as a freeholder and a leaseholder, prepare a separate set for each: change the names and make the documents again.
4. Dates and surveyor
If your neighbour doesn't consent, one agreed surveyor acting impartially for you both is usually the quickest and cheapest route. Leave this blank if you haven't chosen one.
5. Your documents
Make each document, check it carefully, then download or print it. Send your neighbour each notice, the acknowledgement form and the covering letter together.
To change anything, change your answers above and make the document again. The Word file is locked so the wording can't be altered by mistake; only the boxes your neighbour fills in, and the signature and date lines, can be completed.
Serving the notices
- Who: every owner of the neighbouring property. That includes the freeholder and anyone with a lease of more than a year. Joint owners can be named on the same notice.
- How: hand it to them, or post it to their home or business address (for a company, its registered office). If you can't find out who the owner is, address it to "The Owner" and fix it somewhere easily seen on the property. Use email only if they've said in writing that they'll accept notices by email.
- When: the notice period runs from the day the notice is served. If you post it, allow a few extra days.
- Records: keep a signed copy of everything you send, and proof of posting or delivery.
What happens next
Your neighbour has 14 days to reply. They can:
- Consent. The work can go ahead once the notice period ends, or sooner if they agree in writing. They keep the right to have any damage put right, so it's sensible to take dated photographs of their side of the wall before you start, with their permission.
- Dissent and agree a surveyor. One agreed surveyor prepares a party wall award setting out how the work is to be done.
- Dissent and appoint their own surveyor. Each of you appoints a surveyor, and the two surveyors agree the award.
If they don't reply within 14 days, the Act treats this as a dispute, and surveyors need to be appointed. As the owner carrying out the work, you would normally pay the surveyors' reasonable fees.
A party structure notice or adjacent excavation notice runs out if the work hasn't started within 12 months. Party wall notices are separate from planning permission and Building Regulations approval, which you may also need.