Serving a party wall notice: the complete guide

Serving notice is the building owner's legal duty. Professionals can draft and deliver it for you, but it goes out in your name and the responsibility stays with you. Done properly, it is usually painless. Done badly, it costs weeks.

The order of events

1. Tell your neighbours what you are planning. A conversation before any paperwork arrives makes agreement far more likely. See telling your neighbour.
2. Decide which notices apply. Plenty of projects need two. See which notice do I need?
3. Identify every owner next door. Freeholders and most leaseholders count, so a converted house may mean several notices. See serving both neighbours.
4. Prepare a notice that contains everything required. See what a notice must include.
5. Deliver it in a way the Act recognises, and keep proof. See how to serve a notice.
6. Allow 14 days for a reply, then follow up any silence. See my neighbour hasn't replied.
7. Start no sooner than the notice period allows, and within 12 months.

When to serve

As soon as the drawings show where beams, new walls and foundations will go. You do not need planning permission first (see serving before planning permission), and a notice served early gives the process time to run alongside everything else.

All guides for building owners

• How to tell your neighbour about your building plansThe conversation to have before any notice goes through the door.
• Which party wall notice do I need?How to tell whether your project needs a line of junction notice, a party structure notice, an excavation notice, or more than one.
• How much notice must I give my neighbour?The minimum party wall notice periods for boundary walls, shared walls and excavations, and how to plan your build around them.
• How to serve a party wall notice correctlyWho to serve, how to deliver a party wall notice, and what to do about joint owners, flats, landlords and empty properties next door.
• What must a party wall notice include?A checklist of the details every valid party wall notice needs, plus the extra information required for excavation and special foundation notices.
• Party wall notice mistakes that cause delaysThe errors that invalidate party wall notices or hold up building work, from serving the wrong person to a start date that comes too soon.
• My neighbour hasn't replied to my party wall noticeWhat to do when a neighbour ignores your party wall notice: the 14-day deemed dispute, the 10-day request and appointing a surveyor for them.
• When does a party wall notice expire?Party structure and excavation notices generally lapse if work does not begin within 12 months. What that means for delayed projects.
• Do I need to serve notice on both neighbours?Either side, behind you, in the flats next door, or further along the street.
• Can I serve a party wall notice before planning permission?Yes, and it can save weeks. When early is sensible, and when it is too early.
• Who can serve a party wall notice?Owners, joint owners, companies, and the professionals who act for them.
• Can a party wall notice be served by email?Only with the neighbour's agreement, and only to the address they gave.
• Serving notice on a council or housing associationWhen next door is a council or housing association home.
• Absent owners, landlords and companies: serving noticeLet, empty, company-owned, or owned from abroad.
• Changing or withdrawing a party wall noticeMistakes, design changes, and deciding not to build.