Need building advice pls or redirecting

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Need building advice pls or redirecting

13 posts & 7 voices | Started 4 months ago by billysugger | Latest reply from billysugger

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billysugger - Member

Wondering if there's anyone out there can advise on this or let me know a good building forum where I might get some advice. Maybe land registry or somewhere is next point of contact.

House backs onto land at the height of the house. Said land belongs to someone else and appears not to be draining properly. A drain hole has been sunk at the lowest point but has never been maintained. There is no standing water so this is not obviously the cause.

The land appears to have started to subside, pushing a 12/14ft high garden wall to the point of collapse into neighbours garden.

Not sure who's responsible. Don't have original deeds. Might be the neighbours wall, might be land owners negligence with regards to maintaining proper drainage of his land.

Any ideas?

Posted 4 months ago #
pjm84 - Member

Difficult without further information. Is the wall jointly owned?

Generally your first point of call would be poor design of the wall / retaining structure. However not having all the facts makes it hard to provide an assessment.

If you believe it to be the land owners fault then probably worth speaking to the RICS for specific advice.

Posted 4 months ago #
billysugger - Member

Yeah I'm struggling to get any more info. I've only got revised deeds for the house after the original ones were lost in a fire at the office of the firm that were holding them.

I've a little experience in the building trade and it's very difficult to see if the wall is moving due to poor construction or the subsidence of the land. Or even to say for definite that the land is subsiding as it's covered in scrub and brambles etc

Might have to come to an agreement with the neighbour to go 50/50 with the expense of deconstruction and reconstruction but this would annoy me a bit as 1. I don't have the money and 2. The guy that owns the land washes his greedy hands of any responsibility when things on it go wrong. For instance I rebuilt a dry stone wall (much smaller) for the neighbour at the other side a couple of years back, at the neighbour's expense because the land owner just ignored his correspondences even though this one was definitely his responsibility to put right..

Posted 4 months ago #
martinhutch - Member

Was the retaining wall put in place because the building plot on which your house/garden sits was dug out/levelled? In those circumstances, wouldn't responsibility for that fall to the property owner, rather than the owner of the land which abuts the wall?

Again, if it's a properly designed retaining wall, wouldn't it allow for sufficient drainage, so any failure would be a failure of design/build of the wall, rather than the landowner.

I may have misunderstood your description.

Posted 4 months ago #
pjm84 - Member

Also forgot to mention - I've assumed the wall is retaining between plots and at 12 to 14ft height, and the current situation described, requires a plan to be put into place to rectify or prop support sooner rather then later.

Posted 4 months ago #
richc - Member

You would need to check this, but you normally own the boundary wall on your property (to stop the land owner removing it whenever they like) so its your problem.

Posted 4 months ago #
billysugger - Member

It's a reasonable question Martin. I'd make the same assumption.

The house is that old nobody seems to know for sure. The wall appears to run the full length of the house which has been built up to it which would indicate wall came first. It's a difficult situation which could be more easily solved had the land owner been approachable.

Posted 4 months ago #
martinhutch - Member

I suppose if it's roughly the same age/materials as your property that would be a clue. If your plot is levelled into a hillside, then unless there's some other reason for the retaining wall, it was probably built to allow your property to be put there.

Without some document firmly placing it as the responsibility of the landowner, I think you'll be struggling to get any acknowledgement of this from him/her, especially given the history you describe.

When it comes down to it, if it falls down it's a major headache for you and your neighbour, not so much for the landowner, so in the absence of rock solid proof that it's not your resopnsibility, you're probably going to have to get on with it yourself.

Given the amount of bad weather we've had, I'd get it temporarily propped quick.

Posted 4 months ago #
highclimber - Member

you might want to consult a solicitor regarding this. advice is generally free and will save you a lot of time and money in the long run

Posted 4 months ago #
wwaswas - Member

Check with your insurance company - it may be covered and if not they may act on your behalf with respect to claiming off the owner of the adjacent land.

Posted 4 months ago #
billysugger - Member

Thanks everyone.

Think the wording of the house insurance implies it will cover it if it's definitely not as a result of subsidence.

On with trying to get some free legal advice as regards responsibility and someone's coming out to try and temp secure it.

Just hope it doesn't bucket with snow and there's no mini quakes any time soon.

Posted 4 months ago #
b r - Member

Where are you - old mine workings?

Posted 4 months ago #
billysugger - Member

Calderdale. Was a bit of a quarrying area, village is built on stoney ground.

Feels like it sometimes. Apparantly there's frequent small quakes in the area. Might have contributed.

Posted 4 months ago #

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