Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 21Apr 29, 2013 9:08 pm In wa the builder needs permission from the neighbour to encroach or affect their land. This doesn't involve building on the boundary necessarily tho. Is there a similar rule there? Building on the boundary is one thing in my opinion, but excavating your land and putting fencing on your land is a no no in my Opinion. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 22Apr 29, 2013 9:55 pm This is just crazy, hope it all works out for you. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 23Apr 30, 2013 9:23 pm travisaus Put up some temp star pickets/ bunting on the correct property boundary - its pretty cheap from bunnings. The problem is that I want them to rectify the 10mx1m strip they excavated out of the side my land. If I put up a new fence, they will just say that is why they can't rectify it. Quote: How long is the fence on that side of your block? If it wasn't crazy long and you were going to get timber - I would just get the fence done. About 34m, but it can't be done until the land is restored to its previous state and the soil re-compacted. There's a huge ditch (requiring a retaining wall) taken out the side of the block (to the rear of the property). There are also mountains of fill pushed up against the fence (to the front of the property). If I move the fence, the fill will all come spilling over further onto my block. Already, their temporary fencing is starting to lean over from the weight. The only thing holding it up right now is my own temporary fencing, which is acting as a brace, but is due to be removed any day now. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 24Apr 30, 2013 9:28 pm delatite13 Depending on how hard you wish to go, you could apply to the court tomorrow to get an injunction for the builder to cease all work on the site until the boundary/fencing/excavation matters are all sorted. That's certainly an option. They're still ignoring me, and haven't called back, despite me emailing them all my details, calling the local office and calling head office. If I don't get a reply by Friday, I might take this course of action. I just want to strike a balance between getting things sorted out and not getting off on a bad foot with the new neighbours. I don't mind upsetting the builders, but putting a stop to the work will screw over the neighbours too, who haven't done anything except hire a negligent builder. I guess there will have to be some form of disruption in the end. The house is so close to the boundary, and has been filled with a fairly large height difference from my land towards the front of the block (and cut out at the back). They need to put in a retaining wall now. Not after handover. I'll keep insisting that they stop what they are doing and get to work on the retaining wall. If I get nowhere, I'll threaten a court injunction. I've already requested the council investigate them for non-compliance to the terms of their DA. That should happen in the next week. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 25May 01, 2013 7:57 pm I finally heard back from the site supervisor. However, he called while I was having dinner. So I missed the call. He left a voicemail saying: "It will be right mate, if our fence is leaning against yours, we'll just move it out of the way when you need it done. It will be 30 minutes work. Stop calling the office about it, it's nothing". Wow. He hasn't realised that our temporary fencing isn't on the property boundary. He hasn't checked the boundary pegs at all. He doesn't realise that he's put up his fence 1m inside our property, then cut and filled on our land. I don't know what the ladies from the office told him, but I explained the whole situation to them in detail. They obviously didn't fill him in. I left him a voicemail detailing all the issues, and explaining that it won't be a 30 minute job to fix it. They will need to get in equipment to re-fill my land, compact the soil, push fill over their side of the boundary, and almost certainly will need a retaining wall to support it all, because there's virtually no room between the boundary and the slab. I also sent a text message to put it in black-and-white. I can only imagine his reaction when he reads the text message or listens to the voicemail. Hopefully it will shock him enough that he'll put the wheels in motion to sort it out. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 26May 01, 2013 8:11 pm Oh boy...what a mess. So feeling for you Aaron. I think it is all our worst nightmare for this to happen. I am so wishing for this to be resolved in your favour. Wiz Built @ Brooks Reach Built the Verdelho Guest with Beechwood Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 27May 01, 2013 8:29 pm Personally I'd stand outside the display home of the company with megaphone every weekend until it's resolved. I'd also advertise on gumtree offering free bricks and building material on weekends with the address. Cement down the pipes. A few bricks hurled at the roof will also cause issues. Sorry, you gotta play dirty. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 28May 01, 2013 10:34 pm WizardofOz Oh boy...what a mess. So feeling for you Aaron. I think it is all our worst nightmare for this to happen. I am so wishing for this to be resolved in your favour. Thanks. I'll surely be hearing from him tomorrow. I expect him to either be apologetic, or to dispute the boundaries. I've prepared for the latter with plenty of evidence, but I'm hoping it's the former. I'll post an update tomorrow. Hopefully it's good news, and he promises to rectify it all. However, even then, there will be a lot of hassle with making sure it is all done correctly. Builders generally aren't that great with rectifying their own clients' issues, let alone a neighbour. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 29May 02, 2013 9:44 am I heard back from the neighbouring builder's site supervisor. He really seemed annoyed I was calling him. On the phone, his main points were: - He hasn't checked out the site yet, so he's not sure what is going on. - He doesn't have time to check the site at the moment. He's so busy. - However, he's totally sure it's not his fault. - He's also sure there's nothing to worry about, despite not having looked at the issue. - "We've only dug out a couple of inches at the back"... No. We just measured it again. It's 800mm at its deepest. - "It will all be fine in the end, nothing to worry about, mate". I pointed out that he has a lot of excavated land to fill in and compact. He has a lot of fill to move off my land. He also will probably need some retaining walls. At that point he jumped on me. "You don't understand. Retaining walls aren't our problem. That's between you and the owner, you can work out who is responsible for what. Maybe you need some retaining, maybe they need some, you can discuss that with them later". I politely pointed out that we had not altered the natural level of the ground at all on that side of our property, so there was no need for us to do anything. Retaining walls would need to be done on their side of the fence, at a reasonable setback from the fence itself. He didn't accept that at all, and said: "When it's time to put the fencing in, just tell us. We'll move the fill out of the way, and then when the fence is done, we can push it back against it. Put a sleeper at the bottom, and it will all be fine". He then said he can't do anything right now anyway, since our builder still has their temporary fencing up. He said: "Give us a call when your fencing is down, and I'll look into it then". I called our site supervisor, and he said he'd prefer to leave the fence up for another two weeks. It's been at lockup for a long time now, so I'm not sure why, but I'm not going to argue. So I guess I just have to sit and wait. I'd prefer to get it all sorted out now, and not let things drag on, but I don't want to pressure our builder to remove the fence before he's ready, so I guess I don't have much option but to leave things as they are for a couple of weeks. Realistically, they should at least move their fill off our land and get their fence over their side of the boundary right now. However, their supervisor has basically shut off any further discussion until our temporary fencing is removed. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 30May 09, 2013 6:59 pm An update... Our temporary fencing has been removed, and I'm now pressuring the neighbouring builder to fix things. They have no excuses anymore. McDonald Jones have been great about getting the fencing removed quicker than originally planned. However, the neighbouring builder seem to have no incentive to do anything. The Council has finally replied to me, and has stated that they do not think it is worth allocating resources to investigate the matter. They advised me that the issue should be addressed under common law provisions, and that it is not something for them to be concerned with. So, it seems the Council has no interest in ensuring developments are done in accordance with the law. They don't really care if they adversely affect neighbours. Once the builders start, they can do whatever they like, and the council will just close their eyes and say: "None of our business, seek legal advice... housing construction isn't anything to do with us". Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 31May 10, 2013 7:25 am OMG I can't believe the council are sitting on their hands like that. They are the one's approving plans, so you would think they would make sure they are being followed correctly. What are they going to do once the house is built in the wrong spot, say it has to be demolished?? I'm not sure what your next avenue should be, but maybe get an independent building inspection to confirm your situation, ie that they have the house in the wrong spot or perhaps talk to Dept Fair Trading or seek some legal advice??? What a bad and stressful situation you are in. I hope you can get a solution on this very soon We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 33May 10, 2013 8:37 am Onewheel I'm not sure what your next avenue should be, but maybe get an independent building inspection to confirm your situation, ie that they have the house in the wrong spot or perhaps talk to Dept Fair Trading or seek some legal advice??? I'm not so worried about the siting of the house. Once the fence is up, it will be screen us from that. They will be very close to the fence, but I've decided I can live with that - it's not worth the hassle to keep pursuing it. There's not much I can do now without legal expenses (and a very upset neighbour), and the house siting will be a bigger problem for them than for us, particularly when they have to fit a retaining wall into that small gap. My main concern now is actually getting the side fence up before we move in. It's impossible at the moment, because we have a 1m x 8m section of the back of our block that has been excavated out (to a depth of 60-80cm), we have a giant mound of fill all along the fenceline, and we have the neighbour's temporary fencing on our side of the boundary... and it keeps getting pushed further onto our land by the fill that has been piled against it. Once the colourbond fence is up, I think the neighbours will realise just how small the side setback is, and they can resolve it with the builder. However, the first step is to get that fence up, which is difficult when the neighbour's builder has site works in the way, and it seems virtually impossible to get them removed without a retaining wall (which they have flatly stated isn't an option). Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 34May 10, 2013 9:37 pm Sounds like you are well and truly stuck with waiting til their build is done and temporary fences are down. I guess you have to pick your battles and like you say, they will have the issues being so close to the fence line. So annoying for you though not being able to finish off your home with the fence. Have you contacted your new neighbour at all? You can get the address from council, maybe write a letter to them introducing yourself and see if you can at least start a friendly discussion about the fence and retaining wall now. We have been in our house for 8 weeks now and it has taken us 10 weeks to get everyone to decide on a colour and fencing contractor. We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 35May 11, 2013 9:11 pm Onewheel Sounds like you are well and truly stuck with waiting til their build is done and temporary fences are down. I was honestly about to give up and just see if things pan out in the end. However, I went there today, and the fence has been shifted even further onto our yard. Since our temporary fencing has been removed, they have decide to encroach even further. They have shifted the fence another metre towards our house, and battered off their fill nicely into our yard. Their fencing now looks absolutely absurd. They have had to leave it where it was at the front to get around the portaloo that is still on our property, and they couldn't move it at the back where the cut is. However, they have pushed it right out as far as possible along the middle section. It now forms a giant trapezoid that juts out into our yard. It's clearly been done intentionally. At this point, I'll take your advice and contact the neighbour. I've been really reluctant to do so while the arguing was ongoing with the builder, lest I draw them into it and end up starting the relationship on the wrong foot. However, it makes sense to at least make them aware of the situation, and to send through the quotes for the fence. If that doesn't get me any further, the next stop is my solicitor. Honestly, this has wasted enough of my time and energy that I'd be happy to pay a bit of money to have it sorted out. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 36May 11, 2013 9:20 pm The latest from the neighbouring builder is the following: "Mate, I don't see why you're worried about an inch or two of dirt. We'll just dump a bit of soil there when the guy comes to do the fence and it will be all fine. Stop worrying, it's half an hour's work, tops". Here is the "inch or two" of cut: I'm no civil engineer, but I think that's more than a wheelbarrow full. At its deepest, it's 900mm. You can notice the marker peg for the property boundary in the top middle of the image. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 37May 11, 2013 9:41 pm I can see the reason why you are furious! I hate how we are ants in the big scheme of things... I would make a formal in writing complaint to the company and HIA, they will be fined... I know because my neighbour complained about the noise from my tradies radio whilst they were working, I was there and I can tell you thatmy stereo with surround sound will be louder than their battery operated radio! They also got the certifier to come out and look at our drainage when a neighboring suburb had mini tornado that blew a demountable work office nearby into someone's house, there was flooding everywhere in the suburb and complained cause we didn't have downpipes on, hey, we didn't even have bricks at that stage! I would take this further... If you complain in writing, and it's a breach of the HIA they will be fined... Can anyone help you work out what exactly they are breaching? Built a Hawthorne 31 with EB nessjeffdreamhouse.blogspot.com.au Building an investment now with New Living homes... We are at nearly finished... Just landscaping and driveway to go! Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 38May 11, 2013 9:50 pm Thats terrible and I would be absolutely fuming aswell! Im building in an estate at the same time as everyone else and have been keeping a watchfull eye on this happening as we are on narrow 10metre lots. I have noticed one house that doesnt affect me have built their zero lot brick garage wall a good 20-30cm over their boundary... Oops! I really hope something comes out of this. Some builders really don't care hpw it may affect other people, I don't see this as a small problem either! Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 39May 13, 2013 7:18 pm Finally... some sanity. The builder SMSed me this morning to say: "The fence will be moved on Wednesday". I replied asking what he was going to do about the excavated section at the rear, and the fill on our block at the front. I pointed out that the temporary fencing was just one part of the issue. I gave him all the relevant dimensions and told him it will be a big job to fix, but that I'd like it to be organised along with shifting the temporary fence. He obviously went and checked out the site, and came to a realisation that things were a bit of a mess. A few hours later, I got a reply: "Mate, I think we need to meet to discuss this, along with the owners. We're going to have to sort out what needs to be done with fill and retaining". So, I'll be meeting the builder along with the neighbours on Friday. Of course, from my end, there isn't much to discuss. They just need to sort it out and return the ground back to its natural level, so I can build a fence. So I'll just be insisting on that when we meet. Re: Building works next door encroaching onto our land 40May 13, 2013 7:22 pm Sounds promising! Hope you get a good outcome Friday! Built a Hawthorne 31 with EB nessjeffdreamhouse.blogspot.com.au Building an investment now with New Living homes... We are at nearly finished... Just landscaping and driveway to go! i imagine you also have another contract with an architect? and yeah, whatever other's said about special conditions and appendices 16 15980 MBA and HIA both have sub contract agreements, check them out 2 7303 I want to build a bigger driveway (without a nature strip) than has been approved under my CDC. I’ve also had a DA approved to build a deck. It looks like I can do this… 0 4797 |