The short answer
If your neighbour’s extension involves notifiable work, they must serve you a party wall notice before they start. You cannot stop lawful work, but you have real rights: to a proper record of your property’s condition, to a surveyor (usually at your neighbour’s expense), to a party wall award setting out how the work is done, and to be compensated for any damage. The Act is there to let the work go ahead and protect you.
Why it matters
As the adjoining owner, you are entitled to:
- be served a valid notice describing the work, with the correct notice period;
- respond by consenting or dissenting — and if you do nothing for 14 days, a dispute is deemed to have arisen;
- have a surveyor appointed to protect your interests, whose reasonable fees the building owner normally pays;
- a schedule of condition recording your property before work starts, so any damage can be identified;
- a party wall award that can control working hours, access, protection and method of work;
- compensation and making good for any damage the works cause.
What you cannot do is veto lawful work indefinitely. Dissenting does not block the project — it triggers the surveyor process that sets the protections. Ignoring the notice helps no one: it can leave you without a schedule of condition and make a later damage claim much harder to prove.
What to do now
- Agree what you can between yourselves. When issues arise — damage being the common one — the more the owners settle directly, the fewer matters are left for the surveyors, which keeps costs down.
- Where a surveyor is needed, a single agreed surveyor acting for both owners is usually quicker and cheaper than two — the route Coburns recommends.
- Do not ignore the notice — respond, and make sure a schedule of condition is taken.
- Decide whether to agree to a single “agreed surveyor” or appoint your own.
- Take dated photographs of any existing cracks or defects on your side.
- Raise genuine concerns about access, hours, protection or damage through your surveyor.
- Keep copies of every notice, award and piece of correspondence.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring the notice and losing the chance for a proper condition record.
- Believing you can simply refuse and stop the work — you cannot.
- Appointing an expensive, fee-driven surveyor when an agreed surveyor would do.
- Signing a consent without understanding that it waives the award process.
- Leaving damage unrecorded until long after the work is finished.
When to call Coburns
If you have received a notice — or your neighbour has started without one — send it to us and we will explain your options clearly and act for you proportionately, so you are protected without the process being inflated.