Party Wall AO Surveyor Fees

NotMyPony

We are building an extension wholly on our side of the property but right up to the boundary.
The party wall act is invoked, notice served and we suggested to the neighbours we are happy for them to name a surveyor to be "agreed". They insisted on having two seperate.
We intructed a surveyor to act for us, they instructed theirs.

Aafter several weeks after back and forth (their surveyor had asked lots of questions which ours says were not relevant to PWA and seems to have dragged their heels) the award is now in place (as of a week last Friday) and building work has started.

But... fees.
The AOs surveyor fees are £2600 for around 14hours.
Our surveyor has logged 6 hrs of time, so well under half the time.

We knew we'd end up having to pay their surveyor fees but nothing in the process/method/design has changed from our proposals... if there were changes to what we wanted to do, I could understand the length of time billed. Does 14 hours seem right for a two story extension with no significant disputes/changes (other than insistence on structural drawings etc.)?

We have challenged the AO surveyor timesheet (various vague entries "emails" taking 1.5hrs etc., the Schedule of Condition entries add up to about 5hrs total) They haven't answered the questions but have offered a £200 reduction in their fee.

The award says we have 14 days to challenge the award in the court. The 14 days expires tomorrow.
Do we just have to accept these fees? If we don't challenge in the court is that it... we're stuck paying the money?

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6673023/party-wall-ao-surveyor-fees

If that's what the invoice price is then I don't think there's anything you can do.

If you don't pay it will that obstruct the building of the extension?

Woodstok2000

I would expect their surveyor to bill more time than yours, 14 hours may be excessive but if you go to court what are you going to gain?

If it's ruled the billing needs to be reduced they may go down to 8-10 hours, saves you about £1000. They've offered you £200, so your saving is more like £800 maximum.

Build in all your time, costs, stress etc in fighting it and you may come away with half that overall, and no guarantee you will get anything. If it was me I would just suck it up, but I can see a valid perspective where you'd want to fight it on principle.

FreeBear

If you challenge it in court, the costs could quite easily exceed the invoice.

NotMyPony

This was the conclusion I was reluctantly reaching… is the risk of legal dispute actually worth it.
It does feel a bit like they know we probably wont' want to fight it, so can inflate their time and get away with it.

My underlying frustrations are that nothing has actually changed from what we had originally suggested to our neighbours as a plan/agreement, this could quite easily have been dealt with using an agreed surveyor at most (neighbors insisted otherwise). Their surveyor took 20 days to respond initially and every subsequent activity has taken days or weeks to get response. And is charging £2,600 for the privilege. The time sheet is, frankly, a joke, every entry has some cause for challenge.

I've come across a few professions which seem to be a license to print money… it seems Party Wall Surveyor is another.

Thank you anyway!

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82039472#Comment_82039472

I've come across a few professions which seem to be a license to print money… it seems Party Wall Surveyor is another.

"Solicitor" is another…. so best to avoid legal disputes where you can.

Did your PWS have any comment on the other one's fees?

Everyman137

We are in a similar position, although we have high fees from all 3 surveyors.

It is frustrating to be invoiced for charges which you have not agreed to.

The Party Wall Process needs some form of regulation.

See our situation below…

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6682115/high-party-wall-fees