Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 15, 2011 11:50 pm Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Re: Fencing / Retaining wall help 3Aug 16, 2011 7:19 am Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Fencing / Retaining wall help 7Aug 16, 2011 11:19 am 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: Fencing / Retaining wall help 8Aug 16, 2011 11:45 am Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Fencing / Retaining wall help 11Aug 16, 2011 4:24 pm Thank you everyone, your advice has been very helpful! From what I can ascertain, we're not responsible for either cost however we'll do the neighbourly thing and give him half for the fence. All I need now is some literature confirming that "whoever alters the land level is responsible for retaining the land"!! Can't seem to find it anywhere! Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Re: Fencing / Retaining wall help 12Aug 16, 2011 6:27 pm kdgirl I think that because the work on the fence was done prior to you owning the land it is not your responsibility for any of the cost. For example if you sold you house now you couldn't pass on that cost. Exactly right, so don't worry about it you have a strong and valid case. Re: Fencing / Retaining wall help 13Aug 17, 2011 9:54 am karry327 Thank you everyone, your advice has been very helpful! From what I can ascertain, we're not responsible for either cost however we'll do the neighbourly thing and give him half for the fence. All I need now is some literature confirming that "whoever alters the land level is responsible for retaining the land"!! Can't seem to find it anywhere! That would have been part of the process for gaining council approval for the construction of your neighbour's house - as you have mentioned when you cut into your block to build you also had to put in retaining walls to retain the slope on your block, so if your neighbour required a retaining wall to retain the slope on their block so that their footings would be stable then that has nothing to do with you, even if the retaining wall has been built on the boundary. The only time a retaining wall can be included in a fencing claim is if the sole purpose of the retaining wall is to support the fence itself - if the wall is already required to retain slope and protect their block from land-slips from their side due to the natural slope/building up of contour levels then it cannot be included in the fencing claim. Having said that all of this needs to have been done by the book, including a notice to fence being communicated to the affected party(ies) - the provisions for which are discussed in the fencing act legislation - so you are still doing the "neighbourly" thing by agreeing to split the cost of the fence when you realy aren't required to by law. Your neighbour is just hitting in hope on the retaining wall IF they required the retaining wall already as part of their build and IF the wall did not require upgrading due to the subsequent cut on your side when you built your house. To be honest I can see it's probably not even the cost of the fence they really care about - it's the retaining wall they are possibly trying to pull a shifty on as that would involve a much higher cost. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Fencing / Retaining wall help 14Aug 22, 2011 2:20 pm Funnily enough the cost of the retaining wall was only $990 and the fence was $750. The retaining wall is currently doing it's job but it's not the ideal sized timber and it's also not termite protected (apparently something was sprayed on it after it was erected which doesn't help for the bits underground). Either way, that's a whole other side point. I think what annoys us the most is that he pops his head over the fence and flaps about the invoice with the assumption that he's straight up entitled to half of everything. He either has no clue or he is being a bit shifty and hoping we don't have a clue. End of the day, you don't know if someone has the ability to be an annoying so & so and we all have to live next to each other for a long time no doubt. So, we'll go halves for the fence & tell him to bugger off re his retaining wall. Thanks again everyone. Oh and I spoke to Council in the end and the Building Surveyor there told me without a doubt that he was responsible for the retaining wall and gave his name & number for the neighbour to call if he needed confirmation. Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5179 Thanks for your reply! All valid points and I agree with you on many of them. I am in QLD, any recommendations on a construction lawyer would be helpful 3 2635 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16122 |