Trust the experts with your escrow services
Straightforward, secure and sorted in days
We know building projects can be a headache. Our aim is to make the part of the process we deal with as straightforward as possible.
FCA regulated
Funds held at the Bank of England
Founded and run by experts
Over 10 years of trading
What is security for expenses?
Security for expenses is the subject of section 12 of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. If notifiable building works could affect a neighbouring property, for instance because it involved a party wall or adjacent excavations, section 12 enables the adjoining owner to require the building owner to give security for any expenses that the adjoining owner might incur as a result of those works.
The intention is that the owners and occupiers of the adjoining property can be confident that money is available to address any issues in the unfortunate event that something goes wrong during the works or the building owner fails to meet its obligations.
What do building owners need to do because of the Party Wall Act?
If an adjoining owner requires security for expenses, an amount of money will usually be agreed between the building owner and adjoining owner or their surveyors. This is then deposited by the building owner in a secure account until the work has been completed when it is released back.
4 simple steps
01
Register
The best person to apply is usually the lead consultant or professional working on the project as they will have access to most of the required information. They need to register as a professional user and submit an application for a security account. This is quite straightforward and many surveyors are already familiar with it.
As the building owner, you can also register and submit an application or simply to check its progress or the status of your account, as well as update us when work is complete so we can release your funds.
02
Identify
As well as details of the properties, owners and surveyors, the application requires the submission of basic documents verifying your identity which will allow us to complete due diligence checks required by law to combat money laundering.
03
Deposit
As the building owner, you will be asked to deposit the Security Sum from a UK bank account into our safeguarded client account. Funds are held at the Bank of England through one of the City’s oldest and most conservative private banks.
Our fee is also payable at this time. For UK residents this is usually £150 plus 1.5% of the Security Sum plus VAT
Steps 1-3 can be completed within a matter of days.
04
Release
When works are complete or a payment is required, simply log into your account on our portal and request a payment. We will issue a form for online signature by the parties or the surveyors. We will first release £10 to make sure it goes to the right account, with the remainder following, usually within a day of confirming receipt.
This usually takes five days
How to prepare
Having these documents ready can speed up the process:
- A copy of your passport or other photo ID showing your date of birth
- A second official document confirming your address
About our experienced, specialist team
We set up Security for Expenses Ltd. ten years ago as we saw first hand, as surveyors and architects, that building owners and professionals were struggling to find a secure and transparent way of meeting the requirements of the Party Wall Act.
We aim to make this unfamiliar, complex sounding and jargon-heavy process as straightforward for you as possible, while being fully compliant and secure.
FAQs for property owners
Straightforward support
If you need more information, get in touch with our support team or check our FAQs.