What recourse do I have?

Situation as follows.

My neighbor who I'm on good terms with mentions last night in passing that "it went through, we finally went to court and won" and they are booking builders.

I ask what for and he looks really surprised.

I then find out the six months before I settled on my ppor, court proceedings were started with the prior owner.

The owners/my brick fence had settled and pushed up against their garage, diagonal cracks everywhere, pretty unsafe. My neighbor approached the owner of my house to pay for repairs, he refused.

So my neighbor went to his insurance company and started legal proceedings.

Six months later I buy the house.
At no time did the realestate agent even hint at any of this and It didn't come up at all when my lawyer arranged the conveyancing.

Is there any legal obligation to disclose something like this prior to settlement?

****
I'm not paying for any of the repairs, and I need to pick a new fence. I work 12+ hour graveyard shifts though, its not exactly a minor inconvenience to have builders on my property while I'm trying to sleep.

I'm meeting with the layer in about three hours, what are my options?
Should I also go see the realestate agency? (I know the actual agent quit a few months later though)
 
I assume you have insurance. I would think your insurer has to fight it out with the previous owners insurance and you do not have to pay anything.
 
Thats exactly what happened. But now I'm going to be dealing with the fallout, trampled garden, builders, noise, having to choose a new fence.

I'm angry as I may have chosen another property had I been informed at any point during the settlement process. Was I supposed to have been told?
 
a new fence for free is going to improve your place, but the agents must disclose, if they know? yet to be determined,
the brick layers can do their work from one side only though.
 
The fence in question is about two meters wide, between my laundry and their garage.

Photos would explain it better.

The first is when I moved in, my house is on the left.
my.php


Second after cleaning it up a bit...and I'll have builders trample through there.
my.php


Replacing the fence is not really to my advantage, even though its free.

Surely at some point in the conveyancing, this would need to come up as the end result is very defiantly going to mess up my like for a week or so.

Their garage is right on the property line, replacing their garage wall will require access to my yard. Both front and back, behind the little wall..and I have a dog.

Edit: Their whole wall on the right needs to be replaced.
 

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You are getting a free fence and are inconvenienced for a week? In short you have no recourse because you havent suffered any harm. Get over it.
 
You are getting a free fence and are inconvenienced for a week? In short you have no recourse because you havent suffered any harm. Get over it.

I'm not so sure.

Had this been disclosed.

1. I'd not have bothered doing any work until after the builders were done.
2. I would have had a stronger position regarding negotiating the price.
3. I may not have bought the place at all.

The contact actually states " The property is not subject to or affected by any legal procedings" ...

I didn't even get a letter, nothing.

As for harm.

I expect no sleep for however long it takes. I sleep during the day.
Messed up garden beds, front and side.
Builders on my property, at my door.
Dust and crap all through my house, on my washing.

I don't have an actual expectation here of being paid or whatever.
I just feel that at minimum I need to make some sort of formal complaint and find out what options I have.

Can I make them put up a temporary fence to keep my dog in for example?
It will need to be done.

How does choosing a replacement fence work exactly?
- Can I have a gold one, is it equal or lesser value, who carts away my old one?

Am I wasting my time?
 
There is a new house being built near us.

The approved plans have a "studio" right on the back fence line which is huge, more a unit than a "studio".

Back neighbour was really $%^&^%$ off, and has built a wooden fence on his side of the fence line, about an inch or two in.

Result is that the builder of the new house can't get at the back wall to do the brickwork as there is no access, obviously they had planned to do the building from the back neighbour's yard - without seeking permission first.

It's entertaining the whole neighbourhood, outcome yet to be seen.
Marg
 
I'm not so sure.

Had this been disclosed.

1. I'd not have bothered doing any work until after the builders were done.
2. I would have had a stronger position regarding negotiating the price.
3. I may not have bought the place at all.

The contact actually states " The property is not subject to or affected by any legal procedings" ...

I didn't even get a letter, nothing.

As for harm.

I expect no sleep for however long it takes. I sleep during the day.
Messed up garden beds, front and side.
Builders on my property, at my door.
Dust and crap all through my house, on my washing.

I don't have an actual expectation here of being paid or whatever.
I just feel that at minimum I need to make some sort of formal complaint and find out what options I have.

Can I make them put up a temporary fence to keep my dog in for example?
It will need to be done.

How does choosing a replacement fence work exactly?
- Can I have a gold one, is it equal or lesser value, who carts away my old one?

Am I wasting my time?


Do you suffer from hypercondria?
 
Ok guys, I guess I'm missing something.

Is it unreasonable for me to be pissed at breech of contract and surprise construction work?

Leave the sarcasm aside for a moment and tell me what you would do.
 
Had this been disclosed I may not have bought the place at all.

Wow - if a small part of one piece of fence that you are going to have replaced for free is enough to tip you over the edge in your decision to purchase the property, all I can suggest is that the property you bought must be worth bugger all.


Am I wasting my time?

I'm inconvenienced more than this trivial matter every day of my life. Seriously - what have lawyers done to the world. People's tolerance thresh-hold is nigh on zero nowadays.

To your initial question - what is your recourse.....

My considered opinion is to engage a solicitor at $ 800/hr and sue the bejesus out of anyone that'll listen. Get him/her to fire off 8 threatening letters to all and sundry and see what response you get. Most will do their daks right there, then because they'll all get their back up, they can engage a similar priced solly and you can go backwards and forwards for the next 4 years at $ 800 / hr.

At the end of all that, you'll finally know definitively what recourse you were entitled to.
 
Ok then! putting things int perspective, a brick fence 2m wide and 2m tall is approx 400 @dbl brick, a bricklayer could lay 900 bricks a day, So as the removal should take say 1.5 hours and the mixing and laying another 5 hours , yor inconvenience is so minimal, in my opionion this is not construction it is maintenance, as you work night shift, perhaps you could ask your neighbour to get the bricklayer in on you week ends, this little project will be over so quickly you would'nt even know it!
 
I guess I need to assess it a little more.
To clarify though.

Thier garage is on the propety line, its a big garage and it spans half the side of my house.

Replacing my little wall is fairly trivial, but the garage looks like a pretty big job as they will need to prop it up, remove the wall(s) and replace them.

To do this the builders will need to be down the side of my house.
 
Have you spoken to the solicitor that did your conveyancing why that particular legal clause was overlooked. I would.
 
Have you spoken to the solicitor that did your conveyancing why that particular legal clause was overlooked. I would.

I have.
It was not overlooked though. The agent, and previous owner did not disclose this at any point.

go and talk to your neighbor over a cuppa and it'll be all right.

I've spoken with my neighbour, I do not intend to block the work or anything like that. He didnt do anything wrong.

On the open day he actually came over while I was looking at the house and spoke with the agent, specifically reminding the agent to tell buyers that this was happening.

Is there ANYTHING else they didnt tell me?

Uploaded two new pics.
 

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Have you spoken to the previous owner and/or agent? You could get something in writing from your neighbor to support your claim.

I have.
It was not overlooked though. The agent, and previous owner did not disclose this at any point.
 
I suppose that what I am thinking when I read this is "what recourse are you looking for?"

You seem to have accepted that it must be done. You say it will not cost you anything other than maybe having to clean up the garden after the builder has been in. You say you may not have bought the place if you knew. But having now bought it, are you looking for money? Or looking for something else?

Would you be happy if the building can be done on the weekends or sometime when you are not trying to sleep and if the neighbour undertakes to clean up your garden afterwards?

I am a bit confused. If it has to be done, it has to be done. The inconvenience will be a pain, but it will be over with fairly quickly and then life goes on.

If you want something "specific" why not just ask for it and see what happens. I think it is too late to be worried about what the agent knew or not. Or do you want the agent to compensate you financially?

Not being smart here, just confused as to exactly what you want.
 
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