Garden wall damage, flooding garden!

natc

Hello everyone,

Not sure if this is in the right place, I can’t find anywhere else to post it though, so sorry if it is and it’s probably going to be a long post, sorry again!

We live right next to a high school, our back garden wall is the boundary for their grounds, and the building is quite close to our garden also. About halfway up the wall, it has sort of moved, it’s sort of come away from itself a little, and looks like if you pushed it hard enough from the other side half the wall would go over! And there’s a small hole in the wall where, when it rains very heavily, water comes gushing out of there and eventually water logs our garden, and floods our garage. The reason for this is that the school grounds have been built up behind our wall over the years, probably a lot of weight behind it, and the rain water comes from the top end of the school fields all the way down and hits our wall (and gushes out from the hole and makes a little swimming pool in the back garden...) Apparently, there is no drainage, or very little in the grounds; a neighbour had the same problem a few years ago, and when he complained, he got nothing back from the school so took it upon himself the dig a trench in their grounds at the back of his wall!!! It seems to have done the trick for him....

The school used to be owned by the council, but it has been taken over by a private company who are responsible for the maintenance of the place, and grounds. I reported this to the school last year (!) September time, they put me in touch with this private company, and they sent someone out to look at it...... After a month, I rang them to ask for an update, the secretary, who is very nice and understanding, informed me that the guy who came to look at it is looking into resolutions....left it at that, then a month later, still hearing nothing, I emailed the secretary asking for an update, she then emailed me back with a few questions, which were utterly ridiculous! Like do I know if I own the wall? Was the wall there when the school was built? Was it built at the same time as my house? Was the school built before or after the house? Are my neighbours having any problems? Etc...well, firstly, the they should know if the wall was there when the school was built, they should have all the records surely if they bought the place, I’m 25 years old, the school was built about 30 years before I was born!!! How would I know if the wall was there when it was built!!! Also, I believe that we own the wall, think it’s on the deeds, but again, they should know this, and why should I go asking my neighbours if they are having problems, should they not be going around checking this??!! (They do in fact get a problem when it rains heavily too btw)

(I don’t think we should start digging trenches and try to fix the problem ourselves, I don’t wanna be getting done for going on their land and trashing it, and it seems the problem is quite bad and gone on for some time, so they really should be dealing with it on a bigger scale...)

I have since spoken to the secretary again, and she has informed me that they have consulted with an outside company, and have been given a quote for works to be done, and the company who owns the school have said that its too expensive to proceed with these works, so are looking at doing the works themselves.....I thought they would do this anyway. I haven’t heard anything for a while now, I’m just getting fed up of not being updated as to what is going on, it’s been nearly 9 months since I reported this, I haven’t complained to them as such, only moaned at the secretary at how I keep having to ring them when it’s their problem (I’m sure most ppl would be ringing and kicking up a fuss every week), and I haven’t claimed from them for any damage caused to our property when the garage flooded, a few items were damaged that were on the floor. I think vie been reasonable, and awaited their action.

I had spoken with a solicitor a few months ago after the email with the questions, who told me that it looks like we do own the wall, the questions she was asking were quite irrelevant as for at the end the of the day, it seems that is the fault of the grounds that is causing a problem and they should fix it, he told me to write to them asking for a reply within 7 days, or I would take legal action! I did this, but still had to ring for a reply....

They are just not taking me seriously! But I just don’t know what to do. Should I be getting solicitors involved?? They will cost a fortune and can’t really be affording to that if I don’t have to. Is it just me and the solicitor who think I am right, or should I be sorting this myself?

dacouch

Do you have legal protection cover on your Home Insurance as they may handle this for you

natc

Ooooh never thought of that at all! But i dont think i do, will have to check that tonight. Is this something that they cover you for?