Reference to FPWS throughout this website refers to the

Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors,

PLEASE NOTE this has nothing to do with First for Party Wall Surveyors with whom I have a very good working relationship.

Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors - Why I resigned my membership ‘FFPWS - grade’ and am no longer a member FPWS.

I am occasionally asked if I am a member of the FPWS, although nobody has ever asked the same regarding P&T, and when I say no, I feel obliged to explain why not, which can be quite difficult within an initial telephone call, so I decided to elaborate on the reasoning here.

I was appointed by the Building Owner in 2017 and because the Adjoining Owner’s surveyor did not act effectively I served an ex parte Award in February 2018, the award was not appealed. The surveyor in question, David Turner, raised a complaint about me to RICS, CIOB, FPWS & P&T.

RICS rejected the complaint in its entirety but the FPWS upheld his complaint and imposed sanctions upon me. I find the reasoning behind their decision totally absurd and quite bizarre, given that Mr Stuart Frame a barrister by profession who heads up the FPWS Professional Standards department, hence my writing here about the matter. I do not know if he still holds this position.

Until recently (2018) I used to be a proud member of the FPWS. It is unfortunate that I no longer feel the same way following my recent experience with the FPWS Disciplinary Panel, who had they arrived at a sensible decision based on their actual Code of Conduct and actual events, I would have accepted it.

Considering that the Professional Standards is headed up Mr Stuart Frame a barrister of Staple Inn Chambers (at the time of writing) I find it quite disconcerting, and absurd, that as a member you can be found guilty of ‘nearly doing something wrong’. In essence, if you make a mistake in a draft award then the Disciplinary Panel may find you guilty even if you correct the error before serving the Award- on this basis every member of the FPWS must be guilty!

I resigned my membership as I feel the Faculty has fallen well short on its standards; basing their decisions on falsified evidence and the evidence of a surveyor who claimed that I did not understand what I was doing, my ex parte Award was wrongly made etc.etc. however, in the County Court before the judge David Turner admitted that the ex parte Award was valid. On this admission he is admitting that the grounds put forward by me for proceeding ex parte were valid, that my actions were correct and that his claims in the raising of complaints against me were unfounded. That does not matter though if you are the Disciplinary Panel of FPWS, headed by Mr Stuart Frame.

Is the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors Disciplinary Panel fit for purpose? (link to further comments)

• A complaint was made against me by the adjoining owner’s surveyor, not either of the owners! It is unfortunate that the FPWS Disciplinary Panel headed up by Mr Stuart Frame, formerly of Staple Inn Chambers, a barrister specialising in party wall matters upheld this complaint against me which was raised by Mr David Turner MRICS C.Build E FCABE FFPWS ACIArb, Chartered Building Surveyor, RICS Accredited Expert Witness and Party Wall Consultant of 7 Spooners Dr., Park Street, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, AL22HX. This was despite the fact that it was contrary to a recent decision by HHJ Bailey in which Stuart Frame - who heads up the Professional Standards of the FPWS, was counsel for the claimants.

  I have apologised on this website to Mr Stuart Frame for associating him with the (his?) Panel’s decision, he found such association both derogatory and false. It actually stated that ‘he must have agreed with their decision’ and Mr Frame claimed this to be derogatory and false! Bearing in mind that Mr Stuart Frame is in charge of the Disciplinary Panel and yet he neither agrees nor disagrees with their decision, which I it find rather odd as it is his department and he has washed his hands of the matter. Well, who would want to be associated with it? Does Mr Frame have any respect for the Disciplinary Panel? What does that say about Mr Stuart Frame head of Professional Standards? Also,especially when an identical complaint was leveled at Mr Stuart Frame’s father. Mr Alex Frame, ‘ADS senior partner Alex Frame is an expert in Party Wall Matters and is president of the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors’ according to his website, however, the FPWS Disciplinary Panel imposed sanctions on Lee Kyson classing it as a serious matter but with regard to Mr Alex Frame, on exactly the same subject, it was not a serious matter. In essence, if you are Mr Stuart Frame’s father and president of the FPWS, the FPWS Disciplinary (and Mr Stuart Frame?) will turn a blind eye* to matters that the Disciplinary Panel find serious with regard to Lee Kyson.

• Guilty of nearly doing something - You will find an outline of what happened on this link.

• Depending upon who you are, if you do not supply a written copy of your CHP to another surveyor then the Faculty Disciplinary Panel state (if you are Lee Kyson)  

*for example If Mr Alex Frame and a fellow director of the FPWS wrongly selected a third surveyor and the matter leads to a court case then Stuart Frame, in his role as head of professional standards of the FPWS will turn a blind eye. I have extracted paras 29 & 30 from the judgement in

PROPERTY SUPPLY & DEVELOPMENT LTD

-v-

MR GRAHAM VERITY & MRS JULIE VERITY

Counsel for the Claimant: MR NICHOLAS ISAAC

Counsel for the Defendants: MR STUART FRAME

at para 29 & 30 HHJ Bailey (ret) stated in his judgement:

29. I would also add for the sake of completeness that I do not find attractive Mr Frame’s [Stuart] argument that on a replacement appointment being made under s.10(5) the provision in the  sub-section that the replacement surveyor has “the same power and authority” as the originally appointed surveyor necessitates the new pair of the existing surveyor and replacement  surveyor  to  proceed  under  section  10(1)(b)  to  select  a  third  surveyor.    It seems  to  me  that  while  parliament  was  concerned  to  ensure  that  the  replacement surveyor should have the same power and authority as the initial surveyor, parliament  did not provide that the  replacement surveyor should be under the same  obligation as the initial appointee to appoint a third surveyor. There is no basis for assuming that the new pair of existing and replacement surveyors are under the obligation placed on the initial appointees in s 10(1)(b) to select a third surveyor where there is in place a third surveyor validly selected by the initial appointees.30.In  the  circumstances,  I  must  accede to the claimant’s claim.  There was no basis for Mr Frame [Alex] to  appoint  Mr Campbell. 

30. In  the  circumstances  the  addendum  award  was made only by one validly appointed surveyor, the adjoining owners’ surveyor, which is not permissible under any  provision of section 10 of the 1996 Act.  Accordingly, and with no little reluctance, I must declare the addendum award invalid. [emphasis added]

However, if you are Alex Frame, yes you’ve noticed Alex Frame is actually Stuart Frame’s father! and exactly the same complaint has been raised then following applies:-

Alex Frame was the selected third surveyor, LK had served an ex parte Award, subsequently Alex Frame and the other surveyor made an erroneous Award between them’ LK asked for their CHP.

I had in fact supplied David Turner with a CHP but the DP decided

However, Mr Alex Frame did not supply any form of CHP.

What is quite bizarre is that the FPWS Code of Conduct states that you should raise the complaint with the member first, which if you are member then you should know this process and should not have to ask for CHP, however David Turner did not do this he raised the complaint directly with the FPWS. Given that my response to David Turner was to direct his complaint to me in th efirst instance and if he was not happy with my response he could raise his complaint with either the FPWS or RICS. He bypassed the process of the CoC and complained directly to the FPWS. In compliance wth their own CoC should have advised David Turner to refer the complaint back to me first. They did not. I knew the process but only asked for Alex Frame’s CHP to see what would happen and if the FPWS applied double standards - and as we can see they do, even though their Professional Standards is headed up by a specialist party wall barrister.

Earlier this year I resigned my position as a committee member from the North London Forum due to my dissatisfaction with some elements of the Faculty, this was not dissatisfaction with the NLF branch, I hasten to add!, but with some other matters regarding the Faculty and I was going to resign my membership but was persuaded to renew it. I now realise it was an erroneous decision to renew. As stated above, I have since resigned but the FPWS are of the opinion that they will not accept my resignation. Albeit as of February 2019 this has finally been acknowledged.