Both my neighbour and I are building in a new estate. The estate had already provided a boundary retaining wall halfway up the boundary line, however it looks like we will now need to extend the retaining wall to the front of the property on the boundary line due to the different levels of our properties. I am on the higher side, they are on the lower side. It sounds as though the retaining wall is NECESSARY for the fence and therefore falls under the Dividing Fences Act. The questions I have are:
1. Who actually has responsibility/ownership of the retaining wall?
1. Who actually has responsibility/ownership of the retaining wall?
Noting the lower side does need to excavate on their side to finalise their building plans so would have an obligation to make sure they do not damage our land; and we would have an obligation to prevent movement of land from our side to theirs.
Would this then been seen as equal responsibility? Or am I missing something?
If they claim they do NOT need to excavate then could they say that the responsibility is all on us?
2. Who is responsible for costs.The Dividing Fence Act is vague in that 'generally' the costs would be split equally if it was NECESSARY. Generally is not black and white and I would need to have question 1 answered in order to understand who would bare the most cost.
Whilst we both are in agreement to the retaining wall at this stage, there are questions on length (what is deemed necessary to what would be a like to have) and who would be responsible for the majority of the costs (with the neighbouring party suggesting a contribution but not equal amounts).
