In Sproule, the Court adopted these words to define a party wall:
"... a wall which ... is unquestionably a party wall because it separates one building from another...."
In Watson v Gray, the British court wrote (Justice Fry):
"The words party wall may be used in four different senses. First, as meaning a wall of which the two adjoining owners are tenants in common ... and that is possibly the primary meaning of the phrase. Secondly, as meaning a wall divided longitudinally into two strips, one belonging to each of the neighbouring owners.... Thirdly, as meaning 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; and fourthly, as meaning a wall divided longitudinally into two moieties each moiety being subject to a cross easement in favour of the owner of the other moiety."
These words were adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Lewis.
In 1911, in Roche, Justice Boyd wrote:
"One definition of a party wall is a wall which belongs entirely to one of the adjoining owners, subject to an easement or right in the other to have it maintained as a dividing wall between the two tenements."
The Building Code of Ontario (2009) at §1.4.1.2, defines a party wall as:
"Party wall means a wall that is jointly owned and jointly used by two parties under an easement agreement or by a right in law, and that is erected at or upon a line separating two parcels of land each of which is, or is capable of being a separate real estate entity."
REFERENCES:
- Building Code, Ontario Regulation 350/06
- Lewis v Allison 30 SCR 173 (SCC, 1889)
- Roche v Allen 23 OLR 300 (1911)
- Watson v Gray (1880) 14 Ch. D. 192