Why have many Building Owners not heard of an Agreed Surveyor?

2 Mar

What is an Agreed Surveyor?

You may have already spoken to some Party Wall Surveyors and yet you’ve never heard of an ‘Agreed Surveyor’. This route will save you as the Building Owner money so why hasn’t it been mentioned?

First let’s answer a few questions:

When are surveyors appointed?
What is an Agreed Surveyor?
When is an Agreed Surveyor Appointed?

When are surveyors appointed?

When you contact a Party Wall Surveyor they will first verify that construction work you are undertaking falls under the Party Wall Etc. Act 1996 (The Act). They will then Serve Notice on your neighbours (Adjoining Owners). When serving notice many Party Wall Surveyors will have you sign an appointment letter that appoints them as your Party Wall Surveyor in the event of any dispute arising. This guarantees their continued involvement in your project and the associated fees.

They will then serve Notice on your behalf, which starts the party wall process.

What happens after you serve notice?

That depends on your neighbours.

Consent - Some neighbours will evaluate the risk of the works and decide to consent. If that is the case you have a choice, you are not obligated to have a Party Wall Award drawn up…you can save yourself some pennies. It’s worth pointing out that many Building Owners still decide to proceed with a Schedule of Condition or Party Wall Award. This is essentially because they want to peace of mind that these options provide. It is also worth noting that although at this point your neighbour has consented, they are still covered by the Party Wall Act and can use a Party Wall Award to settle any disputes due to payment, damages etc.

Consent with a Schedule of Condition – Your neighbour (Adjoining Owner) may be happy for the works to continue but they request a Schedule of Condition. This affords you the opportunity as the Building Owner to avoid the cost of a Party Wall Award, but records the condition of their home before works start so that any claims of damages are fair.

Dissent – Your neighbour may dissent to the works concurring to the appointment of your Party Wall Surveyor. This option means that a Party Wall Award is required but that your neighbour is happy to use the Party Wall Surveyor you have already been using.

Dissent and appoint a chosen Surveyor - You will need to have a Party Wall Award. However, this time your neighbours have indicated they wish to use a Surveyor of their choice. They are perfectly entitled to do this. There are many reasons that neighbours like to choose their own surveyor; perhaps they have worked with one in the past; perhaps having looked at online reviews of your chosen Surveyor they are not confident of your selection; often times they have the mistaken view that Surveyors are not impartial. Surveyors should be impartial! The Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors Code of Conduct highlights this. To make sure that your Surveyor follows these codes of conduct make sure they are either a member of FPWS or RICS

This is where is gets interesting. To recap, you have had a Party Wall Surveyor serve Notice on your behalf, now your neighbour wants to use a different Surveyor to complete a Party Wall Award.

What happens now? Who pays for all this?

As I mentioned earlier, in some cases you have already signed a letter appointing a Surveyor on your behalf. This means you are now tied in to having them complete a Party Wall Award for you, and you now have to pay for your neighbours Surveyor to do the same!

So where does the ‘Agreed Surveyor’ come in?

The Act makes clear the provision for you to use the Party Wall Surveyor your neighbour has selected. Hence you and your neighbour can ‘agree’ to use the same (Agreed) Surveyor.

Ideally, when your neighbour asks to use another Surveyor, your current Party Wall Surveyor should highlight the Agreed Surveyor as the cheapest route for you. That would show they are acting impartially and in your best interests.

Instead, sadly what they will often do is leave you under the impression that you now need to use both Surveyors and pay both bills.

Why don’t they highlight this?

Because at this point, they essentially hand the project over to another Surveyor and lose out on the fees they would have earned by completing the Party Wall Award. This is understandable as it takes a lot of work to help the Building Owner to this point.

Bottom line, don’t appoint a Surveyor until it is in your best interests to do so … otherwise, you may be in the unfortunate position of unnecessarily paying two lots of Surveyor fees.

What if your neighbour insists on using a separate Surveyor?

This is usually down to concerns that any one Surveyor will not be impartial or it could be they are concerned about the risk of works and would like two opinions. It is possible to insist on two separate surveyors (one per party) but recent judicial precedent has shown that the Adjoining Owner might be liable for their Surveyors costs if they insist on the two Surveyor route. (Amir-Siddique v Kowaliw 2018). Unfortunately the only way to reclaim those costs is through the courts. Some Building Owners simply choose to pay the additional cost to keep their neighbour happy and avoid stress.