Replacing party wall with fence

boldaslove

Hi all,

My partner and I bought a house earlier in the year that needs a lot of work doing. One of the more immediate issues is the wall we have running alongside the house. We live at the end of a cul-de-sac and are effectively surrounded by other house’s gardens asides from the very front where we have a drive.

The previous owner built a single layer brick wall up to around 8ft high (!) which is looking VERY lopsided at the moment. The gardens behind it have some very tall fir trees and from what we can tell we think the roots of the trees, and the fact the ground level is higher on their side, are pushing the brick wall out towards our drive. We’re slightly concerned about it collapsing (although it would likely fall on our drive rather than into the adjoining gardens). We thought a good solution would be to take down that section of the wall (it changes to sturdier breeze block further down and looks fairly secure there), build a retaining wall and put up a fence around 6ft high. This would affect 2 or 3 gardens - the entire wall runs along the length of about 5 or 6 gardens in total.

My question is; who’s responsible for this? I’ve looked on the deeds and it’s unclear, so I would assume we would need to fund the replacement wall/fence, but as it affects people’s back gardens, what do they need to do? Do they build their own back fence/wall that backs onto ours? They’d obviously lose some security/privacy for the time it’s being built. What if they don’t consent to it? Can we push ahead considering the wall looks unstable? We don’t want to fall out with anyone when we’ve just bought the place.

As a short term solution we thought we could take a few layers of bricks off the top to lighten the load but is this risking the whole thing falling down? We’re very much learning how to do these things as we go, so I currently have no experience of laying or knocking down bricks.

FaceHead

I struggle to understand where the wall is. Is it around all three sides of your plot (exc your drive)?

An 8' high wall (assuming 4", not 9") was never going to last. 

Given that your previous owner built the wall, it's your wall. So if you removed your wall, then what? Is a new fence what's needed? It might make sense to share the cost of that new fence. 

Rather than worrying too hard about who's responsible for what, chat to your neighbours. If you can come to an agreement then that's find. Is the issue here that you want them to share the cost of the new fence? If so, ask. If not, pop round and let them know you're replacing that death trap wall with a new fence.

Bendy_House

Hi BaL.

You've looked at the deeds, but it's unclear? What does 'unclear' mean - it says absolutely nothing about responsibilities, or is somewhat contradictory?

Anyhoo, a few generalisations:

1) No-one NEEDS to have a wall or fence, unless it says contrary to this in the deeds.

2) If the fence/wall straddles the boundary, it's a party issue, so both sides should agree maintenance/ changes.

3) If the wall is on one side of the boundary line, the wall will belong to that person. The other party cannot touch it. If the 'owner' doesn't want to fix or replace it, you cannot force or oblige them to.

4) If one side has a dawg or wild child they need to contain, then the onus is on them to provide a secure way to contain them.

5) It is ALWAYS best to discuss these issues before doing anything.

6) It is ALWAYS best to begin these discussions armed with the facts!

And one more generalisation - if the land on one side is higher than t'other, and a retaining wall is required to prevent the land from moving, then the 'retaining' onus is on the owner of the higher land, and the fence/wall is usually theirs, too, for associated reasons. An exception to this would be if one side excavated away their land to lower it - they cannot then reasonably expect the other side to build a retaining wall to prevent subsequent movement.

What to do? Your research :-)

Why is their land higher than yours? How many properties does this apply to?

What are the other neighbouring properties like? Have you spoken to any of them yet, when you could ask, "Do you know which boundary side you are responsible for?"

A single-brick-skin wall 8' high is not good. Does it have piers spaced regularly along them? It does seem that, whoever is responsible for it, if it isn't taken down then it will cause issues down the line. For instance, if it turns out it's the neighb's responsibility, and they don't want to tackle it for now, then any fence you put up on your side of it is going to be vulnerable.

Ah, soz - just re-read, "The previous owner built a single layer brick wall up to around 8ft high...". So you can fairly safely assume it's yours. Also, the fact that this wall continues down a number of other neighbour's gardens too, suggests it's yours; if each of these other neighbs were responsible for that boundary, you would more likely expect a range of different fence/wall styles (although you do mention it turns into block further down?).

So, it looks like it's yours. What to do? I think have a chat with each neighbour, asking them to confirm your understanding of ownership, and explaining your plan to replace it with a fence as it's clearly becoming unsafe. Always polite/thoughtful to ask, "Will there be any issues while we do this - any dogs that might need keeping in?" or whatevs. They may ask what style of fence you intend to go for, so bear in mind that this is your fence so your call, but again always polite to reply summat like, "I'll see what the others think too, but our plans were to fit concrete/composite posts so's they should never need replacing, solid gravel boards as they need to retain some soil, and then xyz... as we think it looks best. We'd be happy for you to paint your side if you wish, but please try to not let the colour come through! Oodles of thanks..." or something similar.

Photo of the state of the wall currently? Will the top rows of brick need chiselling off, or are they virtually 'lift-off'?! If they are pretty well attached, I don't think I'd bother doing anything with them until you come to replace it all.