‘A person's home is their castle’ (until they receive a party wall notice!)

Date: Wednesday, 18 Mar 2026, 18:30 - 19:30 Location: Desborough Bowls Club, Green Lane, Maidenhead, SL6 1XZ Member cost: £0 (including VAT) Non-member cost: £0 (including VAT)

Steven Way BSc FPTS C.Build.E MCABE MRICS

The Party Wall Etc. Act 1996 sets out a statutory process enabling a Building Owner to undertake works on or near shared or party structures and on and adjacent to a boundary. It is a one-size-fits-all piece of legislation equally applicable to a 42-storey tower block in the centre of London and a small rear extension on a terraced house in Maidenhead. What could possibly go wrong?

Many party wall practitioners and lawyers would argue that the act is flawed, and that is true in some respects. It is inevitable that in that situation, a piece of legislation designed to resolve disputes can actually create unexpected disputes, and these can be particularly intense in residential settings, often involving the simplest work but affecting a person’s home. Steven Way will discuss some of these disputes, how these may be avoided, errors made by party wall surveyors (including his own!), and how some disputes have been resolved by the courts.

Steven is a Chartered Building Surveyor, having qualified in 1992. He is also a Fellow of the Pyramus and Thisbe Society (The Learned Society for Party Wall and Neighbourly Matters) and a chartered building engineer. He has run his own surveying practice for 30 years and spends considerable time dealing with party wall matters, 80% of which involve relatively straightforward residential disputes. His other work involves acting as an Expert Witness, largely related to residential building contract disputes, surveyor’s negligence and, occasionally, party wall issues. Boundary disputes annoy him, and he does not deal with those!