Neighbour damaged boundary wall - council wants me to go 50/50

[TheNefariousOrange]

The boundary wall between me and the neighbour is shared. My house is privately owned but the neighbour is in council. Neighbour had a cherry tree and decided to chop it down themselves, as a result, it tipped and damaged the wall. The wall is in a bad state and now and the council wants me to pay half of it. My argument is that the neighbour shouldn't have chopped down the tree, but where do I stand?

Apparently the Op has a letter from her solicitor confirming that the council has confirmed she will not be liable for any costs.

would you write that on the basis of anything other than that confirmation in writing from the council?

It’s up to the neighbour to pay for damage she caused. The fact it’s rented either means she pays or the council pays. Do not agree to paying. Also don’t contact your insurance! You do NOT want to claim for something you did not do. Your renewal will go up even more if you claim. So don’t. It really is their problem as their tenant damaged it.

Do go and see your local councillor. Or email them. Their email will be on the council web site. Do not agree to pay and explain why not with evidence. Also put the debris from the wall back into their garden if you can.

Lastly complain about the harassment. It’s not acceptable. Lodge a firm complaint with the council. They need to deal with this.

What a ridiculous situation - it’s not your fault so you shouldn’t have to pay anything.

You can report the tenant to the council for harassment and they will speak to the tenant and the tenant needs to stop or risk being moved out of their accommodation.

start keeping a daily log and take photos if possible of the egging. You are also allowed to put cctv to cover your back garden only so it would pick up stuff being thrown in.

do you have legal cover on your home or car insurance as you can literally ask them anything. It doesn’t have to be with a claim

Land registry documents will stipulate party wall responsibilities and where party wall is defined. Obtain a copy and check carefully. Ask the council how they have reached their conclusion you owe 50% and ask for proof.

It's irrelevant whether the OP owns half or all or non of the wall. It came down due to (basically) vandalism by her neighbour therefore the neighbour pays.

The problem with dealing with councils is that different departments deal with different things, and often don’t communicate. Staff dealing with repairs don’t normally have legal training, etc. Surveyors might call and assess that the wall is unsafe and needs to be taken down, but they don’t actually make the decision regarding what action is taken. It’s a lot of bureaucracy.
Bearing in mind that there is no requirement to have a fence or wall, just something to mark the boundary, it is hard to see how the council thinks they can expect you to pay half of the cost. Have they obtained several estimates from different contractors? If you own half of the wall they can’t have it both ways and just take unilateral action.
You need to keep speaking to the different departments until you find the one which has ordered the work, and they may then need to refer to their legal team.
You stand a very good chance of getting this sorted out without costs to you, but you need to keep pressing the council. They don’t seem to fully understand the situation at present.

I totally get what your saying but it's best to know the full extent of implied responsibilities regardless. Council may be trying to pull a fast one. I'd want to know everything to back up my reasons for refusing to pay. If act of cutting down the tree can be proved as reckless then its an even stronger argument against paying.

This.

I'm not entirely sure it matters who owns the wall or if it's ownership is shared, if next doors tree damages your property they are liable for the cost of repairs so surely they are liable if it damages something that was jointly owned?

I have kept all my documents from when I bought the house and checked them and the boundary is definitely shared. It doesn't say wall, it just says boundary.

I've also gone back through my paperwork and the letter from my solicitor says the neighbour asked the council to cut down the tree as its roots were starting to damage the wall, they said no, so she cut it down herself. Would that change anything?

They can ask you to pay, you can say no. I had this when a shared boundary fence fell over. Locally we have an agreement that although fences are shared we each look after the left side. Next door was up for sale and the fence was down. The solicitor sent all kinds of ridiculous emails saying it would be in my interest to agree to paying half. I said no thank you. That was it, they put up a fence. The council can't make you pay anything.

The council are using bully boy tactics.

Tell them you did not damage the wall and do not accept any responsibility for paying for any damage caused by your neighbour and if they want to take you to court they should go ahead and do that because you're not paying.

Definitely refuse. They’re trying to railroad you into agreeing to something which you are not liable for. If this went to court I’m fairly sure they would lose.

It doesn’t matter too much whether you have proof of them saying they would foot the whole bill or not. The fact is whatever they did or didn’t say, it’s their responsibility to pay for it if they want it fixed. And if they don’t want to seek any reimbursement from the person who caused the damage ie your neighbour that’s on them, but you as the innocent party should definitely shouldn’t be paying a penny or making a claim.

Another thing is don’t let them spring face to face meetings on you.

They have shown they will go back on their word, so find an email address and write to them saying you’d prefer to keep things in writing so there is a paper trail and clear record of what is being proposed and agreed to on either side. And say any face to face meetings would have to be agreed in advance and recorded which will put them off completely.

Also in the email state the key details of the case so far eg.
“ as this situation stems from the fact the neighbour caused this damage to the wall on [insert month/year] by doing [insert action]

It’s a trick I picked up when I dealt with my last employment dispute. I refused a meeting, didn’t pick up the phone and outlined the case so far in writing. And it served me well.

Stick to your guns @TheNefariousOrange they don’t have a leg to stand on!

And if you do have a meeting, not only record it but ensure you have an adult witness with you. This result puts them off. I say this as a former support worker who attended the housing department with a family who had been offered a house then had it withdrawn. When I showed up with the couple armed with screenshots the couple had taken of the online housing tracker which showed them as no.1 on the queue the housing got nervous and ended up going back to their original offer.

People will only deny what you can’t prove.

I wonder if they have been unsuccessful in getting the money off the tenant (who is clearly responsible, and probably liable under their terms) and are trying their luck with you; hoping you'll be swayed by the fact that "they're the council and are therefore right".
There is a Reddit of "LegalAdviceUK" where you may find some help.

Amazing, thank you for the reddit tip.

I'm using my child-free Sunday to draft up a letter. I'm not going to send it today, but I'll feel better if I start to get the ball rolling in regards to that.

OP, if you feel in need of more advice, I’d recommend putting a post on the Garden Law site in the 'walls' section of the discussion forum. There are a lot of very clued-up people on there who should be happy to point you in the right direction.

The legal point is whoever is responsible for the wall, the tenant next door seems to have caused the damage so even if for 100 years your property owned the wall and repaired it as the tenant damaged it she is responsible for fixing it. Don't however just let the wall disappear or it will be hard to prove your boundary is not your 6 foot fence you put entirely on your land when in fact the boundary is slightly further over.

In my position would you respond to the letter then or ignore them?

I hope you took a big load of pictures from day one and mailed those to your insurer. They should take it from there. Best for you to keep out of it now. Insurers have their own legal department and they sure as hell are not going to pay for something you (their client) didn't do.

@Sennelier1
Why should the op involve her insurer? They really don’t want to refuse claims in the way you describe! It’s not like car insurance after a crash. You don’t exchange insurance details. Householders with insurance claim for THEIR losses.Not demands from a council to cover their loss. That means the op is admitting it’s her fault. It isn’t. It’s an issue for the council and their tenant. If the op makes a claim, then her premium will probsbly go up. Her issue is with the council who have only looked at ownership but not fault. They also knew the tree was causing issues with the wall, but did nothing. They are responsible for the wall being in its current state. Not the op. So that’s what they should be told. I would start with the housing department and the local councillor.

@TizerorFizz I apologize. I'm in Belgium, and here the insurance company would take over and make sure I got reimbursed for the dammage/in this case make sure I didn't have to pay for dammage done by the neighbour. That's what the clause "legal support" is for in our insurance contracts. I guess it's different in the UK, so again, I apologize.

@Sennelier1
You don’t need to apologize. The minute you involve an insurance company here it’s because you need them to pay out for damage. You probably haven’t caused it but there’s no one else involved. In this case, there’s another landowner who caused the issue. Yes you could claim for the damage as the op owns the wall and let the insurance company wrangle over it, but it costs in terms of increased premiums. At the moment it’s best for the op to talk to her councillor and get them to repair the wall as their tenant damaged it. If all else fails, contact insurance. However if they push it back to the council then there’s no gain.