Party wall agreement

[edensparkles]

Hello our neighbour has sold his house about 9 weeks ago. We've got PP for our double storey extension and BC have approved too.

Should we get a 3rd party wall agreement done now? Will it matter that there will be new neighbours?

It's a detached house but will close enough that we will be digging near their foundations

Normally, you serve a Party Wall Notice on anyone who has an interest in the adjoining property (building owner, landlord, freeholder, tenant). If you've only got as far as the Notices being served, you're going to struggle to progress without involving the new neighbours. You'll need a schedule of condition done on their property, so that any claims for damages can be shown to be new (and likely caused by you) or historic (and you don't get charged to fix them). The neighbours will need to either agree to the works or appoint a surveyor. I can't see how you'd do any of this without involving the new owners. However, as far as I can see, the Act itself is silent on the matter.

Do we have any sort of advantage on getting it done while the current owners are in there?

If you can get it done before the new people move in, then yes it will be simpler. Well that's assuming the current neighbours are in agreement with the works being done.

If your neighbour has sold, you need to serve notice on the new owners

Steve the party wall surveyor here. Party wall awards are agreements between owners, so if the current neighbour ceases to be an owner the Award or agreement would fall. To the letter of the Act you will need to serve a notice to the new owners, who gain an interest in the property when they exchange so you can serve then.

The problem is that if you don't serve a notice to the new owner then their ability to respond properly is prejudiced, for the type of work you are doing that's not really a big deal. Unless you want to start week very very soon I would definitely serve a new notice to the new owner and get an Award or agreement from them.