Party walls—shared costs and security for damage

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Published by a LexisNexis Property Disputes expert
Practice notes

Party walls—shared costs and security for damage

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Published by a LexisNexis Property Disputes expert

Practice notes
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This Practice Note explains the circumstances in which the cost of party wall works can be shared, the right of adjoining owners and building owners to seek security for damage and expenses, and the surrounding case law.

Sharing the cost of party wall works

The cost of works under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 (PWA 1996) (referred to in PWA 1996 as ‘expenses’) must be met by the building owner, unless an exception applies. These exceptions include:

  1. •

    where a building owner builds a new party wall or party fence wall, to which the adjoining owner consents, the expense is shared between the two owners having regard to the use made (or to be made) by each owner, and to the cost of labour and materials prevailing at the time of that use. There is therefore scope for a building owner to receive no contribution at the time a new wall is built (because the adjoining owner will make no use of it at that time), but to seek payment in future if (for example) the

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
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Key definition:
Costs definition
What does Costs mean?

Money ordered to be paid by one party to another in respect of the costs incurred in the course of litigation, in bringing or defending a claim.

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