neighbours wall help?

Mr Smith · Dec 29, 2008 3:37 pm

hey guys i hope i can get a bit of help here.....

me and my partner (Mrs Smith) have a block of land in alexander heights Perth. we wont be building on it till closer to mid next year and the neighbours on one side are higher up than our block so there is a small retaining wall with a fence on top.
now weve noticed it looks a bit damaged etc and i dont wana start moving around too much sand around there when we level it out soon.

so i waz wondering if anyone knew like whos responsible for the upkeep of that wall, i thought them because theyre higher up and its supporting their landm so should i just mayb go and talk to them? or maybe try the council?......any suggestions greatly appreciated

kexkez · Dec 29, 2008 8:44 pm

Hi Mr Smith nice to meet you. is the retaining wall on their land or on the boundary or on your land?
We had neighbours who needed a retaining wall last time when we were both building and it was built on our property so the fence could actually go on the boundary. The neighbour had to have written permission from us to do this.

in this case:

You may well be both liable for repair of the wall if it falls because it is already damaged however if it had been undamaged before you moved earth I suspect you'd be liable for the full cost. it might even be fully their responsibility to get it sorted. Work out where exactly compared with the boundary the retaining wall is and ring the council first so you have some idea of what's what then approach the neighbours..

You don't want it becoming a sticking point for neighbourly relations if you can avoid it.

Back Pocket · Dec 29, 2008 10:22 pm

You do really need to find out wo's land it is on. In vic, usually retaining walls are built with the back of the wall about 150mm from the boundary, so that there is room to put the fence on the actual boundary of the property and does not impinge on any block but your own.

Perhaps council is a good place to start?