Anyone here had experience about building dispute with a neighbor?
We have a situation, the owner of the land next to our house raised their land level, and currently building. Their house is still not finished yet (it has been a year since they started). The problem is every time it rains, the dirt and soil come down to our paved garden and even worse, the sleeper put by our builder starts to bend.
We already seek advices from many people and they all agreed that since we are here first, it's the neighbor responsibility to build a retaining wall on the boundary (because they changed the natural level of the land). We also have contacted the council, who then refer us to their independent building surveyor to investigate. And the surveyor also confirmed our rights - by verbally convinced us that he is not going to issue the occupancy permit before they built the wall.
We already tried to approach the house owner many times to settle this problem, and politely asking to build the required wall as soon as possible, or in the least, put that as priority.
But apparently they are sort of people who are difficult to deal with. Initially objecting, then asking us to share the cost, then now only promise to get it done when the house finish (which even they don't know for sure when, and they still refuse to put any agreement consent or time estimate in writing). Contacting their builder also doesn't help much.
Seems like any attempt we tried only hitting into brick walls. We know we are in the right position, but unfortunately we don't know who we can turn into help for protecting our rights.
Bringing them to court should only be our last resort, as everyone said. But seems like they leave us with no other choice.
1) Can we report this situation to the Victorian building commissioner ??
2) Is that fair that they insist us to wait until their house finish before they can build the wall? They mentioned that they have financial problem.
3) Is it advisable to involve our builder (Porter Davis) to help us with this matter. If now the sleeper retaining wall starts to bend - shouldn't that affecting their structural guarantee?
Anyone here kind enough with any advice or suggestion, please share it with us. Thanks!
Tired and restless,
Xtine