Myself and my sister bought a house a little over a year ago. There is a green space to the back of our property with a row of mature trees and hedges etc. running directly parrallel to our boundary wall. The tree outside our house is one of the biggest. During the summer we noticed a serious crack in our wall, the wall seems to be lifting. We are of the opinion, as are most people we have shown it to, that the roots of the tree is lifting the foundations. My father contacted a local politican he knew to have a look at it as we felt it was dangerous and we wanted Dublin City Council to fix the wall and do something with the tree so that any new wall we put up wouldn't have the same problem. He took one look at it and said he would contact a senior man in Parks to come out and have a look at it. My father and the politican met with the man from Parks at the rear of my property and this is where it becomes complicated. Naively we thought they would see their tree was doing the damage and they would sort it but instead they tried to sow the seed that maybe the foundations weren't laid correctly or that the 'wall designer' didn't allow for the growth of the tree in his designs! He said that the wall will have to come down to see if it is the tree doing the damage.
The man from Parks said that it appears that the previous owners raised the crack in the wall with another office in DCC a number of years ago and as another office was dealing with it he couldn't get involved. That file has since gone missing! When I phoned the previous owner to gather info re the previous case file they infomed me that DCC wanted them to pay towards the costs of repairing the wall etc. but for personal reasons they declined. Both sides let it drop and now we are left with the problem.
The previous owner had one interesting point to make though. DCC laid the foundations of the wall and supplied the blocks, the residents just arranged for the wall to be built. Apparently these deals we quite common in the 80's/early 90's. I checked with some of the neighbours that were around at the time and they confirmed the terms of the agreement. I got them to sign a statement stating this was true. The politican helping us also remembers the deal as he secured it for the resisents at the time. All this info was presented to DCC and we were hopeful of an amicable resolution. They came out last week and it seemed that they were sounding us out about a possible 50/50 split of costs. We told them that we didn't mind paying a nominal amount but we couldn't afford to pay half as it looks like it will cost 1000's to fix. They said they would have their structural engineer have a look at it and see what could minimally be done to sort the problem. They would ask him to put a possible price on it and get back to me. We could then negotiate on a figure we were willing to pay. I agreed providing I felt it was a reasonable and unbiased assessment.
They contacted me on Friday and they have done a complete u-turn. They say there is no file on the agreement re the building of the wall. They are serving me with 3 weeks noticed to remove the dangerous bit of the wall etc. I asked them did the structural engineer come out and they said yes. I get the feeling the u-turn stems from the fact that the structural engineer report didn't go in their favour. I suspect (and they gave me the impression) that he thinks the tree is to blame and as there are possibly more houses on the road with the same problem and it could become extremely expensive for them.
It looks like we may now have to go down the legal route. Does anyone have any advice for us? Have you dealt with the DCC? Is this just tactics to scare us into paying 50%? Do they seriously think they can win this? What kind of law does this fall under and does anyone have any recommendations on a law firm which deals with cases against DCC on a regular basis.
Sorry about the length of this posting and thanks in advance.
The man from Parks said that it appears that the previous owners raised the crack in the wall with another office in DCC a number of years ago and as another office was dealing with it he couldn't get involved. That file has since gone missing! When I phoned the previous owner to gather info re the previous case file they infomed me that DCC wanted them to pay towards the costs of repairing the wall etc. but for personal reasons they declined. Both sides let it drop and now we are left with the problem.
The previous owner had one interesting point to make though. DCC laid the foundations of the wall and supplied the blocks, the residents just arranged for the wall to be built. Apparently these deals we quite common in the 80's/early 90's. I checked with some of the neighbours that were around at the time and they confirmed the terms of the agreement. I got them to sign a statement stating this was true. The politican helping us also remembers the deal as he secured it for the resisents at the time. All this info was presented to DCC and we were hopeful of an amicable resolution. They came out last week and it seemed that they were sounding us out about a possible 50/50 split of costs. We told them that we didn't mind paying a nominal amount but we couldn't afford to pay half as it looks like it will cost 1000's to fix. They said they would have their structural engineer have a look at it and see what could minimally be done to sort the problem. They would ask him to put a possible price on it and get back to me. We could then negotiate on a figure we were willing to pay. I agreed providing I felt it was a reasonable and unbiased assessment.
They contacted me on Friday and they have done a complete u-turn. They say there is no file on the agreement re the building of the wall. They are serving me with 3 weeks noticed to remove the dangerous bit of the wall etc. I asked them did the structural engineer come out and they said yes. I get the feeling the u-turn stems from the fact that the structural engineer report didn't go in their favour. I suspect (and they gave me the impression) that he thinks the tree is to blame and as there are possibly more houses on the road with the same problem and it could become extremely expensive for them.
It looks like we may now have to go down the legal route. Does anyone have any advice for us? Have you dealt with the DCC? Is this just tactics to scare us into paying 50%? Do they seriously think they can win this? What kind of law does this fall under and does anyone have any recommendations on a law firm which deals with cases against DCC on a regular basis.
Sorry about the length of this posting and thanks in advance.