Precedent notification of assignment of debt
An outline form for notification of an assignment of debt in party wall disputes.
Where the paying owner fails to meet its obligation, this leaves the surveyor in the uncomfortable position of having to bring proceedings against the appointing owner to recover his or her fees.
There is, however, a simple solution. Section 17 of the Party Wall etc. Act provides that sums due under an award are a debt. Debts are a kind of legal property called a 'chose in action', which may be transferred, or 'assigned', by the creditor to another person under section 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925.
So, all a surveyor needs to do in order to recover a sum of money payable under an award is to take an assignment of it from his appointing owner.
Where such an assignment takes place, the person to whom the debt is assigned automatically acquires the legal remedies that were available to the original creditor, which include the right to bring proceedings in the Magistrates' Court.