Cases - Onigbanjo v Pearson
Record details
- Name
- Onigbanjo v Pearson
- Date
- [2008]
- Citation
- BLR 507
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Party walls – damage to adjoining owners property – level of compensation for damage – adjoining owner appoints a surveyor for both parties
- Summary
-
An adjoining owner who had consented to party wall works suffered damage to his property. The parties could not agree an appropriate level of compensation for the damage.
The adjoining owner’s solicitors then wrote to the building owner invoking section 10 of the Act and suggesting a named surveyor as a joint surveyor to determine compensation, and saying that if not agreed as a joint surveyor, he would act as the adjoining owner’s surveyor. That letter was ignored, and the adjoining owner appointed a surveyor on behalf of the building owner under section 10(4)(b).
The building owner appealed the subsequent award on the basis that (1) there was no jurisdiction to make the award, and (2) the award provided for payment of fees direct to lawyers and surveyors acting on behalf of the adjoining owner.
HHJ Birtles found (in a judgment subsequently approved by the Court of Appeal in Blake v Reeves) that the adjoining owner had correctly appointed surveyors on the basis of a dispute, and that there was therefore jurisdiction to make an award. Further that, while it was correct that there was no power under the Act to order payment other than to the building owner or adjoining owner, the award in this case was, on a proper construction, simply itemising the sums to be paid to the adjoining owner (which would in due course be remitted to the surveyor and lawyers).