Failing retaining wall - who's cost?

TheDan

Hi all, looking for some advice on a problem my in-laws are having with a failing retaining wall at the bottom of their garden.

They live in a former local-authority house that they've been in for 30+ years. Their house and garden back onto the side of a neighbouring garden, which is approx 1.5m lower than the level of their garden.

In the late 80s, when they were still LA-tenants, the housing association installed a retaining wall along the bottom of their garden. They've long-since bought the property and not had any issues but the neighbour (still a local authority tenant) brought to their attention in December that the wall had started to lean.

The housing association immediately shored up the wall with temp supports and removed my in-laws' fence which was installed on top of the wall. The replaced it with heras panels and sent out a surveyor who attributed the damage to high winds and suggested that my in-laws contact their insurance company regarding a repair.

Naturally, the insurance co sent an assessor who established that the wall is of poor construction with insufficient funds and a lack of drainage/weepholes. Given the length of time the wall's been up, they are denying any liability for a repair.

Having looked at the wall myself, I'm surprised to see that there is no return at one end, and at the other a short return/buttress that only extends to roughly half-height of the retaining wall.

My in-laws are concerned about the state of the wall (the heras has a 1' gap in places, which is a hazard to their grandkids) and also the quoted cost (several thousand). To my uneducated eye, and in the professional opinion of a (perhaps not impartial) insurance assessor, the wall was never fit for purpose. The wall was erected by the housing association between two housing association properties, and now needs replacing. As it is now between a housing association property and a private dwelling, should the private owners have to meet half the cost?

Grateful of any input - apologies if I've missed any obvious info!

Dan

TheDan

"whose cost" - I can only apologise.

zaax

The owner of the land that is being retained

vaio

do the deeds shed any light on who owns the wall?

moneyistooshorttomention

I would say the owner of the property getting the benefit of the wall (ie the neighbours property). Whenever I've read of people having retaining walls before the general gist of the article/comment/etc has been "Ooh that could be expensive to deal with FOR THE LOWER LEVEL PERSON on the ground".

It is the neighbour that will get it all cascading in on them if they don't deal with the wall.

I don't understand some of the technical terms. So what are:

- Heras panels?

- a return?

- a return/buttress?

cddc

Having got a similar problem, the best route to getting it resolved is to try to agree to go 50/50 on cost with the neighbor. Even that may not work, especially as the neighbor is LHA.

No one ever wants to pay a large "once in 50-100 year" cost to rebuild a retaining wall. Unless the deeds are clear on the matter of ownership and responsibility, you may have a fight on your hands.

My view is that as it is your in-laws house that is being retained, and it is their fence, it is most likely to be their cost, unfortunately. You cannot, now, 25 years after it was built, suddenly claim it is not fit for purpose. You will be laughed out of court. Buyer beware I am afraid.
Had it been picked up on survey and acted on when buying the property, then fine. It is almost impossible to argue it now.

Are they leasehold or freehold? that may have a bearing if there is anything mentioned in the terms of the lease?

cddc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I would say the owner of the property getting the benefit of the wall (ie the neighbours property). Whenever I've read of people having retaining walls before the general gist of the article/comment/etc has been "Ooh that could be expensive to deal with FOR THE LOWER LEVEL PERSON on the ground".

It is not that clear cut. It is the upper property that will collapse or have it's garden subside if it is not dealt with .... Both sides will incur damage and it is in both sides interest to resolve it.

TheDan

Vaio - will take a look at the deeds but the wall was built after the two properties, so unless the deeds were updated when it was transferred from LA to private ownership, I don't think it will be explicit.

Moneyistooshorttomention - heras panels are the wire mesh fence panels (usually set in rubber/concrete feet) that are used to protect building sites and temporary works. When I'm talking about a return/buttress I mean an additional part of the wall that is built perpendicular to the retaining wall itself, in order to provide additional stability, either at the end of the wall, or part-way along the wall.

cddc - I take your point, it might have spent the last 25 years degrading as a result of the poor design, but ultimately it's kept their garden out of their neighbour's garden all that time! Will need to check on the leasehold/freehold status.

To my mind, it's a shared boundary and therefore shared responsibility, but it's complicated somewhat by the fact that the housing association appointed the contractor who built it, and they still own one of the properties. Buyer beware in this instance I guess applies to my in-laws who bought their LA house, and the housing association who paid for a wall that proved to be insufficient (albeit quite some time later!)

force_ten

local authority's were very clever when they were selling off housing stock

in our area at least when a local authority house was sold then the council would say that the new owner was responsible for all the fences and walls that surround the property

by doing this they were protecting themselves from repair cost in the future, so if a wall fails the local authority say it is the home owner that is liable for repair cost and not the local authority

have a look at the title deeds for the property and look for T,s on the boundary this will give an indication of who is responsible for the fence or wall on the boundary

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/boundaries.html

have a look at that website for an explanation what i mean