The building owner — the person doing the work — pays for the party wall surveyors in almost every case. That includes the neighbour's surveyor. If you're the one building, that's the rule to budget for; if you're the neighbour, it's the reassurance that protecting your home costs you nothing. Here are the rules, the exceptions, and the protections that stop fees running away.
Why the building owner pays for both surveyors
The logic of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is simple: you're the one choosing to alter a shared structure or dig near it, so you bear the cost of the safeguards — notices, the schedule of condition, and the surveyors who produce the award. Your neighbour didn't ask for your loft conversion; the Act doesn't ask them to fund its paperwork.
The exceptions worth knowing
Enclosure costs: if a neighbour later makes use of a wall you built and paid for — enclosing on it with their own extension — they owe a fair contribution to its cost. Works for shared benefit: where both owners want repairs to a defective party structure, costs are apportioned by benefit and responsibility. Unreasonable conduct: where an adjoining owner behaves unreasonably — pointless referrals, obstruction — surveyors can award those wasted costs against them. Real, but rare.
Can the neighbour run up unlimited fees?
No — the fear is common, the risk contained. Fees must be reasonable; they're fixed in the award itself; hourly rates and time are open to challenge; and any dispute over fees goes to the Third Surveyor for a ruling. Building owners worried about a neighbour's surveyor charging £350 an hour to write letters have a mechanism, not just a grievance — and proposing a single Agreed Surveyor at the outset (one professional, one fee, impartial by statute) halves the exposure entirely. See what a party wall surveyor does for how impartiality works.
Who pays when damage happens?
The building owner — damage attributable to the works must be made good or compensated under section 10, with the schedule of condition deciding what “attributable” means. That's also who pays any surveyor time spent assessing the damage claim. Full cost picture: our party wall cost guide.
Keeping the total sensible
Talk to neighbours before notices land; propose an Agreed Surveyor; get fixed fees in writing. Our party wall surveyors quote fixed — including the London team — so the budget is known before anything is served.
As Agreed Surveyor for both owners we keep total costs down — fixed quote → 0204 579 8270 · contact us.
