What is a party wall award?

Last updated: 31 July 2026

If your neighbour didn't consent to your notice, this is the document that ends up governing the job. It's binding, it's written by surveyors rather than by either of you, and several of the things people most want to know about it — how long it takes, what it must contain — turn out to be things the Act deliberately doesn't say.

What an award actually is

When a party wall notice is dissented from, or simply not answered, a dispute exists in the legal sense — which is a status, not an argument. Surveyors are appointed to settle it, and the award is what they produce.

The important thing to understand is what kind of document it is. It's not an agreement between neighbours, and it's not something either of you signs up to. It's a determination by third parties, made under a statutory power, which then binds you both. That's why you can't negotiate its terms directly and why the only route to change it is an appeal.

Who writes it — and it needn't be all of them

Either a single agreed surveyor acting for both sides, or, on the two-surveyor route, "the three surveyors or any two of them". That last phrase surprises people: an award does not need all three signatures. Any two of the three can settle the matter, which is what stops one surveyor blocking the process indefinitely.

What an award can decide

The Act gives the surveyors three heads of power. An award may determine:

• The right to execute the work — whether the proposed work is something the Act permits at all.
• The time and manner of executing it — the practical controls: hours, sequence, method, protections, access for inspection.
• Any other matter arising out of or incidental to the dispute, expressly including the costs of making the award.

Note the verb. The Act says an award may determine those things — it's a list of powers, not a list of required contents. So beware any page that tells you "an award must contain" a particular section; the statute doesn't work that way.

One built-in limit worth knowing: whatever period an award sets for carrying out the work can't start running until the statutory notice period has expired — two months for a party structure notice, one month for the others — unless both owners agree otherwise. An award can't be used to shortcut the warning your neighbour is owed.

What awards contain in practice

Since the Act prescribes nothing, what follows is professional convention rather than law — but conventions are consistent, and you'll usually see: the names of the owners and surveyors, the notice the award responds to, a description of the permitted works, working hours and method, provisions for access, arrangements for making good damage, who pays the costs, and a schedule of condition recording the neighbour's property before work starts.

That last one is the most useful item in the whole document, and it's also not required by the Act — the government's guidance says exactly that, and then says it's most prudent to do it anyway. If a draft award lands without one, ask why.

How long does a party wall award take?

Here's the honest answer, and it's not the one most pages give: the Act sets no deadline at all. There is no statutory timescale anywhere between a dispute arising and an award being made. The government's guidance gives none either.

So when you see "an award usually takes two to eight weeks", that's a description of trade custom, not a rule anyone can be held to. It might be a perfectly good estimate for your job — ask your surveyor and they'll tell you — but nothing in the law obliges anyone to hit it.

What that means practically: build your programme around the notice periods, which are certain, and treat the award stage as the uncertain part. It's the strongest argument there is for making consent easy in the first place — a consenting neighbour skips this entirely.

The ten-day levers if someone stalls

The Act does have several ten-day clocks, and they deal with people who won't act rather than with how long the award takes:

• A party who won't appoint a surveyor — after a written request and ten days, the other party may appoint one on their behalf.
• A party-appointed surveyor who neglects to act effectively for ten days after a request — the other surveyor may proceed ex parte.
• A surveyor who won't select a third surveyor, or a third surveyor who won't act — a replacement can be selected, or the appointing officer steps in.
• An agreed surveyor who refuses, dies, becomes incapable or neglects to act for ten days — the proceedings begin again from scratch, which is a real risk of the cheaper route.

What does an award cost, and who pays?

The Act contains no fee scale, and the government's guidance says plainly that there are no set charges. Published market figures for a single agreed surveyor run around £1,575 for a loft conversion, £2,025 for an extension and £3,375 for a basement; two-surveyor cases run £1,800–£5,400. Hourly rates sit between £90 and £450, with £150–£200 typical, and fees are normally quoted plus VAT. All of it is per neighbour. More: what a party wall agreement costs.

On who pays, the Act is precise and it isn't what most people assume. The reasonable costs of making or obtaining the award, of reasonable inspections, and of any other matter arising from the dispute are paid by whichever party the surveyors making the award determine. So the surveyors decide — it's one of the things the award itself settles.

In practice it's usually the building owner where the work is solely for their benefit, which is why a dissenting neighbour normally pays nothing. But that's the common outcome, not a rule in the statute, and the three situations where a neighbour does contribute are set out in who pays for a party wall surveyor.

Is there a party wall award template?

No official one — and the reason is more interesting than the answer. The Act imposes no form requirement on an award at all. It doesn't say an award must be in writing, signed, dated, or laid out in any particular way.

That silence looks deliberate rather than accidental, because the same section expressly requires surveyor appointments to be in writing. The drafter knew how to impose that requirement and chose not to impose it here.

The practical consequence: an award is the output of a statutory process that a notice starts, not a document owners can download and complete between themselves. If someone offers to sell you an "award template", what they're selling isn't a step the Act recognises you taking. (The notices are different — those have free official letters, covered in the templates explained.)

Getting the award, and what happens next

Where the two party-appointed surveyors make the award, they must serve it on the owners forthwith. Where the third surveyor makes it, the Act says they serve it after payment of the costs of the award — a lien the Act grants expressly to the third surveyor, and to nobody else.

Once served, the award is conclusive and can't be questioned in court except by the one route the Act provides. Then the work can proceed on the terms it sets, and the surveyors typically inspect as it goes.

Appealing a party wall award

Either owner may appeal to the county court — not the High Court — within fourteen days beginning with the day the award is served on them. Three details do most of the damage:

• It runs from service on you, not from the date written on the award. Because each owner is served separately, the two of you can have different deadlines.
• "Beginning with the day" means the day of service counts as day one, not day zero.
• If the award arrives by post, time runs from when it would be received in the ordinary course of post rather than from when it was sent.

The court may rescind the award, modify it as it thinks fit, and make whatever costs order it thinks fit — which is the part to weigh carefully, because a losing appellant can be ordered to pay. A court fee is payable, and we deliberately don't quote one: the amount isn't set by the Act or the government's party wall guidance, so check GOV.UK rather than trusting a figure in an article.

Cheaper first: go to the third surveyor

Before an appeal, there's a step most owners don't know exists. On the two-surveyor route a third surveyor is selected at the very start — not held back for a deadlock — and either owner, or either surveyor, can call on them acting alone. You don't need your neighbour's agreement, and you don't need your own surveyor's permission.

If what you're unhappy about is a fee, a technical point, or how your own surveyor has handled something, that referral is usually a far better first move than a court application. The catch: if you chose a single agreed surveyor, there is no third surveyor to go to. Cheaper route, one fewer safety valve.

Things the Act doesn't answer about awards

Worth knowing which questions have no legal answer, so you can spot pages that invent one:

• Whether appealing pauses the award or the works. The Act is silent and we found no authority either way.
• Whether permission to appeal is needed. Not addressed.
• Whether the court can send the award back to the surveyors. The Act gives the court only rescind, modify and costs — no power of remittal is stated.
• When an emailed award counts as served for the purposes of the 14 days. The postal position is settled; the email one isn't.
• Whether an award binds a future owner. It's conclusive between the parties to it; the Act never mentions successors in title. Ask your conveyancer — see selling with a party wall history.
• Whether an award can be made after the works. Not addressed — and where no notice was served at all, the machinery isn't engaged and an award is void: what's actually possible after the fact.

If damage appears after the award

The award isn't the end of your protection. The building owner must compensate the adjoining owner — and any occupier, so a tenant counts too — for loss or damage resulting from work done under the Act, and several of the section 2 rights carry their own duty to make good all damage.

The Act contains no "further award" or "damage award" as such; those phrases simply aren't in it. What exists is the ordinary section 10 machinery, which is why keeping the surveyors' details and your schedule of condition matters after the scaffolding comes down. What to do about damage covers the practical first moves.

Not at the award stage yet, and wondering whether you'll get there? Most projects don't — most neighbours consent. The free checker tells you which notices your job needs in about 90 seconds, and the Act explained covers the whole process from notice to finished work.