Triggers
Three kinds of notifiable work
- Work to a party structure
- Cutting into a shared wall, removing a chimney breast on it, inserting a beam bearing into it, raising it, or underpinning it. Two months' notice.
- Excavation near a neighbour
- Excavating within three metres of a neighbouring building to a depth below their foundations, or within six metres where a line drawn down at 45 degrees from their foundation would meet your excavation. One month's notice.
- New building on the line of junction
- Building a new wall up to or astride the boundary. One month's notice.
Process
What actually happens
You serve notice
A written notice to every adjoining owner — which includes freeholders and leaseholders, so a flat can mean several notices. Two months for party structure work, one month for excavation and line of junction.
They consent, or they dissent
If they consent in writing, you can proceed. If they dissent — or don't reply within 14 days, which counts as dissent — a dispute is deemed to have arisen and surveyors must be appointed.
Surveyors are appointed
Either one agreed surveyor acting for both, or one each. Silence from a neighbour is treated as dissent, so this happens more often than people expect.
Schedule of condition
The neighbouring property is inspected and its condition recorded, usually with photographs, before work starts. This protects both sides — it's the reference point if damage is later alleged.
The award is agreed
A binding document setting out what work may be done, how and when, working hours, access arrangements, monitoring where needed, and how any damage will be resolved.
Money
Who pays
You do. As the building owner carrying out the work, you generally pay the reasonable surveyor fees for both sides, as well as your own. This surprises people and it is worth budgeting for from the outset — on a terrace with neighbours on both sides you may be paying for three surveyors.
The cost is lower where a neighbour consents in writing, or where both sides agree to a single surveyor. That's worth pursuing, and the way to pursue it is a conversation with the neighbour before the formal notice arrives through their door.
A notice landing unannounced, in legal language, from a neighbour who hasn't mentioned the project is the single most reliable way to turn a consent into a dissent.
Timing
Start it early
The statutory notice periods are minimums, not typical durations. Two months' notice, plus 14 days for a response, plus surveyor appointment, inspection and negotiation of the award routinely takes three to four months in practice, and longer where a neighbour is difficult or hard to reach.
Because it can run in parallel with planning and design, there is no reason for it to sit on the critical path — and yet it usually does, because it's the last thing people start.
Our advice is simple: serve notices as soon as the design is settled enough to describe the work accurately, not when you're ready to break ground.
Common questions
No. The Act doesn't give a neighbour a veto — it gives them a process. A dissent means surveyors are appointed and an award is agreed setting out how the work proceeds, not whether it does. What a neighbour can do is delay you, which is why starting the process early matters.
Failing to respond within 14 days is treated as dissent, and a dispute is deemed to have arisen. You can then appoint a surveyor on their behalf so the process can continue. It's slower and more expensive than a consent, but it doesn't stop you.
Usually yes, on a terrace or semi. New floor joists or a steel bearing into the shared wall is work to a party structure and requires two months' notice.
That's precisely what the schedule of condition and the award are for. The award sets out how damage is assessed and made good, and the schedule of condition recorded before work started is the evidence of what was already there. Without one, you're arguing from photographs nobody took.
