Wall between gardens collapsing

Salthillprom

We bought an old detached house and have spent the last year renovating it. When we bought it, the wall between the neighbour’s house and ours was in a state of collapse...mostly the wall falling into our garden. It’s a very old wall. Neighbour is asking us to build new wall & expecting us to pay for it for the entire length of the boundary between us and them. Surely they should foot half the cost though? We didn’t cause any damage to this wall. As I said it was like this when we bought the house and it’s literally a boundary wall dividing the two plots of land (ours and neighbours).

jimmycrackcorm

Did you ask them why they think you should pay instead of half and half?

Discodog

The deeds should show who owns the boundary.

wizardman

Check who owes the wall first. In my folks house as you look at the house everyone owns the wall/boundary to the right hand side.

They had similar with a neighbor, got a renovation knocking the old wall helped with getting machinery in and out. Wall was very old but was still standing fine.

Neighbor called in looking for €6000 for half the wall and got scorpey when my old man didn't hand over €6000 there and then. No contact prior just called in one evening looking for 6k.

Salthillprom

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Did you ask them why they think you should pay instead of half and half?

Purely on the basis that we’re doing works on the site.

Marcusm

Salthillprom wrote: »

We bought an old detached house and have spent the last year renovating it. When we bought it, the wall between the neighbour’s house and ours was in a state of collapse...mostly the wall falling into our garden. It’s a very old wall. Neighbour is asking us to build new wall & expecting us to pay for it for the entire length of the boundary between us and them. Surely they should foot half the cost though? We didn’t cause any damage to this wall. As I said it was like this when we bought the house and it’s literally a boundary wall dividing the two plots of land (ours and neighbours).

Does your land have the burden of maintaining the wall? Or did the previous owner damage it so as to cause it to collapse?

Salthillprom

Marcusm wrote: »

Does your land have the burden of maintaining the wall? Or did the previous owner damage it so as to cause it to collapse?

Nope. Neither.

NUTLEY BOY

Q1. Is this a boundary wall or a party wall ?

Q2. If it is a boundary wall whose boundary wall is it ?

If it is a boundary wall the owner of it usually owns it 100% and is responsible for repair and maintenance or even demolishing it if they want.

If it is a party wall then it is jointly owned and the owners have a joint responsibility for it.

One rider to the preceding point.
How did the wall come in to disrepair ?
If the neighbour was responsible for damaging it I would be expecting him to bear 100% liability. This would be on the basis that I am 50% liable for my interest in the party wall but would have rights against him, in turn, to recover my outlay if he is at fault for causing the loss.

As suggested by discodog the title deeds may assist - but not always.
Some deeds document bundles are actually silent on the issue of boundaries or structures thereon which is not surprising.
You could build a boundary wall long after any conveyance to you and that would not show.

Some deeds might contain a party wall agreement which would put the issue beyond dispute.

Some title documents might show the creation of a legal responsibility to build and maintain a wall being imposed on the first purchasers of the demised land and subsequent owners. For example, the ground on which our house stands was conveyed from the original owners - a religious order - with a legal obligation for the developer and subsequent property owners respectively to build and maintain a boundary wall. So, the garden wall is actually our boundary wall.

Incidentally, a boundary wall is usually constructed entirely within or just up to the property boundary. Ideally, a boundary wall should stand within your property as to go further might be an intrusion.

Generally, the issue of boundaries is not always clearly defined and very often turns on what has actually happened "on the ground" as distinct from what mapping shows.