Neighbour has built retaining wall on my land

[luckyone]

Hi,

My husband did a final inspection of our investment property with our property manager and the outgoing tenants last week. Whilst there, he noticed a new retaining wall in the backyard running between our house and the neighbours. He asked the tenants if they new anything about it, but they said they had seen it go up but didn't ask any questions (handy!).

Anyway, the retaining wall is wholly on our land and the neighbours have not asked us for permission to build there. Where the wall is placed isn't really inconvenient to us as the land isn't that useable and it doesn't take up that much space. What I'm more concerned about is our future liability. I'll contact my solicitor with these questions, but just wondering if anyone out there knows the answers:-

• Will we be liable for maintenance of this wall seeing as it is on our land?
• How can we verify that it has been built by a person qualified to build retaining walls?
• Will the land now be seen as our neighbours as they built the wall? If so, can we seek compensation for this?

Thanks for your help

 

[laurencei]

How do you know it is/was your land they built on?

 

[Jake D]

I can't answer any of your questions, but I am curious:
How high is the wall?
What is it built out of?
Is it aligned with a Boundary?
How far inside your property is it from the boundary?
HOw big is your property?
What is the soil/drainage like in the area?
Is there a bounday fence running along the top?

 

[RPI]

Which state? is the first question, different legislation may affect some of your q. If it is on your land, under common law, compensation or remedy is available. State legsln may make things simpler or harder.

 

[bdc]

Got any pics?