A year or two ago a developer tarted up the house next to my property. His block had a cutting for the house and to enlarge this area at the back he excavated along our shared boundary to a depth at one end of over three metres, tapering to around two metres at the front. To retain the soil, he built a dry stone retaining wall with granite boulders and erected a fence. It is a long wall and in parts, the boulders did not reach the height of the soil on my 'side'.
Recent rains have caused a slump of soil, noticeable for two metres in from the fence on my side. The noticeable drop is from 300mm to 600mm. You can see easily under the fence and on the other side in many places there is a drop to the top of the highest boulders. The length of the fence has probably dropped as well but it is not showing any obvious parting of the timbers. We took a 4X4 utility along part of the fence line recently to drop off some sleepers and had to gingerly back out because the light weight of the ute and some moisture (not really wet) in the soil was causing the land to slump even more.
When the excavation and wall was originally done I rang the Council who said the work was privately certified and the owner was within his rights in doing the work. My layman's view at the time was that the excavation was right on the boundary (approx 100mm on his side) and the clay shale soil could sag to fill the large holes between and behind the boulders.
The developer sold on and I advised the new owners of differences in the height of the stone wall and the soil behind and the fact that that some slump was occurring. This owner merely placed disused bricks along the fence on my side (not what was promised). The house has been sold again (a few months ago) to new owners not long before the recent rains.
As all would appreciate, my land value and house foundations are at risk and I need to set in train some concrete steps to resolve the problem. I am happy to talk with the new owners, however talk alone may not get action.
Rather than go to a construction lawyer and end up with bills for numerous professionals, first off I would like to get things going with a neighbourly chat and a confirming letter.
What do people suggest and what wording would be best to get action without getting the new owner's back up unnecessarily?
Recent rains have caused a slump of soil, noticeable for two metres in from the fence on my side. The noticeable drop is from 300mm to 600mm. You can see easily under the fence and on the other side in many places there is a drop to the top of the highest boulders. The length of the fence has probably dropped as well but it is not showing any obvious parting of the timbers. We took a 4X4 utility along part of the fence line recently to drop off some sleepers and had to gingerly back out because the light weight of the ute and some moisture (not really wet) in the soil was causing the land to slump even more.
When the excavation and wall was originally done I rang the Council who said the work was privately certified and the owner was within his rights in doing the work. My layman's view at the time was that the excavation was right on the boundary (approx 100mm on his side) and the clay shale soil could sag to fill the large holes between and behind the boulders.
The developer sold on and I advised the new owners of differences in the height of the stone wall and the soil behind and the fact that that some slump was occurring. This owner merely placed disused bricks along the fence on my side (not what was promised). The house has been sold again (a few months ago) to new owners not long before the recent rains.
As all would appreciate, my land value and house foundations are at risk and I need to set in train some concrete steps to resolve the problem. I am happy to talk with the new owners, however talk alone may not get action.
Rather than go to a construction lawyer and end up with bills for numerous professionals, first off I would like to get things going with a neighbourly chat and a confirming letter.
What do people suggest and what wording would be best to get action without getting the new owner's back up unnecessarily?
