Garden Wall Collapsed

[torthecatlady]

We are a mid terrace, the garden wall between us and our next door neighbour has collapsed. I believe it is our property. Neighbour had been very good about it though.

The insurance company is closed for the day and will try them again tomorrow.

Our policy doesn't say either way if garden walls are insured. However there is a section which says damage caused by landslide and subsidence has an excess of £1000.

I think this has been caused by the cold weather, water getting in, freezing and expanding.

Is something like this normally covered by home insurance?

To be honest, we don't even have £1000 spare for the excess but I'm sure it'll be cheaper than getting a builder in.

I've included some pictures but they don't really show how bad it actually is.

Any advice would be great. Our home insurance is due for renewal at the end of this month.

It’s not a well built wall in the first place. It looks cobbled together. The wall should be covered but to replace it properly would cost a lot. So you could ask a local builder to give you a price to rebuild using the same materials. I don’t really think the weather caused this - it’s just the end of its life. It’s too thin for a start.

The other possibility would be taking it down, making it safe and putting up a fence. See what quotes you get and see if it’s worth claiming. It might not be.

It's about 10 metres long all together and there's a lot of stone. It would be a big job. It probably isn't very well built. Everything here seems to have been done cheaply / poorly. It does seem pretty old.

I'm panicking a bit as we have just agreed to quotes for new windows, front door and guttering to the front of the house and have definitely not budgeted for something like this happening.

Definitely need to speak to the insurance company tomorrow and see if it's something which would be covered. I will also try and get some quotes from builders.

It's probably really old and looks really weathered. You might be able to get it rebuilt using the stone that's fallen down. I suspect your insurance company will say it's a maintenance issue and therefore not covered. If you can't afford to repair it yet, stack the stone somewhere safely and remove any loose stones and add those to your stack. You could put some reed fencing up on your side to give you and your neighbours some privacy until it can be fixed.

In the meantime though, have you checked what the title registers and plans of both your house and your neighbours' to see if the wall is indeed yours and not a shared responsibility?

If it is your wall you don't have to get it rebuilt you do need to remove the debris from their garden though.

Actually it will depend if it says you need to maintain the wall in your deeds, but that is unusual!

If it's a boundary structure and the title documents don't indicate who owns or is responsible for it, the presumption is that it's a shared responsibility. That's what the OP needs to look for.

I would be surprised if that were covered on your insurance I'm afraid. It's a poorly built, old wall which has finally collapsed. No real surprise. Replacing it with a fence will be much cheaper than rebuilding a wall.

Check in your deeds whether it's your responsibility first!

Just checked my filing cabinet, I have title deeds but nothing which shows a map of what is owned. So I guess that is the document I need to get hold of next.

You can opt to have walls included on some policies. However this one wasn’t in good nick so a loss adjuster might not agree it’s covered anyway!

Update

Building inspector said the wall wasn't covered by the insurance

Now need to get some quotes together to see about repairing the wall or putting a fence up temporarily.

Have requested a title plan from my solicitor but neighbours and us believe it is a shared boundary and issues on both sides.

You don't need your solicitor to get a title plan - you can get an instant download from the gov.uk Land Registry website for £3 per plan.

Good thing you don't like Cornwall Bubbles as that's how lots of the walls are built there. Mine looks like that and is about 120 years old. It's done well considering!

The solicitor got back to us today. He said the house was sold with "unconfirmed garden boundaries" or something like that and would be considered shared. He said if anyone queries it to send them his way which is reassuring!

Forgot I started this thread The wall has been repaired!

Our lovely next door neighbour had a grant from the council as she cares for her elderly mother. It was to help make the house more accessible for her, including widening the front and back doorways and paths to make suitable for wheelchair access. The builders made the decision that the wall needed repairing to allow them to work on the garden gate and path and it was covered by the grant. Plus ndn was still able to have everything else done with the rest of the grant.

It was a massive relief to both us and our neighbour, as we were quoted £4-5000 to repair it.

We're really fortunate that our neighbours on both sides are wonderful and we get on well with both.

I bought ndn a massive bottle of baileys to say thank you, (which was only a small gesture, I know) but she told me to keep it and we'll drink it together.

A very happy ending to this nightmare!

What a lovely neighbour! Enjoy your Baileys 👍

Not a great help now it's all done, but the quote for the wall of £4-5,000 was, to my mind, quite economic- just had a quote for a much smaller wall which was more expensive than that. (Won't be going ahead with this firm....)

Anyway, glad it has all worked out so well.

@Malvinaa81 the quote was only for around 3 metres of wall...

The builders used the original stone which was great. I'm sure a breeze block wall would've been a bit cheaper?

We're in South Wales, so most things are cheaper here than other parts of the country.

A breeze block wall may not be structurally sound. Around £1000 per m for a wall, minimum. If foundations need to be dug, stone cleaned and re used, it’s a lot more per meter.

Cornish Walls are very thick. The one in the picture wasn’t a Cornish wall! Well not the ones I’m used to.

@chansondematin yikes! I imagine that would cost a small fortune. I agree though, I love stone walls. There was talk of putting up a fence at first and I must admit, my heart sank a little.

I love a happy ending. In our part of Wales we asked a couple of farmers lads to rebuild some walls for us. Cost hundreds rather than thousands. It is worth asking around if you live in a farming area and fancy some stone walls.