Terms of engagement

Party Wall Services is a firm of party wall and building surveyors. In these terms, "we" and "us" mean Party Wall Services, and "you" means the client instructing us.

Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, Marylebone, London W1W 5PF. Company registration 11964918. VAT GB 327091020. We also work from our Essex office at Launchpad, Airport Business Park, Cherry Orchard Way, Rochford SS4 1YH.

These terms apply to every instruction unless we agree something different with you in writing.

• Advising whether proposed works fall under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
• Reviewing proposals, carrying out Land Registry searches, and preparing and serving notices under sections 1, 2 and 6 of the Act, then managing the response.
• Preparing Schedules of Condition — a dated written and photographic record of the adjoining property before work begins.
• Acting as agreed surveyor, or as the surveyor appointed by one owner, in preparing a Party Wall Award.
• Acting as third surveyor where selected, and carrying out inspections during and after the works.

We do not provide structural design, building control, planning or valuation advice, boundary determination, or legal advice. Where any of those are needed we will say so, and we can usually introduce you to a specialist through our additional support and expertise arrangements.

Once appointed as surveyor under section 10 of the Act, our duty is owed to the proper administration of the Act rather than to the owner who appointed us alone. On the matters the Act places in our hands we therefore act impartially, and a statutory appointment cannot be rescinded.

Where we advise you outside a statutory appointment, for example on whether the Act applies to your works, we act on your instructions in the ordinary way.

• Accurate details of the site, the ownership and the neighbouring properties.
• Drawings, structural details and method statements for the works, and prompt notice of any change to them.
• Reasonable access for inspections, and reasonable help arranging access to the adjoining property.
• Prompt responses to correspondence — the Act runs on fixed time limits, and a missed one can cost weeks.

We quote in writing before we begin. Fees are either a fixed amount for a defined stage of the process or an hourly rate, and the quote will say which, what it includes, and whether VAT applies. Anything outside the agreed scope — a change of design, extra properties, or a matter that becomes contested — is quoted separately before we take it on.

For building owners, fees are fixed per adjoining owner and only one of the published fee outcomes applies, as set out in our quote. For adjoining owners we charge an hourly rate, with fixed-fee quotations available on request. We invoice fixed-fee building owner matters on completion of the work.

Invoices are payable within 14 days of issue unless we state otherwise. Under the Act, the building owner ordinarily bears the reasonable surveying costs of a party wall matter, including the adjoining owner's surveyor's reasonable fees where they are determined by an Award. We may suspend work on an unpaid account after written notice, subject to any statutory duty we hold.

We hold professional indemnity insurance for the work we do. Except for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, our total liability on any one matter is limited to the level of that cover.

We are not liable for losses caused by inaccurate or incomplete information given to us, by works carried out other than as notified, or for indirect or consequential loss such as loss of profit or delay costs.

You may end a non-statutory instruction at any time in writing, and we will invoice for the work done to that date. We may decline or cease to act where there is a conflict of interest, where we are not given the information or access we need, or where fees remain unpaid. Statutory appointments under section 10 continue as the Act provides.

If something goes wrong, please tell us. Contact the surveyor handling your matter, or email admin@partywallservices.com or call 0203 6270 110, and we will work with you to put it right.

These terms, and any dispute arising from them, are governed by the law of England and Wales and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its courts. Nothing here overrides the statutory dispute resolution procedure in section 10 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, or the right of appeal to the county court under section 10(17).

This page is written in plain English for clarity. It sets out our own terms and procedures and is not legal advice on your project.