Retaining Wall

[greehamm]

What is the name of your state? New York (Westchester country).


I have two questions:

Recently a 20 foot section of a 70 ft. x 10 ft. retaining wall that is clearly on my property (by 1.5 inches) collapsed. However, the only section that collapsed was the area near where my neighbor had 5 trees (5 in. to 10 in. in diamater) approximately 1 foot away from the wall. It is my belief that the tree roots significantly contributed to the failure of the wall.

1. Do I have any recourse against my neighbor for contributing to the wall collapse because 1) I could not access the roots without trespassing and 2) even if I could there was not enough room on my property to cut the roots due to the wall's proximity to the property line?

2. New York City building code [C26-75.0] 26-233 Maintenance and repair of protection fences and retaining walls states - Unless otherwise provided by special agreement between them, the owners of adjoining properties shall be responsible jointly for the proper maintenance and repair of partition fences and retaining walls dividing their properties; and each such owner shall be responsible for one-half of the costs of maintaining and repairing such fences and retaining walls...

Since previous posts on this forum are clear with respect to ownership and responsibility of retaining walls, does anyone have any comment on this citation? Also, could anyone help point me in the direction of how I would go about looking for a similar New York state rule or regulation?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[John Se]

What's your neighbor say?

did you talk to this person yet?

 

[greehamm]

Retaining Wall Neighbor

Yes I have spoken with him. It has been extremely acrimonious from the beginning, even though the wall only collapsed onto a very limited portion of his terraced yard that he essentially didn't use. Since he is an absentee landlord, when we did get in contact with him we essentially suggested that we thought the trees were the cause and that if he wanted to have a say in what the new wall looked like he should contribute to the rebuild (since he looks at it and we don't). He has since filed a liability claim with my insurance company and was instrumental in having the village issue us a summons, despite the fact that we have done everything the village told us to do with regard to the wall.

 

[dandmc]

The NY law you cite is interesting the sense that it mentions "repair" as well.
Does include fence repair needed due to neighbor damage as well?
Thats the question
I have a similar situation in California and Im 100% sure his trees are doing the wall damage to an old but otherwise acceptable wall