Neighbour's retaining garden wall causing serious damp

Noop

Hello!

I've just moved into an old end of terrace cottage. As expected there's damp, I don't believe there's a DPC either.

My end of terrace wall is damp from the ground floor to the ceiling, this is down to my neighbour having a retaining garden wall cm from my wall. This wall is also very old, but I expect it came after my house. The soil is full height of the wall on their side; full height being to the ceiling of my ground floor. Now I've ripped the ivy away I can also see it's crumbling into my wall. So I think my house is holding the wall up as well as absorbing all the water. Oh dear.

My boundary is the end of my house, so the wall I would assume is hers. I have not been made aware of any responsibility of looking after it in the sale process.

So clearly for lots of reasons it needs sorting out. I can get my house tanked I guess, but that doesn't solve the ultimate issue. There is no space inbetween the walls to do any repairs/drainage. So I guess asking the neighbour to do repairs is the real solution. I've not broached this yet as I want to understand my rights and the neighbour is elderly and lives alone.

Anyone got any knowledge or experience on the subject? Whilst I don't want to be "that" neighbour, can the issue be forced if necessary to make repairs? I'm concerned about the structural damage.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I assume the external wall of your house and this retaining wall are separately built?

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]How close together are the two walls? Is there any gap at all?

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You say you think the retaining wall was built after your house. If that's the case someone built a wall ( say 8 ft as high as your ceiling ) and then filled in earth behind it. Whereas most retaining walls are built when soil is removed from what becomes the lower side, i.e. the side your house was then built on.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Where was the ivy you removed?

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is there any way of inserting waterproof insulation between to two walls and then putting a cap over the top?[/FONT]

usefulmale

Noop wrote: »

Hello!

I've just moved into an old end of terrace cottage. As expected there's damp, I don't believe there's a DPC either.

My end of terrace wall is damp from the ground floor to the ceiling, this is down to my neighbour having a retaining garden wall cm from my wall. This wall is also very old, but I expect it came after my house. The soil is full height of the wall on their side; full height being to the ceiling of my ground floor. Now I've ripped the ivy away I can also see it's crumbling into my wall. So I think my house is holding the wall up as well as absorbing all the water. Oh dear.

My boundary is the end of my house, so the wall I would assume is hers. I have not been made aware of any responsibility of looking after it in the sale process.

So clearly for lots of reasons it needs sorting out. I can get my house tanked I guess, but that doesn't solve the ultimate issue. There is no space inbetween the walls to do any repairs/drainage. So I guess asking the neighbour to do repairs is the real solution. I've not broached this yet as I want to understand my rights and the neighbour is elderly and lives alone.

Anyone got any knowledge or experience on the subject? Whilst I don't want to be "that" neighbour, can the issue be forced if necessary to make repairs? I'm concerned about the structural damage.

So you bought a house you knew was damp from floor to ceiling (via your survey) and now you want to try and offload fixing the problem onto someone else.

After reading the survey and before purchase, were you not concerned about structural damage at that point?

Your rights were not to buy this property but you went ahead anyway.

The problem is yours and yours alone. Take ownership and get it fixed.

Davesnave

What did your surveyor say about this in their report? If its such an obvious issue, it must surely have been mentioned, and one would have expected you to see it too when viewing the property. It's unlikely to be something which has happened suddenly, overnight.

I think you might need a structural engineer's report on the wall before initiating any claim against the neighbour, who may, or may not have the money or inclination to do repairs, which will be expensive. Following that route, it could still take years before anything is done, so think hard about your initial approach to this.

Your 'rights' are only one aspect here in shortening the time to a resolution of the problem, which it looks like you bought-into.

Debbie_Savard

If the wall is partly collapsed and is against your exterior brickwork then it's no surprise there's damp.

You could take two routes -

1) Discuss with neighbour and come to an amicable arrangement over paying for reinstatement
2) Call the police and inform them there's been persistent trespass into your space

unforeseen

Don't bother with 2. They won't be interested in what is obviously a civil matter.

Noop

usefulmale wrote: »

So you bought a house you knew was damp from floor to ceiling (via your survey) and now you want to try and offload fixing the problem onto someone else.

After reading the survey and before purchase, were you not concerned about structural damage at that point?

Your rights were not to buy this property but you went ahead anyway.

The problem is yours and yours alone. Take ownership and get it fixed.

Is there any reason for your aggression? Need a hug?

I bought in the summer. There were minimal signs of damp. The previous owner has done a good job of hiding it by replastering and painting. After nearly a foot of snow funnily enough it's now visible.

The survey did not pull this issue up to a great extent as at the time of purchase the house next door was overgrown, ivy had crossed between the properties and there was quite dense foliage.

Noop

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I assume the external wall of your house and this retaining wall are separately built?

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]How close together are the two walls? Is there any gap at all?

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You say you think the retaining wall was built after your house. If that's the case someone built a wall ( say 8 ft as high as your ceiling ) and then filled in earth behind it. Whereas most retaining walls are built when soil is removed from what becomes the lower side, i.e. the side your house was then built on.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Where was the ivy you removed?

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is there any way of inserting waterproof insulation between to two walls and then putting a cap over the top?[/FONT]

I say I think mine was built first, only because I logistically can't see how my house could have been built with the wall there. I'm talking a 1cm gap... because it's collapsed in some sections along you wouldn't be able to fill anything in. Someone has however put coping stones from the wall to my house to cover it.

Noop

Debbie_Savard wrote: »

If the wall is partly collapsed and is against your exterior brickwork then it's no surprise there's damp.

You could take two routes -

1) Discuss with neighbour and come to an amicable arrangement over paying for reinstatement
2) Call the police and inform them there's been persistent trespass into your space

Call myself? Yes.... really.

Tom99

Noop wrote: »

I say I think mine was built first, only because I logistically can't see how my house could have been built with the wall there. I'm talking a 1cm gap... because it's collapsed in some sections along you wouldn't be able to fill anything in. Someone has however put coping stones from the wall to my house to cover it.

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I still think its more likely the wall was there 1st. It was probably created in order to level the plot your house was built on.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It would be just a difficult to build the wall 1cm from your house as to build your house 1cm from the wall. Also why would anyone build a wall in that position and then presumably raise the ground level behind the wall.[/FONT]

Noop

Davesnave wrote: »

What did your surveyor say about this in their report? If its such an obvious issue, it must surely have been mentioned, and one would have expected you to see it too when viewing the property. It's unlikely to be something which has happened suddenly, overnight.

I think you might need a structural engineer's report on the wall before initiating any claim against the neighbour, who may, or may not have the money or inclination to do repairs, which will be expensive. Following that route, it could still take years before anything is done, so think hard about your initial approach to this.

Your 'rights' are only one aspect here in shortening the time to a resolution of the problem, which it looks like you bought-into.

Thank you - I had a building survey completed, however this was hindered by the overgrowth from next door. The ivy and trees were very dense; hanging into/ attached to the house. So it was raised as "there could be an issue" of penetration, but not flagged as something that needed to be immediately addressed. It's only since i have pulled the ivy off and the neighbour has cut the trees that the problem is truly visible. It probably doesn't help the survey was in the summer so the damp readings weren't high.

Im aware it sounds obvious, but it's been overlooked by a few people.