Does the surveyor have to be qualified or chartered?

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 says nothing about qualifications. Section 20 defines a surveyor as any person not being a party to the matter, and that is the whole test.

What "not being a party to the matter" means

You cannot appoint yourself. Beyond that, the Act sets no requirement for training, membership of a professional body or experience.

Anyone your neighbour agrees to, and anyone you agree to, can act as the surveyor under section 20, provided they have no personal stake in the work or the dispute.

Why this matters when you're deciding who to appoint

Bodies such as RICS, the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors and the Pyramus and Thisbe Society all offer routes to find someone experienced in this area of work. Choosing a surveyor with that background is a decision you make on top of the Act, not one the Act makes for you.

What section 20 gives you is the freedom to choose. What it does not give you is a fallback if the person you choose turns out not to know the Act well enough to produce a workable award.

Section 10(1)

How a party wall surveyor gets appointed

Section 10 does not leave the appointment to chance. It gives owners exactly two routes once a dispute exists, and the choice between them is theirs to make.

  1. Once a dispute exists, a surveyor has to be appointed

    A party structure notice, line of junction notice or excavation notice that ends in dissent, whether actual or deemed, puts you into section 10. From that point the Act sets out exactly two ways to appoint a surveyor to settle the matter.

  2. Route one: an agreed surveyor

    The building owner and the adjoining owner appoint a single surveyor between them. That one surveyor acts for both sides and produces the award.

  3. Route two: one surveyor each

    Each owner appoints their own surveyor. The two surveyors then select a third surveyor, and that third surveyor is only called on if the first two cannot agree.

    The third surveyor is selected by the two appointed surveyors, not by either owner.

    Building owner

    Appoints their own surveyor to act for them.

    Adjoining owner

    Appoints their own surveyor to act for them.

Section 20 defines surveyor as any person not being a party to the matter. The only restriction on either appointment route is that you cannot appoint yourself.

Do you need to appoint someone, and how

The government's explanatory booklet on the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 puts this question directly, at question 33: do you have to appoint someone to act as your surveyor. The answer sits alongside section 20, which defines a surveyor as any person not being a party to the matter. The only restriction is that you cannot appoint yourself to act as the surveyor for your own case.

That means the decision in front of you is not about finding someone with a particular qualification. There is no requirement in the Act for a surveyor to be chartered or professionally registered. The decision is about who you want handling the notice and, if it comes to it, the award, and how that person is appointed.

The two ways a surveyor gets appointed

Section 10(1) sets out the routes available once a dispute exists between building owner and adjoining owner:

  • An agreed surveyor, appointed jointly by both of you, who deals with the whole matter alone.
  • One surveyor appointed by each of you, with those two then selecting a third surveyor to decide anything they cannot agree between themselves.

Which route suits your job depends on how straightforward the work is and how much you and your neighbour already agree. Section 10(13) leaves the cost of the award itself to the surveyors involved, and the Act sets no default split, so this is worth raising directly with whoever you appoint.