Do I Need to Serve a Party Wall Notice?

Question

I am considering building a single story extension at the rear of my property.  Although my house is detached, one wall is built up to the junction of my and my neighbour’s property (that being his garden).  The house wall does not site astride the junction and does not adjoin any of my neighbour’s buildings.  At the rear of my property, where I intend to extend, my neighbour’s detached single garage is sited one meter from our boundary wooden fence, parallel to my intended extension.

I propose to site my extension 150mm in from the boundary junction and have the wall built over hand, without removing the fence so as not to inconvenience my neighbours.  This will place my extension on my own land, not at the junction and 1.15 metres from his garage.  I have also checked my neighbour’s garage footing depth from the NHBC plans and these are stated as being “trench fill to a minimum depth of 900mm deep with a pre-cast suspended floor with a 225mm gap beneath”

My architect is also specifying trench fill to a minimum depth of 900mm.  I do not intend to dig footings below that which were specified for my neighbour’s property and I will not be building up to or on the junction of the two properties.

What course of action must I pursue?

Answer

If you are not building on the line of junction and not excavating below the base of the footings to your neighbour’s garage (or any other part of his structure that is within 3 metres) then no notice is required and you can start work as soon as you are ready.