[@tomic]

I have to say I’m a bit disappointed when the answer is always “see a lawyer”. It’s been my observation that lawyers are really a last resort, introducing a 3rd party intermediary will often lead to an expensive protracted process where a simple good faith conversation between the 2 parties will lead an acceptable outcome. My question was really about the costs of building boundary walls.

[@tomic]

They approached us last week and proposed to replace our common 50 metre boundary wall/fence and have given us 2 options.
I was just wondering if the cost they are quoting are correct? They seem a bit high to me, but I’m not a builder and am not knowledgeable about current costs.
‘Build Double brick retaining wall starting 200mm over existing driveway Level to reach 800mm over driveway depends of level need and to reach not less than 2200mm height with
Timber fence
Timber fence 1800mm -2100mm depends on level to reach the max. cover 2200mm in any point.
This option cost $45,000.00
Steel post and Concrete sleeper retaining wall in same required heights over the driveway as mentioned above instead of Brick works
with same timber fence to same heights.
This Option cost $30,000.00’

[@tomic]

Thanks JimmyT and scotlandx for your input.

I have organised a strata meeting of the owners to discuss our situation and will take your suggestions to the meeting.

Fortunately the past 2 days of rain has pushed back the developers schedule as they were unable to do the ground floor concrete pour, which according to the site foreman was a prerequisite of moving forward with the commencement of the boundary wall demolition.

[@tomic]

The property in my post is located in Sydney, N.S.W.

[@tomic]

Thanks Sachs Gerace.

Before reading your reply I contacted Kerin Benson and the receptionist told me it was $475/hour to have a chat, so I thought it best to get as many ducks in a row as possible before committing that kind of appointment.

To that end I rang the strata management people and they recommended a surveyor.

The surveyor asked me to email him the strata plan and he’d telephone and let me know if it was worth proceeding. It’s the end of the working day here so I don’t expect to hear anything before tomorrow.

I already have all the paperwork you outlined and I will quiz the surveyor as to the lands worth.

If all proceeds and the surveyor does his thing I’ll give you a call and set up an appointment asap.

Once the other owners get wind of the surveyor and that won’t take long since all but 1 of the townhouses have the owners living in situ, I expect a lot of blowback, so I will endeavour to proceed with utmost caution as you council.

[@tomic]

I left a message with [one solicitor] but they never returned my call. Although I didn’t go into the details, I got the impression from the receptionist tone that I wasn’t at the top of their call back list. I’m going to give Kerin Benson a try next.

The gardens behind each townhouse is part of the lot.

Unfortunately for my neighbour the builder has since died. 

[Author]

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