Recent Party Wall Disputes
Publication: Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction
Volume 13, Issue 4
Abstract
For centuries, party walls have been a common construction practice in many countries. In New York City (NYC), they have been used since the 1700s. The city accounts for about 201,000 attached buildings. The historic NYC speculative construction practice relied heavily on attached row houses built by the same developer; agreements were rarely drafted and the number of party walls or remnants thereof is not certain. This paper examines the issues related to new construction involving existing party walls. Insufficient prior investigations led to redesigns, accidents, or delays. Out of concerns of pounding during earthquakes, recent building codes require structures be separated by a gap, involuntarily complicating even alterations along party walls. The longest delays, though, are caused by adjoining owners opposed to the development or intent to maximize financial gains through litigation. They resist inspections or any physical attachment to walls, even necessary repairs. The study juxtaposes of building violations, incidents, construction regulations, and legal decisions. It tracks construction accidents that led to building regulations increasingly progressing from empirical to engineered construction safety inspections. In turn, these prompted a 10-fold increase in court petitions based on statutes, but only minor changes in common law. Concerns are raised that some litigations may set aside safety and structural stability issues. Analysis of typical party wall scenarios concludes that in almost all cases development requires licenses to inspect and repair. In their absence, architectural and structural solutions need to account for risks posed by legal uncertainties.
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Data Availability Statement
All figures and tables are by the author, except for Fig. 3, which is from Google Maps, and Figs. 5 and 6, which are from public domain. All data used to develop tables are from open sources listed in the references, with the exception of data on building incidents, which may be available upon request.
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Published In
Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction
Volume 13 • Issue 4 • November 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 5, 2021
Accepted: May 26, 2021
Published online: Aug 10, 2021
Published in print: Nov 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jan 10, 2022
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