Retaining wall issue missed by surveyor

Is it your wall or the councils?

Contact them and tell them they have a dangerous wall that could fall into your garden.

You'll probably end up at 50:50, which is better than where you are now.

The best outcome from the surveyor would be the cost of your report refunded.

You need a structural engineers opinion on the current condition of the wall, whether it presents any danger, the remediation actions possible for the wall and high level costs of same.

Then you need to clarify ownership of the wall.

Then if it's your problem, you get quotes for the works as set out by the engineer.

Yes but a boundary survey is merely to check if the boundaries are in the correct position (i.e. correlating with legal mapping) and not necessarily a report on the structural stability of same.

How much is it leaning? Unless the wall is in bits it can likely be fixed.

How long is it as well? Throw up a few pics if you can.

Sounds like you got charged professional fees for an unprofessional job and you have the paperwork to prove it. If the surveyor doesn't have insurance maybe there is a way to claim from the society of surveyors presuming he is a member.

If he's not a member then suing him personally might be an option, I'm sure your solicitor will be happy to advise.

Some of the wall had Ivy on it but there was plenty of the wall still visible for the surveyor to see the issue.

That is 100% subjective on your part so I wouldn't be going in to bat on that assertion.

As requested earlier post some pictures.

It could be argued [the ivy on the council side is pulling it over…. or the roots from the trees are undermining it …]

Lets get a sense of the Leaning tower

drop a plumb line : yellow, from red stick down to bottom of wall and measure the orange back to face of wall

tilt is orange minus (red minus wall thickness )

If the council land is accessed by the public and some part of the wall falls and injures someone, this might be a serious liability for the householder. You'd hope that the council fences it off someway to stop the public from walking below or climbing on it.

I'd be getting solicitor to look into the history of it and ask any neighbours too. Why is there this difference in height between both sides, who built the retaining wall. This as normally understood would be to retain the soil and stop it falling down into the lower side. Maybe the OPs garden was built up and the builder put this in when raising the boundary wall. Could be several factors.

Clearly drains in your paved patio area at base of walls. Where do these drain to?

Hard to see clearly but looks like blocks laid on the flat on lower part of wall for strength and then normally above the ground level. Is the lean consistent over full height of wall? Possible that the lower blockwork is OK.

History of who built what worth pursuing. Did the LA build any part of this wall? At a guess and no more than that, they didn't and the house builder erected when developing the site.

Do you understand what a retaining wall is? And what rebuilding it would mean?

I too find it hard to believe that rebuilding that wall would cost €50K-€100K.

I know my dad and brother built similar recently and it came to a few grand.

tell them to put in a price of €40k and they’ll make a killing on it. Blocks are €1 each and concrete is over €150/m3 depending where you are. Block layers are making €2/ block and maybe more depending on location, 14t excavator is around €60/hr, what retaining wall will be built for a few grand 😂🤦‍♂️

They're not even builders - they were still able to build the wall themselves and they done a really good job.

If anyone pays €20K let alone €100K for that wall to be built they need to consider themselves really really stupid 🤣

or if its meant to be a retaining wall, id bet there was no actual structural design input and was a case of 'ah sure itll be grand'

which wouldnt surprise me if it were the case with the OPs wall too to be honest

Looks like you were right.

...

Ah yes the usual BS, but did you not see that his father and brother who are not builders could do it for a fraction of the cost. I’m sure when they’d be half way through the job and the wall and backyard collapses into the council land they’d fix that for a few hundred quid.

Built an retaining wall over 25m long with a greater level difference than the OP? Without a builder or engineering. You'd need to get through a very wet winter before you can call it a success. You've no idea whether it will stand up yet.

A bit ingenious to compare materials only to the OP would needs to get a contractor in. It's not use labour, it's the design, certification, and insurance that goes with. All of which is missing in the self build scenario.

Thanks for saving me the hassle… 100 grand. Jokers.

Reading this from @orchardking

"The wall is about 12ft high on their side and 6ft on my side"

Wall is 12 ft high. Lower 6ft is retaining wall, top 6ft. is op's garden wall.

6ft. high buttresses, get Council engineer involved .

Edit,

Looks like your surface water drains down inside the retaining wall, that would not help the situation ,