Payments under Section 11(11) of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996

It is generally known and accepted that under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 when ‘building owners’ make use of building works carried out previously by their neighbours, the ‘adjoining owners’, they will have to pay a ‘due proportion of the expenses incurred by (the neighbour) in carrying out that work’. This seems to be perfectly reasonable but complications can arise when there has been a change in ownership and where there is more than one owner under the Act of the property in respect of which the work was carried out. Some surveyors apply the principle that unless the current adjoining owner actually incurred expenses in carrying out that work no payment is due under 11(11). Others believe that if building owners wish to enclose on a party wall built as part of the original building they must pay the due proportion under 11(11). A typical example is when a building owner wishes to extend into the space beside the ‘back addition’ and make use of the type ‘a’ party wall that is the external wall of the neighbour's ‘back addition’. Neither of the established references on the workings of the Act have much to say on the matter, which may suggest that any complications are more to do with surveyors than the law itself.1 The position turns out to be relatively straightforward and is summarised in the comment on the sub-section in both editions of The Pyramus & This be Club's ‘The Green Book’.2