Retaining wall - neighb wants it better than original.

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi all.

This relates to a terrace of 4 houses which are all on a slope. Each garden has an original ~3' high retaining fence (on their RH boundaries) made up of a row of 3" diameter round posts embedded in a concrete trench. The houses were built in 2007, and this is how the housebuilder made these retaining walls. These have all been rotting, and are beginning to collapse - some have.

When sis-in-law bought the end - lowest - house around 7 years ago, I did some jobs to get the house sorted which included replacing her retaining wall even tho' it wasn't actually her responsibility. It was just easier for us to do this, and she also ended up with the type of wall she wanted - made from sleepers. Looks great

Anyhoo, at the other end of this short terrace, the retaining wall between these houses also collapsed around a year ago. End house - it's their responsibility - immediately offered to have it replaced, including returning any collapsed soil back to how it was before, and sorting out any damaged plants. Second from end house said "Not good enough - I want a block wall, rendered and painted to match my house!"

This 'lady' is the subject of another thread I put on here - she not only throws stones at neighbours' cats, but has posted cat poo through their letterbox. She also fitted a gate to the path which accesses the backs of all the garden, padlocked it, and also padlocked each individual neighbour's garden gates to this path. She claims it's for 'security' (in a very peaceful estate), and - alarmingly - her deeds do show she owns this path, although all properties have a RoW. Anyhoo, more of that latter...

So, end neighb said 'Non' to the block wall and render, and reaffirmed her willingness to rebuild the retaining wall as it was originally. Oh, and could you remove the padlocks to the path, pleeeeez.

2-way litigation ensued.

Sis has just told me that (a) end neighb lost the case and MUST make it a block, rendered and painted wall for the 'disturbed' neighb, and is liable for costs to boot. (b) 'Disturbed' neighb lost the 'blocking access to the rear path' case, but is refusing to remove the padlocks.

The purpose of this thread? Just to ponder how insane the world appears to be.

Thank you - I feel better now.

dimbo61

Angle grinder the next time she goes out the front door.
Do every single padlock she has fitted.
I would also remove the bolt/s as well 

theoretica

Maybe not block and rendered, but I wouldn't be happy with a wall that collapsed onto my property being rebuilt 'as was' to a standard which had demonstrably failed in under 15 years.

davilown

They have no right to secure any access from the properties accessing the path. They may have a right to secure the initial access but must provide keys etc to each of the neighbours. I’m assuming that the rear fences are ‘owned’ by each house?

Jeepers_Creepers

Lol! Thanks all, especially Dave for that treatise.

Angle-grind the paddies? Nah - she also has CCTV up, trained on everyone's gardens; you just know who'd get into trouble.

Theoretica, fair point. But are you saying that the neighb with 'responsibility' for the wall should therefore fork out for a block, rendered and painted wall?

Anyhoo, with pre-and-post installation treatment, the 3" posts should last 20+ years with no issue. The original ones were carp - sis had 6"x4" fence posts (not even 4x4 - six x 4) that had not only rotted clean through at ground level, but - thankfully - I could in most cases just scoop out the rotten contents of what was left in the concrete. That was after around 8 years.

Chandler85

I'm confused as to how a court (assuming a magistrates) can possibly decide that a new retaining wall must be made by block and rendered to match a complainants house when before that didn't exist.  I can imagine the it must be a suitably strong wall, given the previous wall failed (maybe prematurely who knows) and thus might say it should be block.  But I reckon I could build you a rubbish block wall and it would fail as fast!

As for the access, just chop the locks, RoW is just that, it isn't criminal damage.  If someone came to your house and put an additional padlock on your front door so you couldn't access it, you would remove it immediately.  Wave at the CCTV while you do it, just make sure you only do the locks that prevent your right of way.

Jeepers_Creepers

Apparently the problem neighbour cited her builder who said (well, duh...) "A proper block wall is the best way to do it..." and that was enough. The nice neighb's solicitor must have been utter carp.

Chandler - are you sure? Your example makes sense, but are you certain? If so, I'll be round there with my cordless - solar charged if Dave insists...

AdrianC

Chances are it's a dirt cheap flimsy padlock, so a pair of bolt croppers would take seconds flat, and be less obvious on the CCTV...

mcpitman

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Angle-grind the paddies? Nah - she also has CCTV up, trained on everyone's gardens; you just know who'd get into trouble.

Isn't that CCTV pointing over someone else's land an issue in itself?

Jeepers_Creepers

Yes, good chance, Adrian, but I wouldn't entertain it unless it were 'legit'. And I'd give the lady one last chance to hand over keys, whilst tossing the running angle grinder from hand to hand to drive home my intention (only kidding about the last bit).

That's if I summon up the bottle to actually offer to do it :-)

Weirdly, I've had very recent practice with cutting through padlocks due to a lost key down at the unit. They had bolt cutters, but this paddie was a beaut and I couldn't even open the jaws far enough to get the shackle into the fulcrum, it was that thick. The jaws left nary a mark. Fortunately had just bought a cordless grinder for doing their moorings - less than a minute on that had the job done.

As you say, the ones used at the house will likely be butter.

Yes, mcpit, the CCTV is an issue, amongst lots more. The neighbs have countered with their own cameras to catch any more poo-throwing...

I know I know I know - it's just nuts. The neighbs actually had sympathy with this lady when she started behaving bizarrely, as it was clear she had issues such as paranoia, so they didn't take it further at the time other than just asking her to stop. 

AdrianC

Jeepers_Creepers said:

...whilst tossing the running angle grinder from hand to hand to drive home my intention (only kidding about the last bit).

Yeh, you really don't want to be doing that, not unless you view your fingers as expendable...