Paty wall agreement - please explain how it works

[vez123]

I hope there is someone around who can help me with the procedure of party wall agreements. So we want to get a loft extension done on ur terraced house and employ a company to do it. They have provided us with the template to give to our neighbours for the party wall agreement. I wanted to speak to our neighbours this weekend. We haven't commissioned the work yet but want to get the agreements in place. We have only example plans from the loft conversion company.
My questions are. Time frames. Did I understand correctly that as of the date we serve notice to the neighbours, i.e. give them the forms we cannot start the work sooner than 2 months? Or if the neighbours sign it straight away can I just book the work and it can start sooner?
What do i do if the neighbours don't sign within 14 days?
How long could things drag out if they don't sign? I understand they can employ their own surveyor at our costs. What is the surveyor going to do?

thanks so much

You can start earlier than 2 months so long as you put this in the agreement they sign.

If they want to employ a surveyor at your cost the surveyor will come and assess the state of the property as is and write a report. Then if the neighbours claim any damage to the property as a result of your work the surveyor will assess if that is the case.

If they don't sign within 14 days you are in dispute but I don't know what happens next as luckily that didn't happen to us! There is a good pack about party walls with template letters etc on the gov website if you google it.

This article is good
www.theguardian.com/money/2013/mar/14/home-extensions-plans-party-wall

Thanks both!