Roofing works and the Party Wall Act

The short answer

Most re-roofing does not need a party wall notice. Most roof work that touches the shared wall does.

• Usually no notice: new tiles, slates, felt and battens on your own roof, new gutters and fascias on your own side, and rooflights or solar panels in your own roof slope.
• Usually a notice, two months ahead: cutting into the party wall for beams, purlins or flashings, raising the wall or a parapet, taking down or rebuilding a chimney stack that stands on it, and exposing a party wall that was covered.
• Not sure: that is fine, and one call usually settles it. A photo of where the roof meets the wall is usually enough.

The Act is about shared walls, not about roofs as such. A roof job comes under it only where the work reaches the wall. That one idea sorts almost every case below.

Roof jobs at a glance

Find your job here, then read the section on it further down.

Section 3 is the party structure notice. It must be served at least two months before work to the wall starts. In a mid-terrace house the roof touches two party walls, so there are usually two neighbours to serve, each with their own 14 days to reply.

Where a roof job reaches the party wall

Your roof covering is yours. The wall under it is shared. A roof job reaches the party wall in the places marked below.

Four places are easy to miss, because a roofer may treat them as part of an ordinary re-roof:

• The abutment. Where the roof slope meets the party wall, the flashing is normally tucked into a groove cut in the brickwork. Renewing it in the same joint is one thing. Cutting a new, deeper or higher chase is another.
• The chimney stack. If the stack stands on the party wall, repointing the top is a small repair. Taking it down or rebuilding it is work to the wall.
• The upstand and coping. Loose coping stones look like a roofing repair. Rebuilding them, or the wall under them, is work to the party wall.
• The line between the two roofs. On a terrace or semi the two roof coverings meet at or near the boundary, often with a lead-lined valley or bonding gutter. Neither owner should disturb the other’s side. The Act does not settle where the boundary runs, and the government’s explanatory booklet says it has no provision for settling a boundary dispute. Look at your title plan, and get advice if the line is disputed.

If your job touches none of these, you can get on with it. Tell your neighbour anyway.

An open loft. In some older terraces the roof timbers run across the boundary with no wall dividing the loft. Where there is no wall to cut into or raise, the Act may have little to say, and ordinary property and neighbour law takes over. Send us a photo before you decide.

Flashings, upstands and parapets

A flashing is the strip of lead, or similar, that seals the joint where a roof covering meets a wall. An upstand, or parapet, is the part of a party wall that stands above the roof, usually capped with coping.

Flashings. A lasting flashing is normally tucked into a groove, or chase, cut into the brickwork and pointed over. Section 2 of the Act lets a building owner cut into a party structure, and a Section 3 notice must come first. Renewing an existing flashing in its existing joint is different. The government’s explanatory booklet accepts that some work to a party wall is so minor that a notice is generally regarded as unnecessary, such as drilling for shelves or replastering. Its guide is whether the work could affect the wall’s strength or support, or damage the neighbour’s side. A new chase, a deeper chase or one at a new height is much harder to call minor. If you are unsure, ask before the roofer starts.

Upstands and parapets. Repairing, rebuilding or raising an upstand or a parapet on the boundary is work to the party wall itself. Where the wall is defective, the Act shares the cost between the owners according to how each uses the wall and who is responsible for the defect (Section 11). Photograph damp or crumbling brickwork on both sides before anyone touches it.

Exposing a wall that was covered. Taking down a lean-to, a rear addition or an old roof built against a party wall leaves the wall outside. The Act lets the building owner expose it, on condition that they provide adequate weathering. Plan for render, coping, flashings or a new skin, and for your neighbour’s side to be left watertight.

Chimney stacks

In terraces and semis the stack often stands on the party wall and carries flues from both houses.

• Taking down or rebuilding a stack on the wall is work to the party wall, and normally needs a Section 3 notice.
• Whose flues are in it matters. Taking out the wrong flue, or weakening the stack that carries it, is how disputes start. The surveyor and your engineer check this before work begins.
• Raising the wall means raising the stack. If a building owner raises or rebuilds a party wall, the Act says they must carry up the neighbour’s flues and chimney stacks on it. The height and materials are agreed with the neighbour, or settled under the Act’s dispute procedure.
• Removing the breast below is a separate question, with its own risks to the stack above. See chimney breast removal.

Loft conversions, roof extensions and a new storey

This is where roof work and the Act meet most often. A loft built to carry a few tiles and a water tank cannot carry bedroom floors, so the engineer adds steelwork, and in a terrace or semi it usually has to rest on the party wall.

• Steel beams, purlins or a ridge beam bearing in pockets cut into the party wall
• Padstones built into the wall to spread the load
• Raising the party wall to suit a new roof, a mansard or an extra storey, with your neighbour’s chimney carried up to match
• Chases for flashings where a dormer or new roof meets the wall
• Changes to a shared chimney stack, as above

A dormer, hip-to-gable or other roof change that sits entirely on your own structure does not need a notice by itself. The notice is triggered when the work cuts into, raises or builds against the party wall, or puts a new wall on the boundary.

Describe the work properly. The notice should list each element: how many beams and where they bear, how far the wall is raised, which flashings are chased in and what happens to the stack. The notice and the award then set what the roofer may do, and the Act says the work must follow what was agreed or decided, with no deviation unless the owners agree (Section 7). A one-line description such as “loft conversion” is one of the mistakes we see most.

Fire and sound separation between two lofts is a building regulations matter that often involves the wall. The Party Wall Act deals with the wall itself. The full guide is in party wall notices for loft conversions.

Extensions, lean-tos and roofs that meet a neighbour’s wall

A new roof that butts up to your neighbour’s wall needs a weathertight junction, and that usually means cutting a flashing into their wall.

• Flashings into the neighbour’s wall. The Act lets a building owner cut into an adjoining owner’s wall to insert a flashing or other weatherproofing for a new wall built against it. All damage to the neighbour’s wall must be made good. A Section 3 notice must come first.
• A new wall on the boundary. If the new wall stands on the line between the properties, or astride it, a Section 1 notice is needed, one month ahead.
• Overhangs. Part of the neighbour’s building, such as eaves or a gutter, may overhang your land or rest on the party wall. If a vertical wall has to go up against the party wall, the Act lets the building owner cut away what is in the way, as far as necessary. They must make good any damage.

The rest of an extension has its own rules. See rear and side extensions.

Scaffolding, access and protection

Scaffolding is where roof jobs most often collide with a neighbour.

• On your own land, you need no neighbour’s permission.
• On, over or fixed to your neighbour’s land or building, you need their consent, or a right under the Act.
• If the work is covered by the Act, the building owner and their workmen may enter during usual working hours to carry it out, once the owner and occupier have had at least 14 days’ notice. In an emergency, notice need only be as long as is reasonably practicable (Section 8). The award normally sets out where the scaffold goes, on which days and at what hours.
• If the work is not covered, there is no automatic right of entry. Ask in writing, with dates, hours and what will be fixed where. If your neighbour refuses, the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992 lets a court order access for repair and maintenance of your own building, not for improvements, and it is a slower and costlier route than agreeing terms. For your options, see can a neighbour refuse access for building work?.
• Protection. If the work lays open any part of your neighbour’s property, the building owner must protect it. That means proper hoarding, shoring, fans or other temporary protection, at the owner’s expense, for as long as it is needed (Section 7).

What happens if you start without a notice

The Act does not make starting without a notice a criminal offence. The remedies are civil, and they are usually worse than doing it properly:

• An injunction. Your neighbour can ask the court to stop the work. That leaves a crew standing idle and part of a roof open to the weather.
• No award to protect you. Without a schedule of condition and an agreed method, every crack and damp patch becomes an argument about who caused it, and a damage claim is harder to defend or to prove.
• Damages. Your neighbour can claim for loss or damage the work causes, from the owner and from the contractor.
• Trouble when you sell. A buyer’s solicitor will often ask for the notices, consents and awards for roof and loft work. Missing paperwork can delay a sale. See party wall awards when you buy or sell.

If work has already started, stop work to the wall if you can do it safely, and call us. We can serve the notice and speak to your neighbour. If you are the neighbour, read what to do when a neighbour starts work without a notice.

Building owner, neighbour or roofer: what to do

If you are the building owner

1. Ask your roofer exactly what they will cut, raise or rebuild, and where the scaffold will go.
2. If any of it touches the party wall or a shared chimney, serve the notice at least two months ahead, and ask your roofer to wait for the paperwork.
3. Check your roofer’s public liability insurance, and ask to see the certificate.
4. Call us. We will tell you whether the Act applies, and quote a fixed fee in writing if it does.

If you are the neighbour

1. Ask in writing what will be cut, raised or rebuilt where the roofs meet the wall, and where the scaffold will go.
2. Check whether a notice has been served on you. If one has, you have 14 days to reply, and silence counts as dissent. See how to respond to a party wall notice.
3. Photograph your ceilings, loft, chimney breast and the party wall, with dates, before work starts.
4. Do not allow access to your land or roof until you have agreed terms in writing.
5. Appoint a surveyor. As a general rule the building owner pays the reasonable fees of both surveyors. See who pays for a party wall surveyor.
6. Report noise to your council’s environmental health team. The Act does not deal with it.

We act for neighbours as well as building owners. Start with help for adjoining owners, or call 0800 999 1947 before you reply to a notice.

If you are the roofer or builder

The duty to serve the notice falls on the building owner, not on the contractor. The delay falls on you: a stopped job, an idle crew and an owner who blames the roofer.

• Ask at the quote stage whether anything will be cut into, raised or rebuilt on the party wall or a shared chimney, and where the scaffold will go.
• Put it in the quote: any notice period, schedule of condition and award come first, and the start date allows for them.
• Check the paperwork before anyone touches the wall: a signed consent, or the award.
• Check your own cover. Make sure your public liability insurance is in place, and share the certificate with the owner.
• Send the owner to us. We prepare and serve the notice, deal with the neighbour’s surveyor and give the owner a fixed fee in writing, so you can book the job with confidence.

How we handle roof work, and what it costs

1. A free first call, or send a photo. We say whether the Act applies. If it does not, we say so, and you owe us nothing.
2. A fixed fee in writing. The total, for the number of neighbours involved, before you commit.
3. A Land Registry search, so the notice goes to the right owners. The freeholder and any leaseholder with more than a year to run can each be an owner under the Act.
4. The notice, describing the roof work in detail, with a covering letter and a form of consent for your neighbour to sign and return.
5. Your neighbour has 14 days. They can consent, dissent or serve a counter notice. For work to a party wall, silence counts as dissent.
6. A schedule of condition. A surveyed, photographed record of your neighbour’s ceilings, loft, chimney breast, party wall and the junction between the roofs, made before work starts. It protects both owners if damage is claimed later.
7. The award, if needed. We act as agreed surveyor for both owners, or each owner has their own. The award sets out how and when the work is done, where the scaffold goes and what happens if there is damage. In our experience an award for straightforward work takes four to six weeks, which normally fits inside the two-month notice period if your neighbour responds promptly.
8. Your roofer starts. Work to the wall can begin once the notice period has run and your neighbour has consented or the award has been served. Roof work that does not touch the wall can go ahead at any time.

No VAT is added to any of these fees. Your written quotation confirms what is covered. As a general rule the building owner pays the reasonable fees of both surveyors.

Our price pledge: send us a written quotation from another party wall surveyor for the same work and we will better it. See how our fixed fees work.

Why people choose Simply Party Walls

Simply Party Walls is run by Ivan Larkin ACABE MFPWS MPTS. Ivan has worked in construction for over 37 years. Before he moved into party wall surveying he was a registered house builder with LABC and NHBC. He knows how a loft conversion, a chimney stack and a flashing are actually built, so a notice and an award can be written to work on site as well as on paper.

• A free first call. We tell you whether the Act applies, and say plainly if you do not need us.
• Fixed fees, no VAT, quoted in writing before you commit, with a price pledge.
• Either side, or both. We act for the building owner, for the neighbour, or as the one agreed surveyor for both.
• Local. We are based in Banstead and act across London and the South East. See the areas we cover.

Ivan is a member of the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors, an associate member of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers and a member of The Pyramus & Thisbe Society. Read more about Ivan and the firm.