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Party wall agreements are legal documents that outline agreements between homeowners whose properties share a wall or boundary, and describe how any construction work must be done if it affects that wall. If you’re trying to sell a home without such an agreement then you might encounter some challenges, but this guide will help you navigate through those.
- What is a party wall agreement at a property?
- Situations when you do and do not need a party wall agreement
- Can the lack of a party wall agreement make selling a home harder?
- Your options to address not having a party wall agreement when selling
- Choosing how to sell a house without a party wall agreement
- Answers to top queries about selling a home with no party wall agreement
What is a party wall agreement at a property?
Across the UK you can find almost countless examples of properties that have what’s known as a party wall – this is a situation where two homes share either a wall that forms part of the same building or they share a boundary like a garden wall, as the UK government’s website says. or another wall the separates the properties.
Party wall agreements are binding documents that are developed with the consent of the neighbouring homeowner for certain types of construction work that you plan to do either on the wall itself or nearby that might affect the wall. This agreement will cover important issues such as the hours of the day when you plan on doing the work, how you plan to go about doing the work, and any other elements that you or the other owner think should be in it.
It can also be helpful to include in such an agreement some proof of the condition of your property and the neighbour’s property before you started any building work. This can be useful as evidence to counter any claims of damage that might arise after the work is done.
By law, agreements should outline how the person planning the work will minimise any inconvenience to the other homeowner, and protect the integrity of the building.
And these agreements can also play an important role in the unfortunate event that the construction work causes some kind of damage to the neighbour’s property. Typically, the agreement will lay out your duty to pay the other owner for any damages you cause.
If you are planning to sell your home but you don’t have a party wall agreement in place, this could create some problems with trying to attract buyers. Keep reading to learn about the various issues involved, and your options for how to still aim for attracting a fast and fair offer from a buyer.
Situations when you do and do not need a party wall agreement
Although party wall agreements can be crucially important at certain properties, there is no broad legal requirement that every type of home with a shared wall has one.
The law that established the mandates for party walls is known as The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 and it was intended to help with resolving fights between homeowners about planned work that might affect a share wall and weaken a building’s structural integrity, as Wikipedia explains.
If you are trying to sell a property located in England and Wales then you must abide by the terms of this law, but it doesn’t apply to homes in Northern Ireland or Scotland. You will generally need to have a party wall agreement in place for projects that include:
- Work directly on the party wall
- Converting lofts
- Removing chimneys
- Renovating garden boundary walls
- Replacing foundations
- Extending basements
- Digging at the foundation level
- Underpinning a home
But these are often very large-scale construction projects, and there are several scenarios that are much smaller in scope for which you’re not required by law to have a party wall agreement:
- Applying wallpaper
- Replacing electrical wires
- Plastering the wall
- Drilling into the wall
Can the lack of a party wall agreement make selling a home harder?
Disputes with neighbours generally can be a factor that makes it harder to sell a house or flat, whether that’s over noise, boundary disputes, or the fact that you do not have a party wall agreement.
There are many people that own homes with a shared wall who could by default be opposed to any significant construction work taking place, because they’ll worry about how it might harm their property. This type of owner might always refuse to discuss a party wall agreement with you, or they can otherwise make such a pact impossible by issuing unreasonable demands.
Unfortunately, you could find that not having a party wall agreement indeed makes it more difficult to sell your property because some buyers will view this as a dealbreaker.
For those situations where you have not yet launched the construction work you have in mind, but you also do not have a party wall agreement, this can still be enough to make some prospective buyers question whether they want to make an offer on your home. These buyers could have concerns that reaching an agreement in the future with the neighbour might be difficult, and therefore make it challenging to pursue any work they’d do as the next owner.
If you do not have a party wall agreement and have already completed the construction project this could open you up to a legal challenge from the other owner, as noted on Innovus’ website. If you end up losing such a case then you may face steep fines and having to undo the work.
Even if your neighbour has not filed such an enforcement action against you, the mere threat of such a legal challenge in the future could be enough to make buyers lose interest in your home. That’s because they might worry that after they move in your property as its next owner, they might be liable in the event that the other owner decides to file such a lawsuit.
Your options to address not having a party wall agreement when selling
Whether you have already done your construction work without a party wall agreement, or you have not started it but still don’t have an agreement in place, there are a few different options for how to address the lack of this document when you are trying to sell your home.
Obtain a party wall agreement
Perhaps the most obvious solution to not having a party wall agreement is going through the formal process of trying to get the other owner to sign one. This is a long and complicated process and you will have to give the neighbour at least two months’ notice that you plan to start the work, and then there are a number of steps involved before an agreement can be reached.
But your neighbour is under no duty to accept the terms of any party wall agreement, as the Federation of Master Builders explains.
If the other owner challenges the agreement, you’ll also have to get a professional surveyor involved to assess the building and the work, and this can quickly become very expensive, easily costing hundreds of pounds if not more. Therefore, trying to get a party wall agreement in place before selling is not the best choice if you are looking to sell fast and with low costs.
Get indemnity insurance
For those homeowners that have already done their construction work without a party wall agreement in place, you may also want to think about getting indemnity insurance.
You are not required to have this insurance when attempting to sell a property that does not have a party wall agreement, but it can be a good way to protect yourself against possible legal problems in the future. The insurance could help cover the costs of any legal challenge the neighbour files against you or the next owner of your property over the work you had done.
These policies can range in price depending on the scale of the work that you are attempting to cover, but the cost can be several hundred pounds. That’s why this might not be the ideal solution for those homeowners who are trying to cut their expenses during the selling process.
Sell your home to a quick buyer
Perhaps the simplest out of the three solutions for selling a home without a party wall agreement is getting in touch with a quick home buyer like LDN Properties. These companies are experts at making competitive and fast offers to buy almost any property no matter any potential complications such as the lack of a party wall agreement or any other legal, structural or other flaws.
You can learn more about the process of selling to a quick buyer in the next section of this guide, but it’s a simple solution for the sale of your house because you will be able to complete the process within a few short weeks. An additional benefit of selling to an honest no-commission quick buyer is that you’ll pay no fees and get to keep the full sale proceeds.
Choosing how to sell a house without a party wall agreement
When you are finally ready to sell your home that doesn’t have a party wall agreement, you will need to decide on which strategy to use for finding a buyer. Generally, the choices are selling through an estate agent, selling at an auction, selling to a quick buyer or selling on your own.
To assist with identifying which option best pairs to your situation, consider writing down the top priorities you have, including your goal selling price, if you are willing to pay any commission, and how fast you want to sell. Then compare these aims against the details of all four of the selections below and this should help you with reaching your eventual decision.
Bear in mind that some of the options are better than others when it comes to important factors like cost and time. For example, selling through an estate agent or without any assistance might take more than an entire year before you are able to find a buyer, whereas it should only take a few short weeks to finalise the sale of your home when you contact a quick buyer.
Selling through an estate agent
When you want to put in minimal effort for selling your home, an estate agent is a useful choice because they will be responsible for handling almost all aspects of the sale.
First they will create a listing, which describes the main features of your property and also has photographs of the interior and exterior. They will advertise this listing in their office, in local newspapers and online, and then arrange viewings where people can tour the home. Finally, they will hear offers from buyers and ideally guide one of them to the exchange of contracts.
Overall, this can be a fairly slow way to sell a home and it might take a number of months or even an entire year before you get a serious offer. And then the person that makes the offer may change their mind and cancel it, prompting the sale to collapse. They won’t face any penalties if contracts are not yet exchanged, and you would have to start over with looking for a buyer.
Remember also that you will need to pay commission to the estate agent if they succeed in selling your house or flat. This is often charged within a range from 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of the property’s sale price, although it may be more or less than this rate. The commission will significantly increase your selling costs because it’s taken out of the sale proceeds.
Selling at an auction
Selling on your own
You could also attempt to sell your property without a party wall agreement on your own, which means that you will be responsible for handling all of the work needed to secure a buyer.
This begins with you putting together a listing and then finding places to advertise it, followed by scheduling viewings so that people can see the inside and outside of your home in person. You will then have to hear offers from buyers, and aim to get one to the exchanging contracts.
All of these steps will need a lot of your time and attention, and this can easily be a highly stressful and lengthy way to sell a home. It might take more than a year to find a buyer, unless you have previously managed to sell a property without a party wall agreement, or if you have a suitably qualified friend or family member that can assist with the sale at zero cost to you.
There’s also the danger that even if you get an offer, the person that made it could change their mind and rescind it, which they can do without any penalty if you have not yet exchanged contracts. This would cause the sale to collapse and you will then need to begin again with the process of trying to find a buyer, which could add many more months to the timeline.
One of the only clear advantages of selling a home without any help is that it eliminates having to pay potentially costly commission to an auctioneer or an estate agent, which helps with reducing your costs. But you could discover that any financial saving you make this way might be cancelled out by the funds you will have to spend on advertising your listing and other steps.
Answers to top queries about selling a home with no party wall agreement
LDN Properties has bought many homes that didn’t have a party wall agreement, and here you can find our responses to sellers’ most frequently asked questions about these houses.
Your top questions when selling house without party wall agreement
Party wall agreements are pacts made between a property owner and a neighbour for buildings that share a wall, known as a party wall, and they outline how any planned construction work that might affect the integrity of the wall should be done. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 outlines the process for crafting such an agreement, but they’re not required in some situations.
There is no absolute law requiring that all shared walls must have such an agreement in place, and you don’t need one for simple work such as applying wallpaper or drilling into the wall so that you can hang items. But there is some work that must by law have the agreement, and this includes larger-scale work such as converting a loft and upgrading the home’s foundations.
Yes, it is often the case that not having a party wall agreement can create difficulties with trying to sell a property. That’s because potential buyers might have concerns about their possible liability for any legal action the other owner may pursue over work you’ve done without an agreement, or the buyer could want to pursue work in the future but fear a fight with them.
You have a few different options for addressing not having a party wall agreement when selling your home. The first is to try and obtain such an agreement but this can be a lengthy, costly and complicated step. The two other options getting some indemnity insurance for any future disputes over the wall, or selling to a quick buyer that has experience purchasing such homes.
The four standard options for selling any type of house or flat, including those that do not have a party wall agreement, are trying your luck with an auction, using the services of an estate agent, selling to a no-fee quick buyer like LDN Properties or selling on your own. Each of these strategies have their own pros and cons in terms of their time taken, cost and other factors.
Should you opt for selling via an estate agent, you can expect to pay commission in a range between 1.15 percent and 1.40 percent on the final property sale price, whereas auctioneers charge even higher commission at an average rate of 2.5 percent. By contrast, selling without any help or selling to a zero-fee quick home buying company are two ways to prevent fees.
It depends on the method that you use to find a buyer, because it might take many months to sell through an auction, and sometimes more than a full year when you either sell without any assistance or sell with an estate agent. But if you decide to sell to a quick buyer like LDN Properties then it should only take a handful of weeks to complete the entire sale.
