Boundary Wall Unstable - HELP!

moofookimbob

Hi all, first post!

My partner and I are in the process of buying a house, our offer has been accepted on the proviso that we fix the boundary wall between the property and the neighbours directly behind (jointly with said neighbour). Only problem is there is little info about the problem and we are concerned about costs, plus the wall is quite complex. There has been a survey which the current owner ordered which is what has highlighted this issue, but we are not able to see said survey.

The wall:
There is a wall at the bottom of the garden that boundaries the 2 properties behind, who also have walls along the boundary. They appear to be a combination of stone and brick. The 3 properties are on two different roads, and the neighbouring properties are built on a hill, so the ground level of their gardens is considerably higher than that of the garden in our property, so their walls are much higher than ours, over 9 ft tall. The walls are back to back from what I can see, and the whole thing is leaning into our garden. It has already had a brick support built but seems this isn’t enough. I imagine that the neighbours walls are retaining and over the years their garden soil has compacted and pushed the wall further into our property.

We would be spending our top budget on this house so we need to save every penny where we can, and we have no clue what kind of cost it would be to sort the wall situation, or even how much of the responsibility lies with us. Surely if it’s their walls pushing into our garden then most of the work would have to be done on their end?

We plan on going back for another viewing and taking a builder of sorts for a quote, but would love any help in terms of what we should ask, where the responsibility lies, ideas of cost etc etc.

Thanks in advance!

moofookimbob

The wall in question and aerial view of the boundary wall (it’s long!)

Boohoo

I would pull out and look elsewhere for your new home.

That looks like it will be very expensive to fix and may lead to trouble with your new neighbours.

Run for the hills now.

mr_stripey

walk (or run) away very fast I think

ButterCheese

moofookimbob said:

our offer has been accepted on the proviso that we fix the boundary wall between the property and the neighbours directly behind.....we have no clue what kind of cost it would be to sort the wall situation, or even how much of the responsibility lies with us.

I suspect this is why they have acepted your offer and are rubbing their hands with glee!    Be careful - it might cost a whole lot more than you think.  For perspective, a drunk driver drove through my partner's garden/pavement wall a few years ago.  It was about 9 feet long and less than 4 feet high.  It cost 9 grand (and that was after 3 quotes).

I think you need to get a quote at the very least, and be sure to check (involving a solicitor) exactly what you are responsible for.  It's all very well the owners saying "you can buy it off us but you sort the wall", when in fact it might be up to the neighbours to pay half or even the full amount.  This will all depend on the deeds and other things.  I'm just saying, don't jump in too quick without knowing exactly how much it'll cost.  You may be doing yourself out of several thousand or even 10s of thousands for the sake of a slightly lower offer

FreeBear

ButterCheese said:

moofookimbob said:

our offer has been accepted on the proviso that we fix the boundary wall between the property and the neighbours directly behind.....we have no clue what kind of cost it would be to sort the wall situation, or even how much of the responsibility lies with us.

I suspect this is why they have acepted your offer and are rubbing their hands with glee!    Be careful - it might cost a whole lot more than you think.  For perspective, a drunk driver drove through my partner's garden/pavement wall a few years ago.  It was about 9 feet long and less than 4 feet high.  It cost 9 grand (and that was after 3 quotes).

I think you need to get a quote at the very least, and be sure to check (involving a solicitor) exactly what you are responsible for.  It's all very well the owners saying "you can buy it off us but you sort the wall", when in fact it might be up to the neighbours to pay half or even the full amount.  This will all depend on the deeds and other things.  I'm just saying, don't jump in too quick without knowing exactly how much it'll cost.  You may be doing yourself out of several thousand or even 10s of thousands for the sake of a slightly lower offer

A wall of that height is going to need the services of a structural engineer. If it is holding back 2.5m plus of soil, it will need some serious heavy duty construction equipment should it need completely rebuilding. Access is going to be a major issue.

One could quite easily spend £50,000 or even £100,000. Even if @moofookimbob isn't at the limit of their budget, I'd be recommending running away now before spending another penny.

FlorayG

A friend of mine has a very, very similar wall which collapsed in the torrential rain last year. She's been quoted £30,000 to repair it and it's only half the length of that one. Luckily for her, I own the land behind it and we both agreed it's doing no harm as it is so she's not going to get it repaired but I could have forced her to as it's inside her boundary and part of my land behind it has collapsed with it.
I don't think your vendor can even accept an offer with those conditions. Once you buy the house surely it's your decision? Better that the vendor gets to wall fixed and increases to price of the house to cover it - at least then any potential buyer knows the cost

Baldytyke88

moofookimbob said:

Hi all, first post!

My partner and I are in the process of buying a house, our offer has been accepted on the proviso that we fix the boundary wall between the property and the neighbours directly behind (jointly with said neighbour).

Jointly, but would the legal responsibility lie with just one of the properties, which one?

molerat

I'm with the majority view here, run away.

doodling

Hi,

As others have said, that wall will cost £30k-£100k to fix, maybe more depending on access.

If you don't have that money spare then the house is not for you.

Bigphil1474

I'd be worried why they haven't shared the survey document that they have. It seems like they are hiding a very costly issue from you. If the survey said it was a simple fix maybe costing a few £k, they'd be handing the report over straight away. Either pull out, or get them to agree to fix it, or get a hefty reduction to cover expected costs. If you are top of your budget, it could become a complete nightmare, not to mention difficult to get insurance. Did you have a survey done?