Dangerous garden wall - neighbours responsibility

[HarrietVaneAgain]

We have just brought an Edwardian semi with a long garden. The walls both side are brick and flint and the deeds require them to be replaced with brick. The side which is our responsiblity was replaced 5 years ago at the cost of £2500.

The other side (the non semi side) is original and the responsibility of our elderly neighbours. When we had the survey done we were warned it was liable to fall over at anytime and that falling flints would pose a hazard to young children. Our vendors spoke to the neighbour about this and we chatted to them. In the nicest possible way they told us that they had no intention of doing anything the attitude was that it had been fine for 100 years so why worry now. We brought the house anyway.

Since then it's got worse chunks of flint the size of a foot have fallen out of the wall and I could easily see them killing or seriously injuring a child if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We have three buckets full of flints. Other bits lean a lot and could easily collapse into the garden. We have restricted the access to large parts of the wall to our 4 and 2 year olds. But can't keep them away from all of it especially when the worst part is by the side gate which we use daily.

I know one of the couple is seriously ill and I've absolutely no intention of causing them stress but I would really like to do something about a situation that I now feel is dangerous for my kids. I think the could be asset rich cash poor and I'm not sure if they have the money to repair it.

Thanks for reading all that! I guess my questions are. How would I go about approaching them on this and, if it came to it, can I force them to repair/rebuild?

I meant for you to get the covenant changed ,not your neighbours ,as in the long run it will make maintaining your property easier and this issue would not arise again if and when you sell .

Our wall is less than ten years old though Flora soo unlikely to pose a problem when we come to sell. Useful to know the van be done though.

I see Harriet. We did not realise the covenant went back to 1905. Obviously you cannot change the neighbours covenant. Do let us all know what the Council says.

Also, a week to rectify a dangerous structure is obviously not long enough for rebuilding. Usually it means that the council would charge for demolishing but even that is hard to arrange in a week! Sounds an unreasonable timescale but all the factors of owning a property have to be taken into account, even by the elderly, and it is not reasonable to do nothing about a dangerous structure that could injure someone and being in denial about the potential hazards is not helpful. How would anyone feel if such a structure did collapse onto someone?

I wonder if the covenant can be changed?