Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 08, 2012 10:17 pm I am hoping someone can help us with some advice My Partner and I have just purchased a block of land, the land is relatively flat and slopes down towards the back. The land is in an established suburb so our neighbours house has been there for many years (probably over 10). It looks like when they built their house and had to cut into the land they pushed the excess dirt from their block up onto ours and used their fence to retain the block (to stop our block from falling onto their house, which is lower than our land). As a result, when we are on our block the 'fence' is shorter than 1m high in some spots (this is an issue for us because of privacy, the fact that our dog can jump the fence and it looks yuk!). What I would like to know is....are fences allowed to be used as retaining walls? who will have to pay for it if a retaining wall needs to be put into place? How do we go about approaching the neighbour? Is this something we should speak to our builder about first? Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 3Apr 10, 2012 4:43 pm Thanks d3vil_nik, that makes sense - i didnt think the builders would be too keen to help us out with the issue. Any other info would be appreciated if anyone out there has had a similar experience. By the way, I am new to the forum....have i posted this question in the correct section? Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 4Apr 10, 2012 4:55 pm Our Neighbour on the lower side, has a retaining wall on his side, he paid for that. On the other side of our house, our Neighbour is higher than us, we paid for our retaining wall. So it appears that who ever is on the lower side, has to pay for the retaining wall. The fence cannot be used as a retaining wall, the fence would have to be to a certain height all the way around. Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 6Apr 10, 2012 5:59 pm Got any pictures? The mind boggles at using a fence as a retailing wall and I suspect after 10 years that the part of the fence that is below ground level (if that is indeed the case) probably isn't too flash now. Basic rule of thumb is that the person who is altering the natural slope is responsible for retaining that ground level/slope (regardless of whether they are on the lower side or the higher side). Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 7Apr 10, 2012 6:16 pm Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 8Apr 10, 2012 6:23 pm If your block is relativly flat it may be the case the previous owners leveled it and pushed the dirt up near the fence. Could there be a retaining wall on your side of the fence but covered slightly? I'm pretty sure a pailing fence wouldn't hold up 800mm of dirt if in fact its a 1800 fence. Sight along the fence and check the rails and pailings on your neighbours side, if it looks like its going to explode then there is a problem. If not, dig down your side and see whats there. Not that it wouldn't happen, it just doesnt make sense your nieghbour would cut then put up a fence as retaining, at the end of the day if it lets go they're the ones who cop it all down on top of them. Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 10Apr 10, 2012 7:00 pm Hi mgilla - that is what happened we think. When they levelled their block the excess dirt was pushed up onto ours. We have looked down the side and there is no retaining wall at all on our their side. There could be some kind of retaining wall on our side under all that dirt but I guess we will have to ask them . However I fear that it truly is just the fence holding up all that dirt (hope it doesnt all fall down onto their house). We are hoping that as the fence is quite old the neighbours wont mind replacing it. If I was them I would be worried that with all the construction and heavy machinery moving around on the block they might have a cave in - YIKES!! Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 11Apr 10, 2012 7:24 pm mgilla Seen the pic after I posted, do you have any close up of the fence. Same - it's not clear as to where the ground level is on the fence line. It's a bit hard to see - hard enough to not be able to tell if it's a colorbond or paling fence. I'd suspect if they did pile up fill on your side then the fence would be falling over by now tbh. Perhaps their block was similar to yours (maybe a bit lower) and they have done a really deep cut or it might have been a cut-and-fill job if their block was sloping down from right to left - you could try to get your hands on the subdivision documents from your local council to see what the natural ground levels were at the time. It could also be that the flat spot on your side is either an undulation or compacted fill that was deliberately put there to replace spoil removed as the result of having to take out trees? Not saying that is the case, just thinking out aloud - close ups of the fence line would help but in the end the only way to be sure is see some subdivision or even construction plans to determine where the ground levels were and then possibly get a surveyor in to check if anything has changed. Seeing those tree stumps there makes me think that you may have to rip up a fair bit of that flat part at the back of the block anyway to get rid of all the tree roots... Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Neighbours fence is retaining our block - HELP! 12Apr 10, 2012 7:32 pm Thank you both for that advice. The fence is colourbond and the soil on our side of the fence is about 1m up the fence in most spots, but where i have added the arrow to the pic the dirt is actually up to almost the top of the fence (less than 1m visible fence on our side). I think your suggestion cmhamilton RE finding the subdivision documents will be our best bet....or just go and speak to the neighbours and hope for the best =) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 4 8762 2 4918 there is a standard besser block wall pdf somewhere online with footing sizes, also have a look at dincel. 1 1091 |