Party Walls and Party Structures
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 gives some definitions:
- Party Fence Wall: A boundary wall where the boundary line is inside the thickness of the wall.
Source: The Party Wall etc Act 1996, explanatory booklet, the Department of the Environment, Transport & the Regions. Crown copyright is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- Party Structure: This includes party walls. But also a floor, partition or other structure separating buildings, or parts of buildings, approached solely by separate staircases or separate entrances (such as floors and walls/partitions between flats, offices and shops)
.
Source: The Party Wall etc Act 1996, explanatory booklet, the Department of the Environment, Transport & the Regions. Crown copyright is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- Party Wall means:
a) A wall which forms part of a building and stands on lands of different owners to a greater extent than the projection of any artificially formed support [the foundations] on which the wall rests. So, if the boundary line is within the thickness of the wall, it is a party wall.
(See diagrams 1 and 2 below)
b) So much of a wall not being a wall referred to in paragraph a) above as separates buildings belonging to different owners. This usually arises where someone has built against a neighbour’s building in the distant past and made use of a wall that was just outside the boundary. (See diagram 4 below)
Source: The Party Wall etc Act 1996, explanatory booklet, the Department of the Environment, Transport & the Regions. Crown copyright is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
