Cases - Van Maanen v West Greenwich Development LLP
Record details
- Name
- Van Maanen v West Greenwich Development LLP
- Date
- (2010)
- Citation
- Unreported
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Party walls
- Summary
-
This case discusses whether an adjoining owner’s surveyor has legal standing to sue the building owner. The claimant was a surveyor acting for an adjoining owner. The defendant was the building owner.
The claimant issued an ex parte award that fixed fees payable but the judge found at trial that the award was a nullity because the claimant had no power to do so. The claimant went on to argue that the Act created a statutory relationship between the adjoining owner’s surveyor and the building owner and that, in the normal course of events, the building owner would pay the fees of the adjoining owner’s surveyor. He said that an award, in practice, nearly always provides for the payment of surveyors’ fees.
Although section 10 of the 1996 Act does not expressly provide for who is to be paid, on a true construction of the Act an award itemises the sums which the building owner should pay the adjoining owner. It is then a matter for the adjoining owner to pay a surveyor instructed by him. Therefore a surveyor appointed by an adjoining owner cannot sue the building owner for unpaid fees.