Question re: party wall surveyors

[StillRunningWithScissors]

Hello,

We've been granted planning permission for a ground floor extension, currently looking for a builder and awaiting building regs consent.

We consulted our neighbours both sides with our plans before submitting them to the council, and they both seemed quite happy with what we are planning.

We now need to serve our neighbours party wall letters. Within the standard letter we were provided to alter, it mentions us suggesting using a specific party wall surveyor.

I know we can suggest a surveyor to our neighbours, but they can elect to use someone else (at our cost).

Now, my silly questions begin:

Do we need a surveyor for us, or just if the neighbours have concerns?

What do I ask when contacting potential surveyors? Is it just the obvious "We are planning a build, this is where we are, can you represent us?" Or is there more to it?

What is the average cost for a surveyor?

What association/body should I be insuring they are a member of?

Anything else I'm missing?

Thank you!

F

I can (I think!) answer your first question which is: no, you only need a party wall surveyor if a dispute arises (a scenario which includes your neighbour wanting to appoint a surveyor and/or not signing the notice). Some smart arse might say that it is a good idea to get a condition survey of the party wall completed in any event to protect yourself against a neighbour's false claim that your works have damaged the party wall.

There's a useful government booklet on the party wall act that is worth a read (it has example notices in).

I'm about to go through this process myself and am hoping to find a surveyor that will work to a fixed fee

Lovely, thanks for your reply! And good luck :-)

Is there any value is appointing a surveyor after issuing notice so if the neighbour has a preferred surveyor you can use them, rather than paying for two different surveyors? (Query not advice )

if your neighbour has a preferred surveyor it would almost certainly be sometime who's sent them a letter when the planning permission/building regs went in, in which case they're probably an ambulance chaser and worth avoiding.
Hopefully your neighbour has enough sense to make their own decision rather then having to listen to them (or you, just to be balanced)
In the ideal case you wouldn't need any surveyors, you just serve the notice and ask them to return it signed within 14 days.
Our architect made things simpler by avoiding inserting beams into the party wall. The beam will be sitting on a stub of our old wall. We're also doing them a favour next door by removing the shared chimney stack from the roof at our expense. However we wouldn't ask for money regardless! As it would only be hundreds as the most.
Good luck with your build, If your neighbours are happy, just keep things free of surveyors!

Brilliant, thanks everyone.

Our build doesn't actually involve a shared wall, it's just within the distance of foundations 3m I think, so needs the paperwork.

Appreciate all of the help. :-)

mrpartywall that is fantastic, thank you so much!