My neighbour recently completed building his house which involved significant fill on our boundary. The council development approval issued for the construction was for both the construction of the house and retaining walls on both sides of the property. My neighbour is proposing to build retaining wall under the fence but is now asking me to pay 100% of the retaining cost as I am on the lower side of the boundary, even though the retaining requirement was mainly caused by the fill to level my neighbours block. Who is responsible for the retaining wall in such circumstances? The council advised even thought the retaining wall is a requirement as per the development consent, they cannot give any legal advise. Appreciate your help.
NSW Sharing Retaining wall cost under boundary fencing
- Thread starter Kazman
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- retaining wall
The golden rule of thumb is that while the retaining wall benefits both properties it is the person who changes the existing level of the ground who has to bear the cost.
Where is this golden rule of thumb written?
We’re going through a case at the moment where our neighbours (lower side) have excavated on the boundary line and into our property causing the need for our land to be retained, yet they don’t think they have any responsibility to fix what they’ve caused.
to avoid going through courts would be great to see this ‘golden rule of thumb’ to see if we can get agreement from them to fix it.
That is a good question! I don't know the source though with some research we could find a good precedent for you.
This is actually not that uncommon. The very first case I learnt to dissect/analyse was about a retaining wall issue (in the lexisnexis textbook on introduction to Australian law and statutory interpretation with the red cover).
It goes into very much detail such as what does the law define as a retaining wall? Who will benefit? Definately precedence would play a large part. Also doubtful about there being a single golden rule of thumb that is a definitive answer.
It goes into very much detail such as what does the law define as a retaining wall? Who will benefit? Definately precedence would play a large part. Also doubtful about there being a single golden rule of thumb that is a definitive answer.