My neighbour has ignored the Party Wall Act: What can I do?

Discovering that builders have started digging foundations or cutting into a shared wall without warning is deeply unsettling.

You may be watching masonry disappear from the other side of your home, hearing heavy drilling through the wall or seeing a trench opened close to your foundations. Understandably, the immediate reaction is often: can they really do this without asking me?

Where the work falls within the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, the building owner should normally have served formal notice before starting. If they have not, you may be able to seek an injunction to pause the work. If damage has already occurred, claims in negligence, nuisance or trespass may remain available.

There is no automatic fine for ignoring the Act, however, and an adjoining owner cannot simply appoint a party wall surveyor and create a retrospective statutory award. The right response depends on whether the Act applies, what work has been done and how urgently your property is at risk.

During my years in legal practice, I found that the absence of a notice sometimes became a distraction from the most important practical questions. What exactly were the builders doing? Had the foundations been exposed? Was there evidence of movement? What needed to happen that day to keep the property safe?

This guide explains the law in England and Wales. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Quick answer: What should I do?

First, establish whether the work is actually covered by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Ask your neighbour for the drawings, foundation depths and a description of the work.

If notifiable work has not yet started, ask the neighbour in writing to serve the correct notice and postpone the work.

If it has already begun, record the condition of your property immediately and request a pause. Where work is continuing and there is a real risk to your property or legal rights, obtain urgent advice about a court injunction.

If the work is complete and damage has occurred, obtain independent evidence, notify the neighbour and your insurer and consider the available common-law claims.

The Government’s Party Wall Act explanatory booklet confirms that an adjoining owner may seek an injunction or other legal redress where work starts without the required notice.

First check whether the Party Wall Act applies

Not every extension, loft conversion or excavation near a boundary is covered by the Act.

The Act provides a framework for particular work involving party walls and structures, new walls at a boundary and certain excavations near neighbouring buildings. It does not regulate building work generally.

Planning permission and building regulations approval are separate. A neighbour may have both and still need to serve a party wall notice. Equally, the absence of planning permission does not prove that the Party Wall Act applies.

For a fuller explanation, read The Party Wall Act explained.

Work to an existing party wall or structure

A party structure notice may be required for specified work under section 2 of the Act.

Common examples include:

• cutting into a party wall to insert beams or flashings;
• removing a chimney breast supported by the wall;
• raising, thickening, underpinning or rebuilding the wall;
• cutting projections away from it; and
• exposing it to weather by demolishing an adjoining building.

Minor work such as ordinary plastering, drilling for shelves or replacing electrical fittings will not normally require notice unless it could affect the wall’s structural or support functions.

A party structure notice must ordinarily be served at least two months before the work begins.

A new wall at the boundary

Section 1 covers the construction of a new wall at the line separating the two properties.

A neighbour cannot build a new wall astride the boundary without your written consent. If you do not consent, they may normally build wholly within their own land, subject to notice and any other legal restrictions.

A line of junction notice must ordinarily be served at least one month before the proposed work.

An ordinary timber fence is not a party fence wall for the purposes of the Act.

Excavation near a neighbouring building

Section 6 may apply where a neighbour proposes to excavate:

• within three metres of your building and below the level of the bottom of its foundations; or
• within six metres and below a line drawn downwards at 45 degrees from the bottom of your foundations.

The distance alone is not enough. The proposed depth must also meet the statutory test.

The notice must include plans and sections showing the location and depth of the excavation and the proposed building or structure. It must ordinarily be served at least one month before excavation begins.

What does it mean to “ignore” the Act?

Several different situations are often described in this way:

• no notice was served at all;
• a notice was served, but it was invalid or incomplete;
• the correct notice was served, but work began before the notice period expired;
• the adjoining owner dissented or failed to respond, but work began before an award was made;
• an award was made, but the work departs from it; or
• the work originally notified has changed materially.

Those situations are not legally identical.

Where no notice has ever been served, the statutory dispute-resolution procedure will not ordinarily have been engaged. Where a valid notice was served, the surveyors may already have jurisdiction even if the building owner subsequently breaches the procedure or award.

Is ignoring the Party Wall Act a criminal offence?

Generally, no.

The Act does not impose an automatic fine simply because the building owner failed to serve a notice. The dispute is ordinarily a civil matter between the owners.

The local planning authority and building control do not enforce the Party Wall Act. Planning officers deal with planning control, while building control deals principally with compliance with building regulations. Neither provides the adjoining owner with a party wall award.

That does not make the notice requirement optional. Work carried out without the statutory authority can expose the building owner to an injunction and to common-law liability that proper compliance with the Act might otherwise have displaced or regulated.

There is a separate criminal offence relating to knowingly obstructing a person who is lawfully entitled to exercise a right of entry under section 8. That is different from failing to serve the original notice.

Does my neighbour need a “party wall agreement”?

The phrase “party wall agreement” is used loosely. There may be:

• a formal notice followed by your written consent;
• a party wall award prepared by an agreed surveyor or two surveyors;
• a separate private agreement between the neighbours; or
• an informal understanding that does not comply with the Act.

If you consent in writing to properly notified work, a party wall award is not automatically required. The neighbours may agree any sensible protective arrangements directly.

If you dissent—or fail to respond within 14 days to a section 2 or section 6 notice—a dispute is generally deemed to have arisen. An agreed surveyor or separate surveyors then determine matters through an award.

Dissent is not normally a veto over the development. It activates the statutory procedure governing how and when the notifiable work may be carried out.

What should I do before the work starts?

This is the point at which the situation is usually easiest to correct.

Ask for a clear description of the work

Speak to the neighbour calmly and ask for the relevant drawings, structural information and proposed starting date.

You are trying to establish whether the work affects a party structure, involves a wall at the boundary or meets the excavation tests. A vague statement that the extension is “entirely on our side” does not answer whether its foundations are deeper than yours.

Do not assume that the neighbour deliberately ignored the Act. They may have been told incorrectly that planning permission or building control approval was sufficient.

Put the concern in writing

After the conversation, send a short, factual email or letter.

Identify the work you believe may be notifiable and ask the neighbour to confirm that it will not begin until the statutory position has been resolved.

Avoid asserting that every aspect of the project is unlawful. The immediate aim is to preserve the position and obtain information.

Record the condition of your home

Take clear dated photographs and video of the rooms and exterior nearest the work. Include:

• existing cracks;
• ceilings and cornices;
• the party wall;
• fireplaces and chimney breasts;
• doors and windows;
• floors and skirting boards; and
• external brickwork and paving.

A condition survey prepared before work is best, but a careful record made now is considerably better than trying to reconstruct the position after damage appears.

Obtain appropriate advice

A competent party wall surveyor can advise whether the work appears notifiable and what protections would ordinarily be included in an award.

Where an injunction may be needed, legal advice is also required. A surveyor cannot issue a court order or guarantee that work will stop.

Can I stop my neighbour’s work?

Potentially, through an injunction.

An injunction is a court order requiring someone to stop or restrict particular work. The Government’s official guidance expressly identifies it as a possible remedy where work begins without notice.

It is not an automatic “stop notice”. The court will consider matters including:

• whether the work is probably covered by the Act;
• what statutory step has been omitted;
• whether the work is imminent or already underway;
• the risk of damage or loss of legal rights;
• whether damages would provide an adequate remedy;
• the consequences of stopping the project; and
• how promptly the adjoining owner acted.

Delay matters. An application made before excavation begins is very different from one made after the foundations have been poured and the relevant work is effectively complete.

In an urgent case, a solicitor may consider applying for interim relief before the full dispute is determined. Injunction proceedings carry substantial costs risk, and an applicant may be required to give an undertaking to compensate the other party if the injunction later proves unjustified.

Do not threaten an injunction casually. Use it where there is a genuine need to prevent work or protect a right that could otherwise be lost.

What should I do if the builders have already started?

Begin by establishing what has actually been done and whether the notifiable stage is continuing.

Photograph the work from your own land or a lawful public position. Do not enter the building site or obstruct the contractors.

Write to the neighbour asking for an immediate pause while the position is considered. Identify the specific concern, such as excavation below your foundations or removal of masonry from the party wall.

If there is cracking, movement, exposed foundations or another apparent structural risk, obtain urgent advice from a structural engineer or appropriately qualified surveyor. Contact building control separately where the issue may involve unsafe or non-compliant work. If there is an immediate danger to people, treat it as an emergency rather than simply a neighbour dispute.

Where court action may be required, act promptly. Evidence of the works, dates, communications and present condition of the property will all assist.

Can my neighbour serve a late notice?

A notice cannot turn completed work retrospectively into work that was properly authorised under the Act.

A fresh notice may nevertheless be capable of dealing prospectively with genuinely future notifiable work. The neighbour would normally need to pause, serve the proper notice and observe the applicable one- or two-month period unless an earlier start is agreed in writing.

Where only part of the project has been completed, it is therefore important to distinguish:

• work already done;
• work currently underway; and
• notifiable work still to come.

The remaining work may still be brought within the statutory procedure. The earlier work cannot simply be rewritten as though notice had preceded it.

Can a retrospective party wall award be made?

Not where no notice was served and the adjoining owner tries to invoke the Act unilaterally after the event.

In Power v Shah [2023] EWCA Civ 239, the Court of Appeal held that service of notice is fundamental to engaging the section 10 dispute-resolution procedure. The purported award obtained after the adjoining owners appointed surveyors was null and void.

The Court emphasised the prospective nature of the Act. Notice allows the neighbour to understand the work and enables the parties or surveyors to agree how it should be carried out before it happens. It was not designed to resolve completed, unnotified work through a statutory award.

That does not prevent the neighbours from reaching a voluntary private agreement after work has begun. They might agree:

• an inspection of both properties;
• a record of existing and alleged damage;
• protective measures for remaining work;
• access arrangements;
• monitoring;
• remedial work; and
• responsibility for reasonable professional costs.

Such an agreement should be described accurately. It is not a retrospective statutory award unless the Act was validly engaged.

Can I appoint a surveyor if no notice was served?

You can appoint a surveyor to advise you privately, inspect your property and provide expert evidence.

You cannot, simply because you believe notice should have been served, unilaterally appoint a statutory surveyor under section 10 and compel the neighbour to accept an award. That is the central effect of Power v Shah.

This distinction matters for fees. A privately appointed expert does not automatically have the statutory power to award their own costs against the neighbour.

Reasonable professional costs may potentially form part of a later settlement or damages claim, depending on why they were incurred and whether they were proportionate. That is different from enforcing a surveyor’s fee under the Act.

Where the building owner did serve a valid notice and the adjoining owner then failed to appoint a surveyor, section 10 contains a procedure allowing the building owner, after further notice, to make an appointment on the adjoining owner’s behalf. That procedure does not operate in reverse where the original building owner served no notice at all.

What if a notice was served but my neighbour started without an award?

That is different from the complete absence of notice.

For section 2 and section 6 work, a dispute is generally deemed to have arisen where the adjoining owner dissents or does not consent within 14 days. The surveyor or surveyors then settle the relevant matters in an award.

The building owner should not normally proceed with the disputed notifiable work until the award has been made and the relevant notice period has expired.

Because the original notice may already have engaged the Act, the appointed surveyors should be contacted immediately. Court relief may also be appropriate where work is proceeding in disregard of the statutory process.

If an award has been made but the builders are departing from it, notify the appointed surveyor or surveyors promptly and preserve evidence of the departure.

What if the work is already complete?

An injunction may have little practical purpose if the particular notifiable work has finished. The focus then moves to damage, trespass and any continuing interference.

The absence of notice does not automatically create a compensation payment. Where there is no damage, encroachment or other loss, there may be little financial claim merely because the statutory procedure was omitted.

It may still be sensible to commission an inspection where the work involved substantial excavation, underpinning, chimney removal or alteration of the party structure. Some defects are not immediately obvious.

Ask the neighbour to retain and provide relevant drawings, engineering information and contractor details voluntarily. Without the Act having been engaged, you should not assume that every statutory information right remains available retrospectively.

What if the work has damaged my property?

Document the damage before decorating or repairing it, except where immediate work is necessary for safety or to prevent further loss.

Notify the neighbour promptly and allow a reasonable opportunity for inspection. Contact your buildings insurer, particularly where the damage may be structural or expensive.

An independent expert may need to determine:

• whether the damage is new;
• its probable cause;
• whether the neighbouring work was capable of causing it;
• what repair is reasonably required; and
• whether monitoring is necessary.

Where the Act was not engaged, the principal claims may arise through negligence, private nuisance or trespass. The correct route depends on the work and damage.

For example, careless excavation may support a negligence or nuisance claim. Physically cutting into or placing structures on land outside the neighbour’s rights may also involve trespass.

The Court of Appeal confirmed in Power v Shah that adjoining owners remain able to pursue the ordinary common-law remedies, including an injunction where appropriate.

Does the neighbour have to prove that they did not cause the damage?

Not automatically. In Roadrunner Properties Ltd v Dean [2003] EWCA Civ 1816, no party wall notice had been served. The adjoining owner had therefore lost the opportunity to obtain a pre-work survey and contemporaneous monitoring through the statutory procedure. The Court of Appeal said the court could take a reasonably robust approach to causation where the damage was of the type that might be expected from the work.

The decision does not mean that every crack appearing after unnotified work is presumed to have been caused by it.

More recent Court of Appeal authority has described Roadrunner as an example of applying common sense to the evidence, rather than creating a special legal rule or reversing the burden of proof. The claimant must still show, on the balance of probabilities, that the work caused the damage.

The absence of a pre-work schedule can nevertheless put the building owner in a difficult evidential position. A person should not necessarily obtain an advantage from failing to create the very record that the statutory procedure would ordinarily have provided.

Who is responsible for damage caused by the builder?

Where work is properly executed under the Act, the building owner has statutory obligations concerning damage caused by the relevant work. The official guidance explains that the building owner is responsible for putting right damage caused by the works, including work undertaken by their contractor.

Where the Act was never engaged, liability must be analysed under the ordinary law. The homeowner, builder, engineer or other contractor may be liable depending on who authorised the work, who acted negligently and what caused the damage.

Do not assume that suing the builder alone is necessarily correct, or that the neighbour is automatically liable for every act of an independent contractor. The contractual and common-law position should be considered before proceedings begin.

Do I have to allow access to my property?

The Party Wall Act can confer rights of access where entry is necessary to carry out authorised work.

Those statutory rights are not a general licence for builders to enter whenever convenient. The Act ordinarily requires advance notice—generally 14 days except in an emergency—and the entry must be for purposes permitted by the Act.

Where the building owner has never served notice or engaged the Act, they should not simply assume that its access rights are available.

Other rights of access may arise through the deeds, an agreement or different legislation. In the absence of a right or consent, entering your land may amount to trespass.

Do not physically confront contractors. State clearly that access is not agreed, record what happens and seek advice where necessary.

Who pays the party wall surveyor?

Where the statutory procedure is properly engaged, the building owner commonly pays the reasonable costs of the adjoining owner’s surveyor because the costs arise from the proposed work. The surveyors determine the proper allocation under the Act.

That is not an unlimited entitlement. Fees must be reasonable, and circumstances may justify a different allocation.

Where no notice was served, Power v Shah means that a privately instructed surveyor cannot necessarily issue a statutory award requiring the neighbour to pay their fees. Any recovery would have to be agreed or established through an appropriate common-law claim.

Can planning permission or building regulations approval replace notice?

No. Planning permission decides whether development is acceptable in planning terms. Building regulations address matters such as structure, fire safety, drainage and energy performance.

Neither process determines party wall rights or replaces notice under the Act. The Government’s guidance expressly treats the Act as a separate legal regime applying to relevant building work.

The reverse is also true. A party wall award does not grant planning permission, building regulations approval or ownership of neighbouring land.

Can I refuse consent and prevent the extension?

Usually not. For most work to an existing party structure or qualifying excavation, dissent does not give the adjoining owner a permanent right to prevent work that the Act authorises. It triggers the surveyor procedure, through which the timing, manner and protective measures are settled.

The position differs where the neighbour proposes a new wall astride the boundary. That requires written consent. Without it, the wall must normally be built wholly on the building owner’s land.

You may also have separate rights where the development involves trespass, breach of covenant, interference with an easement or another matter outside the Party Wall Act.

Will I have to disclose the problem when selling?

Current standard conveyancing enquiries ask sellers about disputes and concerns involving neighbouring property, formal notices and documents relating to alterations, including party wall notices.

A seller should answer truthfully and provide relevant notices, awards, correspondence and agreements to their conveyancer. Misleading information may expose the seller to a later claim.

That does not mean that every polite question to a neighbour automatically becomes a damaging formal dispute. Nor is it sensible to tolerate risky work simply to avoid creating correspondence.

A measured written approach is usually easier to explain to a future buyer than unresolved damage or a prolonged argument about what happened.

A practical action plan

Where work has not started

Confirm that the work is probably notifiable, ask for the drawings and request service of the proper notice. Photograph your home and seek surveyor advice where the structural position is uncertain.

Where work is about to start

Write immediately asking for a pause. Obtain urgent advice if the neighbour refuses and the notifiable work is imminent.

Where work has started

Record the work and the condition of your property. Ask for the particular work to stop. Obtain structural advice where there is risk of movement and legal advice where an injunction may be necessary.

Where work is complete and no damage is visible

Keep a record of what happened and consider an inspection if the work was substantial. There is no automatic compensation merely because notice was omitted.

Where damage has appeared

Photograph it, notify the neighbour and your insurer and obtain independent causation evidence. Avoid permanent repairs until the evidence has been preserved, unless work is required urgently for safety.

Frequently asked questions

The practical point: act quickly, but establish the facts first

The words “Party Wall Act” can make an ordinary extension sound immediately unlawful. Sometimes the Act does not apply at all. At other times, the neighbour has omitted a procedure that exists precisely to prevent damage and uncertainty.

The sensible response is neither to ignore the work nor to begin with threats.

Find out what is being built. Establish the excavation depths. Preserve the condition of your property. Ask for a pause where necessary and obtain urgent advice if the work is continuing.

I have always thought that the best party wall dispute is the one that never quite becomes a dispute. A clear notice, sensible inspection and proper conversation before the builders arrive can prevent months of argument afterwards.

Where that opportunity has been lost, the priority is to protect the property and use the remedy that still exists. A retrospective statutory award may not be available, but an injunction, a private agreement and ordinary claims for damage remain important protections.

Last legally reviewed: 23 July 2026

This guide is based on general principles of English and Welsh law, is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice or establish a professional relationship.

About the author, Clare Lowes