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So long story.
Our house is 140years old the stables (big garage) are at least as old. 30years ago the allotments behind the garage building were converted to a building plot and council houses built. To do this they banked 2m of soil up and built a retaining wall with drains for part of it the rest was the back wall of our building, which is now suffering badly. Very wet wall after rain (inside) and some mortar now being washed out. The building is at least 15m long and the banked soil 2m high so a large area.
Do you think it's suck it up princess or might there be some comeback. No drain, membrane, damp proofing put in when land flattened at a level 2m above where it was.
Depends how reasonable your neighbour(s) are. I doubt there would be any legal comeback for a 30 year old nuisance, and remedying it from their side sounds impractical to say the least.
Is there any way of tanking your own building?
It really needs to be dealt with from.the outside. Can't see anyone else paying for a 30 year old issue. It's quite a big job and you'll need the neighbour's permission. How critical is the banking to the neighbouring building?
Can you dig out anything that's on your wall ? Otherwise you may need to tank it inside if you can't. 30 years is a long time, but it's your man cave that needs to be dry.
Ok so it's 1970 so nigh on 50 years. Neighbouring side was/is council. Our building wall is effectively a retaining wall. The part that's not the building had an issue about a decade ago and was sorted by council. It's the structure of the wall that slightly worries me as mortar is now being washed out. Complicated by there being three part owners of the garage.
Is it still council owned? I would suggest if it's having an adverse effect on the stability of your property it's very much still their responsibility. I've been involved with retaining walls that are privately owned and the minute they start to risk say a highway or footpath the highways dept are straight on to the owner. I'd definitely be speaking to the tenants of the properties in the first instance then the owners.
As a really important aside you genuinely can't go banging 2m of muck up against a standard construction wall either, that's the main issue here.
A building wall should not have been used as a retaining wall for that much material anyway. Take it up with council, more chance of something happening with them than a private land owner.
Well I think that's what I was wondering. Thanks.
Write to the council saying you're demolishing that end of your stable and would they like to take steps to stop their land collapsing onto yours.
Would there be some recourse through your insurer too?
e.g. your wall is structurally at risk from their land and their actions.
Might be one for the long game.
Best approach their civil engineer first.
I see two problems, first the legal, historical, permission requirements, etc, and secondly the practical engineering issue of what can actually be done. The practicalities define the stakes in the legal question, ie, if it was a cheap fix, the negotiations would be easier.
You have a wall that wasn't designed as a retaining wall and after 50 years is now showing structural distress and water penetration. Why has it only shown up now? Has anything changed on the upper surface, like vegetation or drainage, that may have meant that the wall is now subject to soft wet soil not dry soil? Any possibility of leaking drains?
If the wall is structurally compromised, you're going to need a proper retaining wall - dig out and built a concrete one, dig out a bit further and use reinforced earth, bang some sheet piles in, etc. Any fix will be expensive. Which would be best will depend on the soil types and the amount of space available - how far back are the buildings and are there any buried services?
Maybe somebody's insurance will cover it, but I doubt it.
Is this a recent problem? I'd be surprised if it's taken nearly 50 years to show up if the only thing holding back the soil was your wall which as has been stated above was never built to do that. Could there be another wall which is below the surface in front of your wall which has now failed and is letting more water through. If that were the case then i imagine you could pursue the council on the basis that their wall has failed and is now impacting yours.
In my old house the neighbours garage was at the back of the garden and dug down below the level of our garden, they had to ask us to stop watering our new turf when we laid it as their garage was filling with water. Both garage,turf and friendly relations survived but they must have had a level of dampness in the garage all the time.
It's always shown a little damp but recently after heavy rain it's very wet. Know one of the building control officers who will hopefully have a look. He knows more than I do so...
Know one of the building control officers who will hopefully have a look. He knows more than I do so…
Not always true 😉