South West London’s Victorian terraces – Battersea, Clapham, Putney, Wandsworth, Wimbledon – are extension and basement territory, and almost every project touches a shared wall or digs near a neighbour’s foundations. That is exactly what the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 regulates. Kingston Surveyors arranges RICS party wall surveyors across South West London for building owners planning lofts, side-returns and basements, and for adjoining owners who have received a notice and want their home properly protected before the builders arrive next door.
We arrange the complete party wall service across Battersea, Clapham, Balham, Putney, Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Fulham and the surrounding postcodes: valid notices drafted and served; party wall awards for loft conversions, extensions, chimney breast removals and basement excavations; photographic schedules of condition; and adjoining owner appointments at the building owner’s reasonable cost. Basements deserve a special mention – South West London has more residential basement projects than anywhere else in the country, and Section 6 excavation notices with proper depth drawings are where inexperienced builders most often get the Act wrong.
Notice first: two months ahead for work to the shared wall, one month for excavation within three metres (six for deeper digs cutting the 45-degree line). Consent in writing means work proceeds, ideally with a schedule of condition on file. Dissent – or two weeks of silence – means surveyors are appointed and an award is produced governing hours, access, protection and making good. The building owner normally pays reasonable fees for both sides. The award is enforceable, appealable for 14 days, and in practice the thing that keeps neighbourly relations intact through a noisy build.
Fixed fees are agreed upfront – see our party wall surveyor cost guide – and every instruction is matched to an RICS surveyor who knows South West London’s terraces and basement stock. Enquiries answered the same working day. Call 0204 579 8270 or use the quote form below for a free, no-obligation quote.
