Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 15, 2010 9:49 am G'day all. How's this one.. We are in an established suburb in Perth's south. The block we are building on is half of an originally 18m wide block. It was subdivided to make two long 9m wide blocks. Our neighbors (very nice people by all accounts), are building a similar home to us with a different builder, and are about 4 months ahead of us in the process. So we drove past the block earlier this week, to find that not only has the neighbours' block been cleared and prepped for their slab to go down, but the topsoil and grass has been scraped away on out side of the block also. They've taken approximately 150mm of topsoil away from our block. Additionally there is now a roughly 4x5x1.25m deep hole at the rear of our block. I wouldn't care that all the soil had been removed, but we know that when we go to build, we already needed to add soil to bring the level of our block up to a level required by the engineers. In 3 or four months when we go to build, the block will be overgrown and need clearing again (so we'll lose even more soil).. No way I'm paying to import sand that someone removed in error.. There were some plumbers on site when I went past yesterday morning and one of them told me that the hole would have been dug to put all of the excess sand in once they finished prepping the area under the concrete slab. So the assumption has been made by all involved that both blocks were theirs to use. Also there is now a growing amount of debris (bags, offcuts of reo, parts of trees, empty beer bottles etc) on our (previously clean) block thanks to the neighbours' tradies.. (I hope when it comes tp our slab that the team waits till after the pour is done to hit the beers..) Up until now I've had no qualms about letting our block be used for access, but I'm getting worried that we're going to inherit a costly mess. My wife would love to put up a fence to restrict access completely, but I don't want to rub our new neighbours the wrong way, and in any case, we need that sand replaced before I fence anything off.... I doubt a "no trespassing" sign would have any effect whatsoever.. We're going to contact the neighbors first to try to get it sorted, but I'm tempted to contact their builder direct and start blasting.. Has anyone else had a similar experience, or have any advice on how best to deal with this? Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 2Oct 15, 2010 9:59 am As a guess the size of your subdivision mostly likely means shared infrastructure. With that in mind sewer easements, pipes and some conduits will exist on your lot for their construction. As a by-product I would have though common courtesy would have been to contact you about this and impacts to you downstream in terms of costs etc. May be worthwhile contacting your council to determine what permits and works have been approved. As a sub-division you may (again council check) have no way of stopping them doing works on your lot to achieve theirs. Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 3Oct 15, 2010 3:49 pm Thanks for the response Eve.
The 2 blocks are side by side, each with street frontage, and each has its own sewer and electrical connection already. There is no need for the builder to access our block at all (apart from to replace the sand that they removed ) Does anyone know the legalities of moving the builders' waste that's been dumped on our side of the block back across the boundary line? Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 4Oct 15, 2010 6:22 pm I'd be contacting the builder directly (try and contact your neighbour but I think time is of the essence) and let them know that a) you want your topsoil back b) you want the hole filled in and compacted and c) you want all their rubbish removed from your site ASAP (which has been technically dumped on your site). They have no legal right to do what they've done unless you've given them permission. I would get them to remove their waste because if you do it, they'll just keep on dumping on your site. Never argue with an idiot they drag you down to their level & then beat you with experience - Dilbert View Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19733 Contract signed 14Sept Slab 30Sept Bricks laid 1Dec Lock up 26Feb Keys 10Jun Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 6Oct 22, 2010 9:51 am So we seem to be having some glimmer of success. After a call to legal aid, we emailed a very direct letter to the offending builder which appears to have prompted them into action. Our neighbours have repeatedly tried to chase down their SS to no avail until yesterday when a dialogue finally opened between them. If the builder doesn't respond to us further then the next stop is the Police! Assuming that the wheels start to turn and we get our sand back without involving the long arm of the law, how can I be sure that it will be compacted sufficiently? Is there an easy way to test this? Would it require a compacting machine, would the weight of machinery rolling over it be enough, or would a large bobcat be able to press it down sufficiently? (clearly this is not my area of expertise). Thanks in advance. A. Update - the builder is choosing to ignore us. In the initial letter we emailed to the we gave them 7 days to return the block to its original level. Time's up on Thursday, then we will have to get the police involved..... Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 7Nov 17, 2010 8:08 am On the seventh day, I drove past the block and lo and behold - a bobcat moving soil back onto our block. This was the surplus from the neighbors ' site after their slab went down (but not enough to restore our block's original level. I finally met the neighbors SS and he told me basically that there had been a lack of communication within their company, hence the fact that we did not get a response from anyone there.. So some of our sand was replaced, and the block leveled. We are still waiting for the additional sand that the SS promised three weeks ago. I've started pinging off emails to everyone in the company including the general manager. It was an email to the GM that appears to have spurred them into action initially to half-replace our sand... Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 8Dec 17, 2010 5:35 pm We were getting nowhere fast by late November, so contacted HIA and our local council. The HIA gave the company in question a stir. We were handed off to another supervisor, who sounded like he was on the case, and promised to remove the rubbish, rectify the soil level and to fix our water meter which was damaged by their tradies. The rubbish was removed within a few days so we thought that sanity had prevailed. Now he's not returning calls. We had an email from the company though suggesting that we might consider building with them!?! Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 9Mar 03, 2011 4:17 am HI there, I am in a similar situation neighbors builder has dumped their topsoil and rubbish on my site. When I called the SS she said she will get it removed on Tuesday. Tuesday came and it was Thursday and now nothing yet. This is delaying my build as my builder refuses to build unless its all cleared. Whom did you contact in the HIA ? Should I go to the council first or the police? The council take their own time as u know. Tarneit : The Reserve Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 10Mar 03, 2011 6:47 am That's typical of an SS. You need to call them the day before and on the day as well to confirm that they are doing what they said they would do. The frequency with which you call them tells them how much you want it to get done, so "no call" = "not done". Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 11Mar 05, 2011 10:16 am Well the saga is over for us. Took just under 5 months for the offending builder to restore the sand that they took. Literally dozens of emails, hundreds of phone calls to get to an outcome. In the end we don't know if it was the HIA, police, builders' registration board, cc'ing a contact at the Sunday Times, the local council or just that they got so sick of us that got the result. I am not sure how the site supervisor involved has been able to keep his job - incompetent is not a strong enough word. In our case, the council acted very quickly when there was rubbish or vehicles on the front verge ( they are keen to issue fines where they can). They do not have the power do do anything about debris on your block though. The "Keep Australia Beautiful Council" recommended me to the HIA. In the end we gave the offending builder 7 days to move the waste, and told them that after that deadline that we would get 3 quotes, and have the waste removed, then issue them with the bill and go to the magistrates court if necessary to recoup the cost. You would have to have 100% proof that the builder was responsible for the debris. (We had an email trail and photographs). The threat was enough and they took the rubbish away on the 7th day... rramesh - did you get a result? If not PM me and we'll talk tactics. Re: Neighbours' builder cleared our land!! 12Mar 07, 2011 11:02 pm I love the nerve of them to suggest you build with them. Some people have no scruples hey? Good to hear you got it sorted though, even if it did take a few headaches. When do you start to build? Land Deposit - 18/12/2009 Became a land Baron - 21/12/2010 Site Start - 27/1/2011 All moved in!! it depends on the natural ground level, if they excavated their boundary wall needed to be built as a retaining wall. If you filled, which sounds like the case then you… 1 7063 The only thing to add to these comments is that where possible it's always good to try and work with people than just say "no" because you can. Having someone… 4 17050 Sounds like rubbish to me. Ask for the contamination report which I doubt they have. If it's part of a normal subdivision it would have had a contamination report done… 9 5634 |