Party Wall Act problem

[bevelino]

Dh and I have planning permission to extend our house and our surveyor has sent party wall notices to the freeholder and individual leaseholders of a block of 15 flats next door. We now have a situation where some of the flat owners have not replied to the notice and 10 flat owners want to instruct their own surveyor. We appreciate that we will need to pay for all surveyor's fees but it seems unreasonable for each flat owner to have a separate surveyor.

Serving party wall notices on owners of flats probably happens quite often, therefore does anyone have any advice as to how we can streamline the number of surveyors involved?

Have you spoken to the different leaseholders? Many may be happy to use the same surveyor who will act on behalf of all of them, they just don't want to use one appointed by you. The leaseholders who haven't replied will - as I understand it - have their interests covered by the surveyor that you appoint.

Imo, the most sensible way forward, if you haven't done it already, is to try to suggest a shared surveyor of their choice. If they don't want to do that, then it is likely to be very expensive - afaik, they each have the right to be individual representation if their lease is longer than a year.

Lalalonglegs thank you for your suggestion as I spoke to some of the owners and they are now happy to have one surveyor representing them. We will still have at least 3 surveyors as well as our own, but at least we are down from 10.