is there a party wall act for Ireland?

(Issued April 1998)

It has often been remarked that while London had detailed and well-known party wall legislation, there did not seem to be any corresponding provisions in this jurisdiction. But this, in fact, is not so. The Dublin Corporation Act 1890 is a private act dealing with, amongst many other things, party walls. A private act is one which is not of general application but applies only to a particular person or locality.

This little known piece of legislation deals with a wide range of matters which would have come under the responsibility of Dublin Corporation towards the end of the 19th Century. While some parts of the Act have been repealed over the years, a considerable amount is still in force, in particular the parts dealing with party walls.

The old Building Bye-laws adopted by Dublin Corporation in 1949 were primarly based on the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878 but at a number of points referred to the 1890 Act. These Bye-laws are, of course, completely superseded by the Building Regulations.

The Building Control Act at Section 22 says that no further Bye-laws shall be made under Section 33 of the 1890 Act. This was the section giving the corporation power to alter and repeal Bye-laws for regulating alterations and repairs to building erected before the commencement of that Act.

The sections of the 1890 Act dealing with party walls are those numbered 11 to 28. They start off by saying that anybody who wishes to undertake work to a party wall shall be called the building owner and the owner of the other premises involved shall be called the adjoining owner. Section 12 of the Act lists the basic rights of the building owner and they are very considerable. They may be summarised as follows:

1. A right to make good or repair any party structure that is defective or out of repair and a right to pull down and rebuild any party structure that is so defective or out of repair as to make it necessary or desirable to pull down the same.

2. There was a general right to pull down and rebuild any party structures which were not in conformity with any enactments or Bye-laws which existed at the time.

3. A right to raise any party structure or any external wall built against a party structure on condition that any damage to the adjoining property is repaired.

4. a right to pull down a party structure that is of insufficient strength for any building intended to be built.

5. A right to cut into any party structure, again upon condition of making good any damage to the adjoining premises.

6. A very important right, and one which might often need to be relied on, is the right to cut away any footing or chimney breasts, etc. projecting from any party wall in order to build an external wall against the party wall.

To balance this, the adjoining owner may require the building owner when exercising any of the previous rights to give him the opportunity to build in any convenient items such as chimney jambs, piers, recesses, etc. provided that these particular works would not cause unnecessary inconvenience or delay.

Unless the adjoining owner consents or unless the structure is dangerous, three months notice must be given to the adjoining owner of the intention to carry out the work. A notice must be delivered either personally or by registered post. On the receipt of such notice the adjoining owner may then require the building owner to build in any of the items previously mentioned and again this is done by a similar method of notice.

If either owner does not within fourteen days express consent it shall be taken that a difference has arisen between them. The provision then is that the parties shall appoint an architect to resolve the dispute and if they cannot agree then they shall appoint an architect each and these two shall in turn shall appoint a third architect to resolve the matter. Any award given under this system is final but there is a right of appeal to the “quarter sessions” which was the second court of the three-tier system and presumably therefore would equate to the Circuit Court. This appeal must be made within fourteen days of the decision being made by the architect or architects. There is a further right of appeal to the High Court.

Finally, there are provisions for dealing with the costs and expenses involved and the general rule is that the costs shall be borne by each of the owners in “due proportion” except in a number of circumstances listed where the cost shall be borne thy the building owner. There are sections dealing with how the accounts of the two owners are to be presented, settled and appealed.