Three enquiries arrive in a week. A homeowner planning an extension who has been told she needs to serve something. A neighbour who has received a document he does not understand. A builder whose client's work has already started and whose neighbour has now objected.
All three say party wall and all three need entirely different handling.
Step 1: establish which party they are
Building owner, adjoining owner or a builder acting for one. This determines everything, including whether the practice can act for them at all.
Step 2: run the conflict check immediately
Names, addresses and who else is involved. A practice already instructed by one side cannot informally advise the other, and this must be established before any substantive conversation.
Step 3: establish the stage
Planning the work, about to serve notice, notice served, notice received, dissent registered, or work already started. Each stage has different options and different urgency.
Step 4: never explain what someone should do
Whether notice is required, what form it should take, whether to consent or dissent and what a document means are all matters for a surveyor with the details. A general answer is worse than none.
Step 5: publish what the process involves generally
That a notice procedure exists, that surveyors may be appointed, that an award may be produced and roughly how long it takes. Process description without advice is useful and safe.
Step 6: publish the fee structure
How you charge as an appointed surveyor, how it differs when acting for an adjoining owner, and what an award typically involves. Both sides ask and neither expects the answer.
Step 7: explain the timing implications
Notice periods delay work, and a building owner planning a start date needs to know before they book a contractor. This is the single most useful practical point.
Step 8: explain the schedule of condition
What it is, why it protects both parties and when it is done. Adjoining owners worried about damage are reassured by it and rarely know it exists.
Step 9: handle work that has already started
This is a serious position needing prompt advice for both parties, and it should reach a surveyor immediately rather than being answered on a website.
Step 10: capture what allows a quick response
Both addresses, what the works are, what stage it is at, what has been served or received, any dates and a contact number.
Step 10b: explain what an award actually contains
Both parties hear the word award and imagine something adversarial, when it is largely a description of the works, the condition beforehand, access arrangements and how any damage is dealt with. Setting that out plainly turns a document people are frightened of into something that protects them, and it is often what persuades an adjoining owner to engage rather than ignore a notice.
Step 11: builders enquire on behalf of clients
Establishing that the building owner must instruct, and that a builder cannot serve notice on their behalf, is a frequent clarification.
Step 12: related survey work arrives through the same channel
It is covered in commercial survey and dilapidations enquiries and damp and timber survey enquiries from worried owners, while homeowners planning work behave as in wallpapering and feature wall enquiries.
Getting started
Publish the process in general terms, your fee structure and what you need for a conflict check, then capture both addresses and the stage at any hour, much as described in an AI receptionist for opticians. SpideyChat for surveyors and architects answers from your published pages and never advises. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.