Who is responsible for failing retaining wall?

Hi,
I have a bit of situation.
Our IP is sitting on a higher land. The land is sliding into the neighbour's property. Retaining wall is slowly giving up.



The height difference is almost a meter or even more. It is a bit dangerous to the neighbour (tenant) if it falls.

We have paid $750 to do an engineering report to know the extent of the damage. It came out saying it needs fixing.
Then, we have approached the neighbour's landlord and said that we want to address the issue and asked them to pay 50%. He doesn't want to pay for it arguing the previous owner of my IP, let the above ground swimming pool water run down and that is what caused the issue.

PM is saying that we need to seek legal advice for this matter moving forward.

How would you handle this issue?

 

See a lawyer?

 

Yeah that's an easy answer. If it is obvious that I have to fix it then I might just go ahead without any paper costs.

 

A retaing wall is not a fence so the dividing fencing act would not apply. It is likely the higher land owner is responsible, but you should seek legal advice to confirm.

 

Who's lot is the retaining wall in? Every wall I've built has been wholey contained within one of the other. Generally on terraced blocks you will be responsible for one of but not both side boundary retaining walls

 

Had advice from the council many years ago that retaining walls were the responsibility of whichever owner had either cut or filled from the natural ground level.

Surely there is some legislation or general legal principle covering this?

 

@devank @R.C. maybe read through this;

Retaining Walls

I have been engaged at times to survey the land to try and determine the original natural surface level, so then the cost to repair could be proportioned,

but, maybe try to come to an agreement with your neighbour and avoid all the professional costs. money is best spent on fixing the wall

 

That's one area of property law that I have grappled with over the years and still fail to come to a satisfactory answer. It's usually yes, no or maybe as there are too many circumstances which determine responsibility eg covenants, original lay of the land, use, loading, design etc. I'd agree with Terry's advice (see a lawyer) but not with who bears the responsibility.

 

My neighbour in Qld on the higher side got us to give him permission to fix the retaining wall. He provided us with Engineers Reports and diagrams of how it was going to be repaired and we had to sign and return the documents. We weren’t asked to pay anything. In my searches I couldn’t find any info on responsibility of payment within BCC.

 

It's a messy situation to be in
My in laws just went through a similar process. .... $200,000 later the wall was fixed! they managed to get a bit out of the neighbour as they planted ivy which blocked up the weap holes. But the lawyers took most of that anyway! (Worth exploring imo still)

Start with council plans and get as much info as possible so you can understand the history of the wall. Eg was there ever a pool? Who built the estate? Etc etc

 

We had similar info from Council when we had this issue. Unfortunately the subdivision development plans weren’t clear on the “who cut, who filled” part. We treated it like a fence and split the cost between the 3 parties (us 50%, 2 neighbours 25% ea).

Just seemed easier at the time.

 

You know, it doesn`t really look that high from the picture, not over a metre.
Can you get a bobcat or smaller machine in the yard without removing the front bit of fence? Cheapest & easiest fix would be to simply taper back the drop, might not even need retaining once grass grows back.

IMHO, lawyers are only going to add to the expense & drama, one way or another.

I would prefer to spend the money on just fixing the wall. Too late now, but the $750 spent on engineers report would buy about 10-15 lineal metres worth of treated pine sleepers, 5 high = 1m, and posts at 1200 centres.

How long is it down that side, 20, 30m ?
$2K worth of materials and a weeks work for 2 blokes. Say another 2K or DIY. Buy an ebay post hole digger for <$250, they`re awesome! Treated pine is cheapest, then going up in cost, galvanised steel posts with either pine or concrete sleepers. Colour or grained concrete is more. Boral retaining wall blocks are more again but look nicer for the tenants or nosey neighbour. The footings and concrete really add to the cost though.

Whatever style of wall you chose would still be heaps cheaper than going to court, and then having to pay for a wall anyway probably!

 

Not when it's 5m high. It's worth exploring when you're getting a bill for 200k!

 

Work out the cost, if its worth it, just pay for it.
But also get the other party to sign a waiver so that in future, any issues become their responsibility.

 

A 5m wall requires engineering and council approval. That likely establishes ownership and...liability

 

Retaining wall is on the other property. We can't even see it from our side. All we can see is the fence.

 

This is the neighbour's front pic.


It looks like they have carved out the land built the house!

Based on our IP's pic, Our IP doesn't seem to have a cut & fill.

 

I know.. I'm trying to get the neighbour pay 50%. He doesn't want to pay anything.
I don't want to do anything without his equal partnership/ agreement.

 

It wasn't the real pool. Even the current tenant has that plastic above ground pool.


It would be really hard to prove that a running water from a bathtub caused the retaining wall to collapse

 

This is all the 'engineering report' says:
"As a guide hardwood sleeper retaining walls retaining 2.0 metres should have 2 x
200mm *100mm posts on edge at 0.9 metre centres with an embedment in the ground of
2.3 metres with 200mm *75mm wales."

They said this as the possible cause:

I don't know what that '2.4 metre center' means.