The 3 metre Rule
Surveys of Commercial Property
If you’re thinking of acquiring, leasing, subletting, disposing of, or altering commercial premises in Manchester, you would be well advised to locate a surveyor skilled in the nuances of commercial building surveying – should you spot a defect in a commercial building you can use that information to negotiate an asking price for the property that’s considerably lower than what the seller originally wanted, or you can talk your way out of a bad deal altogether.
Our Manchester-based team of RICS-compliant commercial building surveyors is equipped to handle matters throughout Manchester.
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Our team prioritizes client care above all else. We look forward to being in touch with you so you can instruct a surveyor in Manchester, London, Bristol, Birmingham or Cardiff. You can reach out to us easily. Just fill out our form, and we’ll get back to you with a free quote for your survey. All our surveyors are qualified as members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and we are one of the UK’s leading providers of building survey and valuation services:
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The property survey you commission will be carried out by an accredited professional. Your chartered surveyor will be a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), or will belong to some other industry-standard professional body. Rest assured; you will receive highest quality of professional service for your survey.
You will begin to understand the potential costs of the party wall project once you’ve served the notices and received responses. This will give you an idea of the number of adjoining owners (and their surveyors) you’ll need to negotiate with. The type of notices you might send out include:
- Party Structure Notice: If any work is to be done on a shared wall or structure, such as making a cut to it, thickening it, increasing its height, or demolishing/rebuilding it, the party intending to do the work must serve a notice to the other party at least 2 months before the intended start date.
- Line of Junction Notice: This focuses on the construction of a new wall either up to or astride the boundary between two properties. This notice must be served at least 1 month before work starts and is relevant to both new walls and old walls being rebuilt.
- Excavation Notice: This notice must be given that excavations will take place within 3 to 6 meters of a neighbouring building’s foundation and that the digging will go deeper than the neighbouring building’s foundation. This notice must be given at least 1 month before the start of the work.
The notices must include detailed information about the works, such as drawings, the relevant sections that apply, and a description of what works are being carried out and when, as well as how long the adjoining owner has to respond (usually 14 days).
The adjacent owner must be made aware of the particulars of the works being executed. The parties involved in the execution of the works must provide the adjoining owners with comprehensive information including the nature of the works and the amount of time that the other party has to respond to the served notice.
What is the Process for Manchester Party Wall Surveyor
If you plan to change the party wall or the boundary wall around your property during a construction project, the 1996 Party Wall Act governs what you must do to keep the owners of adjacent buildings informed and to minimize any inconvenience or potential damage to them. The act requires that you give affected neighbours either one month’s or two months’ notice, depending on the type of project and the wall-work involved.
Once the notice is received, the adjoining owner has three options to choose from:
- Agree to the work: in this case no further actions are required.
- Object to the notice but agree to a joint surveyor.
- Object to the notice and choose to appoint their own surveyor.
The last two alternatives necessitate the adjacent owner’s property going through a condition survey before construction begins, to show what state the neighbouring property is in. However, it is recommended to do this for the first method as well. The condition survey is issued to both parties who each have 14 days to dispute any of the findings. Both parties sign the condition survey with the understanding that any damage discovered as a result of the construction will have to be paid for.
It is certainly not uncommon for surveyors to disagree, which is why we call on a “Third Surveyor” prior to the start of surveying work. If the “Two Surveyors” can not come to an agreement, the Third Surveyor resolves the dispute and settles judgment.
What is the Cost of Schedule of Condition
A Schedule of Condition aims to capture and document the condition of a property before it might change. A benchmark baseline is provided by the Schedule of Condition against which any future alterations in condition can be assessed. This is important because it can be used as a piece of forensic evidence to establish with reasonable certainty whether and when any damage occurred during the construction or lease periods.
Typically, the Building Owner’s Surveyor undertakes the Schedule of Condition. They enter the property and inspect any part of the building(s) or structure that falls within their remit, which is usually limited to just those areas in close proximity to the works.
The Surveyor will assess any and all relevant elements of the building(s), and they will record their findings usually in the form of a table. This is accompanied by a cross-referencing of photographic evidence.
This be used as a tool to both defend and justify monetary claims made during the building works. The preparation of such a survey takes, on average, between 2 and 3 hours. The cost is typically around £500, depending on whether you and your surveyors have chosen a fixed-fee arrangement. Whichever the case, the adjoining owner’s surveyor charges an hourly fee for their attendance.
Negotiations in Party Wall in Manchester
The surveyor for the owner of the building will handle the negotiations concerning the fee payable to the adjoining owner’s surveyor. The building owner’s surveyor will check the timesheet of the other surveyor for errors and overall reasonableness. There could be multiple valid reasons why the building owner’s surveyor might not be happy with the fees proposed by the adjoining owner’s surveyor—from outrageous travel expenses to excessive hourly rates for what should be common tasks. If the two surveyors can’t arrive at a resolution, the matter is turned over to the Third Surveyor, who figures out what should be paid to the respective party.
What is the Cost of the Adjoining Owner’s Surveyor?
While the Building Owner’s Surveyor will work to achieve a reasonable fee for the Adjoining Owner’s Surveyor, several factors need to be considered. These include:
- Travel Distance: the time required for the surveyor to commute
- Quality of Work: contributions related to the Award and/or Schedule of Condition
- Complexity: the extent of communication needed to resolve issues
The fee charged per hour must reflect the current market rate. This rate has to be something that the building owner’s surveyor will accept, and if the Two Surveyors can’t reach agreement, then the Third Surveyor will have to impose a solution.
The timesheet of the Adjoining Owner’s Surveyor typically would include these tasks:
- The review of notices and drawings
- The exchange of letters of appointment
- Assistance in the compilation of the schedule of condition
- Written and verbal communication (emails and phone calls)
- Editing the final party wall award
It is necessary to spend the time required and not merely to accumulate hours. If there is any doubt about that, the Third Surveyor can look into it.
Excavations that are within 3 meters of an adjoining owner’s property—specifically, their foundations—are covered by the Party Wall Act.
If the excavation is to extend below the depth of the foundations of the neighbouring property, then it will be necessary to serve a notice under section 6.
A valid 3 metre notice requires a section drawing that shows both the depth of the new excavation and its position in relation to the neighbouring property.
When reaching a decision about the appropriate foundation depth, an experienced Party Wall Surveyor might have to consider multiple things, including the type of individual property its construction date. Properties built in the last few decades are much more likely to have been constructed to modern standards. When a property owner needing to appoint a surveyor is particularly concerned about what lies beneath their boundary, they may ask the surveyor to confirm the depths of the adjoining owner’s foundations. In some cases, the appointing owners might ask to dig a trial pit in order to confirm the existing foundations against the designs.
