Neighbour boundary and 50+ year old building works

[Buzzlightfear]

I'm hoping to get some advice for my mum on a neighbour issue, I'm sorry if it's long!

My mum's property is on a converted farm which has a communal car park. The farm was converted approx 55 years ago. Next to the car park is a field with a boundary wall. The car park is higher than the field so only the top of the wall is really visible from mums side.

About 18 months ago, during a storm, some of the top stones from the wall fell and collapsed into the field. They checked the deeds and the wall belongs to the neighbouring field so it was left assuming the owner wasn't bothered to fix it.

A couple of days ago the field owner turned up at Mums door and informed her that the liability for the wall sits with the owners of the car park because 'the wall should have been reinforced 55 years ago when the conversion was done'. He was talking thousands of pounds so she is very stressed. Personally I think he's trying it on. The wall has stood for 55 years with no issues, it was storm damage that caused it to collapse. It's HIS wall, which he freely admits, I don't believe that it's mum's problem. His basis for his argument seems to be that he remembers his dad saying that the wall should be reinforced when the building works were originally being done. Well he probably should have done something about it at the time then! Is there any liability here?

Tell your mum to ignore him - he’s trying it on. If he continues to harass her, tell him he needs to provide proof that he isn’t liable for the damage.

unless something went into the deeds of the properties to say that the owner of the carpark had responsibility for maintaining the wall then its the owners responsibility.

It is his wall, so it is his responsibility to fix it unless it says otherwise in the deeds to your mother's property. Maybe his father should have reinforced the wall or got the developers to do so when the conversion was being done, but that doesn't make your mother liable. She should ignore him.

Thank you, it's what I thought but I suppose I'm probably a bit biased in her favour 😀I'll tell her to ignore.

No one cares what his dad thinks or thought 🤣 It's the neighbours problem, he needs to stop trying to push it onto your mum

I am always in favour of very strong action with neighbours.

Send him a strongly worded "Cease and Desist" to stop harassing your mum and hinting at "further action" if he contacts her again. You can google some suitable wording.

Does your mum have any access to legal advice on her home insurance?

Thanks. I'm not sure about the insurance but that's a good point, I'll ask her to check.

He's been round again today, she asked him for proof of liability and apparently he kept saying it wasn't the storm damage he was complaining about but the ongoing damage to his wall from it not being reinforced 50 years ago.

I mean it's stood for 50 years so it's clearly not that bad. 😄which is pretty much that she told him. Anyway she stood firm and said she won't discuss it any further without proof. Apparently he huffed a bit and then left. She said he wasn't unpleasant but he's quite an intimidating guy so I'm not impressed at all. Where she lives is pretty much exclusively elderly ladies on their own so I really feel that he's trying to take advantage so will definitely consider a cease and desist.