If your neighbour intends to carry out building work which involves one of the following categories:

• work on an existing wall or structure shared with another property (section 2 of the Act);
• building a free standing wall or a wall of a building up to or astride the boundary with a neighbouring property (section 1 of the Act); or
• excavating near a neighbouring building (section 6 of the Act);

The Building Owner(s) must notify you in writing before they start work

If you receive a notice from your neighbour you should reply to it in writing within 14 days of receiving it

You do not need to appoint a professional adviser to respond to the notice on your behalf.

You can consent to or disagree with what is proposed. If you disagree with the proposal, and cannot resolve the matter between yourselves, the procedure enters into a dispute.

If you do not respond to a notice about an intended new wall built up to (but not astride) the line of junction, the work can commence after the one month notice period.

If you do not respond, in writing, within 14 days to a notice about an intended new wall built astride the line of junction (a party wall), the Building Owner must build the wall entirely on his own land. The work can commence after the one month notice period.

If you receive a notice about work to an existing party structure or a notice about excavations within 3 or 6 metres of your foundations, and you have not responded, in writing, within a period of 14 days from receipt of the notice, a dispute is deemed to have arisen. The dispute procedure then comes into play.

If you disagree with the work described in a notice under the Act it may be helpful to explain why. The Building Owner can then consider your objection and perhaps amend his proposal. An agreement might then be reached, without the need to use the formal dispute resolution procedure.

You should let your neighbour know (in writing) about the Act. You may wish to include the web link

The Act contains no enforcement procedures for failure to serve a notice. However, if your neighbour or a builder carrying out work on your neighbour’s behalf starts work, without having first given notice in the proper way, you may seek to stop the work through a court injunction or seek other legal redresses. You may wish to take professional or legal advice before commencing such action.

Where the proposed works are minor and/or not intrusive on your building or land, you may have only minor objections that you cannot agree or perhaps simply want some assurance that the correct procedures are followed. In these circumstances, and particularly in residential circumstances where surveyor’s fees would significantly increase the project costs, the appointment of an agreed surveyor to resolve the dispute is preferable, especially if the proposed surveyor is not involved in your neighbour’s project.

Even where you object to what your neighbour is building on his land, it may often be to your benefit to allow access, for example for scaffolding or to allow pointing of the wall, as the wall will probably be visually more acceptable if access is given..

If there is a risk that you will be left in difficulties if the Building Owner stops work at an inconvenient stage, you can request them, before he starts the notified work, to make available such security as is agreed (or if not agreed determined by the surveyor/s), which may be money or a bond or insurances, etc. that would allow you to restore the status quo if he fails to do so.

The money remains the Building Owner’s throughout, but if, for example, you need to have a wall rebuilt, you, or more commonly the surveyors, can draw on that security to pay for the rebuilding.

This provision is usually reserved for particularly intrusive or complex works.

You should contact your local authority environmental department who have powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Control of Pollution Act 1974 to deal with matters of noise and other potential nuisance, such as dust and deposits from construction sites.