House, add granny flat, retaining wall issue

Hi all

I looked at a house today on a ~640 sqm block. At the moment it has a house set quite forward and within about 2m of one boundary on the long narrow block. There's a large garage behind. The block slopes up from the street.

I looked at with the thought that a) it was cheap for the area (maybe 15% below market) b) long narrow block with good access to the rear so c) good possibility to add a granny flat & get about 9% return doing rough, pretty conservative numbers.

Anyway.

As it happens, the reason it's cheap is that there's an issue with the retaining wall on the left side of the block. An engineer has inspected & though it's not an official report (??) his recommendation is that the wall would need to be replaced & the garage should be demolished.

The retaining wall runs from nothing at the front to about 1.2m 31m back, then about 12m across. Anyone have any idea how much it would likely be to re-do that much retaining wall? Much of it doesn't have great access as it runs down the side of the existing house.

Also, from reading the SEPP legislation I think the block would be OK for a granny - it would be set approx 1.2m above the main house, any thoughts on that appreciated.

It was passed in at auction cos of the issues & the price has dropped, may be able to get them down a bit more, though there were quite a few people there today.

This all may be moot as I'm waiting on my house valuation which will determine whether or not I'd have the cash to deal with the issue but curious about people's views.
 
Retaining wall maintenance is the cost of the lot owner whos land is being retained. They do not fall under the fencing act.
 
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Really?? That thought did cross my mind. I wonder why they haven't dealt with it then? That side of the property actually has 3 properties backing on to it, so presumably they'd be jointly responsible for the fix? How would one go about that - simply an engineer's report & a letter of demand or some such?

Not sure how easily you can see it, but the wall in the background is the issue, the building on the right is the garage which I'd want to replace with a granny flat.
 
how big is the garage? can it be converted to a GF, instead of ripping it down and rebuild?

a 'long and narrow' block of land is never a good for a GF build. Depending on main house orientation, and how much lane access the backyard, but I would think a 12m frontage leaves little lane access to the backyard. Min 3m lane access would be ideal
 
how big is the garage? can it be converted to a GF, instead of ripping it down and rebuild?

a 'long and narrow' block of land is never a good for a GF build. Depending on main house orientation, and how much lane access the backyard, but I would think a 12m frontage leaves little lane access to the backyard. Min 3m lane access would be ideal

That was my original thought with the garage. With the engineer saying it needs to be demolished I guess I would need to get more advice on the best option - convert or rip down & rebuild.

The block is a bit odd shaped - about 18m wide at the front & gradually narrows to about 14m, then is triangular at the back. The triangle would be the GF garden. The primary house is set close to one boundary, the shape of the house means there's 6m-8m between it & the other boundary so I think it would work quite well.
 
The neighbours retaning wall looks like its timber sleepers and the brick wall like its lanscaping/retaining inside your lot
 
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