PARTY

WALL  , a building term which, in England, apart from special statutory definitions, may be used in four different legal senses (Watson v . Gray, 188o, 14 Ch . D . 192) . It may mean (1) a wall of which the adjoining owners are tenants in common; (2) a wall divided longitudinally into two strips, one belonging to each of the neighbouring owners; (3) a wall which belongs entirely to one of the adjoining owners, but is subject to an easement or right in the other to have it maintained as a dividing wall between the two tenements; (4) a wall divided longitudinally into two moieties, each moiety being subject to a cross easement, in favour of the owner of the other moiety . Outside London the rights and liabilities of adjoining owners of party walls are subject to the rules of common law . In London they are governed by the London Building Act 1894 . A tenant in common of a party wall is entitled to have a partition vertically and longitudinally, so as to hold separately (Mayfair Property Co. v . Johnston, 1894, I Ch . 508); each owner can then use only his own part of the wall . By the London Building Act 1894, § 5 (16) the expression " party wall " means—(a) a wall forming part of a building and used or constructed to be used for separation of adjoining buildings belonging to different owners, or occupied or constructed or adapted to be occupied by different persons; or (b) a wall forming part of a building, and standing to a greater extent than the projection of the footings on lands of different owners . Section 87 regulates the rights ' Many naturalists have held a different opinion, some making it a woodcock, a godwit, or even the hazel-hen or grouse; see the discussion by Lord Lilford in This (1862), pp .

352-356.of owners of adjoining lands to erect party walls on the

line of junction . Sections 88-90 determine the rights of building owners to deal with party walls by underpinning, repairing or rebuilding . The act also contains provisions for settling disputes (§§ 91-92), and for bearing and recovering expenses (§§ 95-102) . Part VI. of the act 'regulates the structure and thickness, height, &c., of party walls . See A . R . Rudall, Party Walls (1907) .