The short answer
Only if the work is of a kind the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 covers, such as cutting away a footing, or the breast, jamb or flue of a chimney projecting from the wall. Those works need notice served on the neighbour with two months in hand. A plain re-cover of your own slopes is a question for a party wall surveyor, not for building control.
When the Act applies
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 gives a building owner certain rights over a wall shared with a neighbour, and sets out the notices to serve first. In a terrace, the wall between two houses usually runs up through the roof space, so a re-roof can sit close to it. Whether the Act applies depends on what is done to the wall, not on the fact that you are re-roofing.
Section 2(2)(g) is the one most relevant to roofs. It lets an owner cut away a footing, or the breast, jamb or flue of a chimney that projects from the party wall. If your re-roof comes with the removal of a chimney breast, a notice may be needed.
We do not decide that for you, and nor does building control. The Act is separate from the Building Regulations, so a question about it goes to a party wall surveyor. Chimney work in particular is covered in our guide to chimney repairs.
If you are not touching the wall, for example you are replacing the tiles, battens and underlay on your own slopes, ask a party wall surveyor whether anything about your terrace brings the Act into play before you assume that it does not.
Two months' notice
For the works the Act lists, the notice rule is set by section 3(2)(a): the neighbour has to be given the notice with at least two months in hand before the proposed work starts. That matters for a programme, because a roof job planned for next month cannot also wait two months for a notice.
Serve the notice in writing and keep a copy. GOV.UK warns against reading silence as agreement: no reply does not mean your neighbour accepts the works. Keep track of the dates, because the start date has to be at least two months after the notice.
If the neighbour agrees in writing, the process can end there, and the written consent route is an exception in section 3(3)(a). Do not rely on a verbal nod; a short signed letter is a better record.
Plan the order of events. If there is a chance the Act applies, get the answer before the quote is signed and before a start date is promised, so that the roof timetable is built around the notice period and not squeezed by it.
When agreement cannot be reached
Disagreement is handled through surveyors. Where agreement cannot be reached, GOV.UK requires a surveyor to be appointed. A surveyor can be agreed jointly, or each side may appoint one, and the surveyors settle what work may be done and how it is to be protected. Costs and the exact process are set out in the GOV.UK party wall guidance, so check there.
Try to talk to the neighbour before any formal paper arrives. Tell them what is planned, when the scaffold will go up and roughly how long the work will last. Most disputes are about surprise, not about the work.
This is where access matters. If the scaffold or ladders need to stand on the neighbour's land or pass over their roof, that is a separate permission, covered in our answer on scaffolding on a neighbour's land.
We cannot give legal advice. What we can do is survey your roof, photograph the party wall line, the chimney stacks and the junctions, and tell you which parts of the job touch the shared wall. That gives the surveyor something to work from.
What we check on a terraced roof
On a terrace, the shared wall rises through the roof space and often finishes above the slope as a parapet or a stack. Where the old covering meets that wall, there may be flashing, flaunching or mortar fillets, and replacing them touches the wall's surface even if it never cuts into it.
On the survey visit we study where your slopes end against the wall, what the junctions are made of, and whether any chimney breast, stack or flue is shared. Each of these junctions gets a picture, so the evidence is yours.
If anything on the list calls for a notice, we tell you so before the price is set, and we build the programme around the notice period. If nothing does, you have the photographs to show a party wall surveyor if the question is raised later.
The work also has to fit the Building Regulations, which are a separate matter: see our answer on building regulations to replace a roof. For a full job, our re-roofing a terraced house answer sets out how the work is staged, and the roof replacement page covers the rest.
