I'm not sure what an aggi is...An agricultural field drain?? Laid on a bed of gravel on the uphill side of the retaining wall, topped with gravel and leading to an effective soak pit or storm water drain??

Has the wall got weep holes; or does it ooze in wet weather?

Apart from whingeing and putting down black plastic, have the neighbours installed any drainage at the foot of the wall, like a gutter leading away to a soak area of some kind. Even an ephemeral wet zone on the lawn would be a help.

Is the water actually run-off from your place - in which case contouring the ground on your side to capture it in shallow hollows and garden beds could reduce the problem. If it's gathering speed on a sloping hard-surface path or drive you might need to get in a concrete cutter to create some grooves to lead it away to soakage areas alongside.

If it's seepage down an underground rock sheet or similar, perhaps because of the grading work on the property, then a field drain - properly laid and heading into a catchment area that you can check - looks like a reasonable answer.

If you're on a new subdivision you might find it useful to talk with the drainlayer who put in your sewage system and find out what he knows about the subsoil in your area.

If there is a drain it could be safer to leave it free of deep-rroting plants. They'll go into amazingly tiny spaces in search of water during a drought. Enough to choke out even a 100mm pipe. Tree ferns are very good at this...

Good idea to install drippers instead of sprinklers.

Woori,
When I see all these new developments with their retaining walls, I always think they must be a recipe for disaster.
I think if you have done all you reasonably can, then the problem is now theirs.
You should probably find out the legalities from your local council.
Unfortunatey water travels downhill. When the lay of the land is interfered with, problems can be created. No one builds on a slope any more - it all has to be levelled.
Does anyone else in the area have similar problems?
Maybe your neighbour should move uphill!

Thanks Vetivert8 and Amelie,
Our block was levelled for the slab but the problem side was still a natural slope with about a 1' drop over six feet when we all decided on the fence between us. The decision was made to put a sleeper type base beneath a normal paling fence, which starts at the top of the area one sleeper deep and finishes three deep at the bottom. Further down is another big drop of about 6' but that area is not a problem. Its just the space between the two houses which of course are built rather close together these days. We said that we would fill in our area and level it off, hence the sleepers. In doing this, we have cut down on the amount of run off that the neighbours would get, as some water would now run down our block instead of sideways to them. They are now complaining that the sleepers are wet and that water (seepage) oozes beneath the sleepers. The retaining wall is made of red gum sleepers which we completely paid for. In hindsight, we should have lined them with plastic to keep them dry, but didn't think of it at the time. That still wouldn't have stopped anything from oozing from underneath and I can't for the life of me think why they shouldn't expect run off from the front and side as there is a two way slope and our houses are towards the bottom of a small hill. They should probably remove their plastic and dig an aggi to take their water the length of the house, topped with gravel and sand and then their pavers and pebbles. They wouldn't have a problem with the water on their slab, but it wouldn't stop the oozing from under the wall.
Woori

Sounds like my back neighbour, every time it rain she blames us for the water coming on her block, she is at the bottom of the slope living in a house where they dug out of the ground to put the slab in, even though we told them not too.

Then they built a 40ft shed and put it across the block and it floods, same thing they dug out, should have put the shed long ways, plenty of room they have over one acre, too bad cant stop nature thats why we didnt buy a block at the bottom of the slope, we also put our house up on 4ft steel stumps so we are safe.

Seems your neighbour is a whinger, its their block, so their water, their problem, tell them to get rid of that plastic it wont help, they need more drains or aggie pipes especially under those pavers. You just tell them you cant stop nature, that what the council told us years ago with another house we had built in Melbourne, so this time we built up not down it is so much better.

Good luck with your neighbour....MM

Our nice new neighbour (accountant to the local council) built 4 townhouses on concrete slabs on the block next to our 1890's double brick house built on stone and rubble foundations. The boundary is 1 m from the side of our house and the excavation for the slabs was around 1-1/2 metres deep (we now enjoy a lovely view of grey roofing tiles).

The "handyman" who he employed to build the retaining wall initially wanted to build a retaining wall of sleepers on our side of the boundary because he had already put in a concrete path on the available land on their side. We had visions of the side of our house slowly falling onto their roof.

I won't go into the dramas - involving solicitors, injunctions, a building inspector who, we suspect, was instructed to give more consideration to the council's accountant than to the various building codes - AND THE COST!!! In the end we got what we wanted - a properly constructed retaining wall, with the required footings, ag pipe, etc. and on their side of boundary. Which was no more than we were entitled to.

But to your problem - perhaps the next time the neighbour complains you might suggest that you arrange for the building inspector to come at a time to suit you both and discuss the situation (assuming the building inspector is not a friend/relative of the neighbour). The inspector will probably give pretty much the same advice as you have been giving but it might be better accepted coming from an "official" source.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I did ring the council and based on my description of what we have done and their checking of our housing positions on their map, we are ok. They eventually said they didn't really want to talk to the neighbours if they could avoid it, and told me to draw some pictures for them. Great advice! Anyway, they agreed that the neighbours should be doing something better than black plastic and that water will seep under the wall as they are on the lower side. They also suggested planting some trees, so I think I will. I had originally wanted to plant them, but the neighbours didn't want me to. They didn't want leaves on their plastic. Guess my desire to please has diminished somewhat. :)
Woori

Silver birches are such lovely trees, aren't they? They won't hang over the fence will they?

Don't forget, though, evergreens do a wonderful job of blocking out unsightly objects - like neighbours :-)

This morning I was gazing at my Azara Microphylla outside my bedroom window and I thought of you and your neighbours. The window faces east and this lovely elegant little tree provides light and lacy shade from the morning sun. The spring flowers fill the area with the perfume of custard powder.

It has tiny leaves. I scanned a sprig with a teabag for comparison - it's posted on Oz Garden Gallery if you'd like to look.

Wondered if you might be interested - the leaves are so small the neighbours might not notice them.

Given the conduct of the neighbours, perhaps a nice Ficus benjamina or something similar would do the trick (with a root barrier on the side leading to your house of course). It would certainly soak up any excess water. (sorry, I guess sometimes i am just plain nasty).

Ian

That's nasty ipgf. I love it!!

Hi Woori, sell up now while your ahead,it could get ugly? or uglier, what ever happens don't get a lawyer? Good luck, Peter r

My neighbour came over yesterday and banged on my door, demanding to speak to me. The previous day I had made the grievious sin of leaving the watering system on for 10 minutes too long, which actually caused the fence to become wet. His wife came over that day and demanded that I 'come and see what has happened'... the fence was all wet. I was lucky enough to have answered the door via the intercom, so just apologised for forgetting to turn it off on time and said that I would immediately do so.
She was livid that I didn't 'come and see'.... so next day comes hubby. No intercom for him. It had to be a showdown face to face. So there he stands, yelling away and not prepared to listen to a word.... demanding that I solve his problems of seepage at the foot of the retaining wall. Then he yells at me.. 'do you know how many times I have had to spray the weeds in my path?'. So now I am responsible for the weeds as well. I told him I couldn't fix his problems so he left yelling abuse.
I decided to take the Council's advice and draw him some pictures and write a letter which I gave him, telling him to read it and not comment unless he didn't understand what was said.
I pointed out that water runs downhill and that he was on the downhill side. I also pointed out that I was entitled to plant things and water them. I pointed out that I had redone my whole watering system to make it as neighbour friendly as possible. I pointed out that I had not had it on for months and that he had called me a liar, which was unfortunate for good neighbourly relations. I drew him a picture of an aggie drain down the middle of his path with pipe and scoria, topped with weedmat (he is currently using plastic and blames me for the water on it) and finished off with his pebbles... the level of which to be higher than the bottom of the retaining wall so that the dirt which is currently showing and producing weeds, will be covered. He excavated lower than the bottom of the retaining wall and goes ballistic every time he sees the wet soil at the bottom. If he hadn't dug so deep, his pebbles would have covered it and he wouldn't upset himself so much.
I finally stuck my head over the fence and had a look at his yard. There are weeds growing everywhere... between the pavers at the front of the house... down the path... around the back.

All he gets from my side is a bit of seepage for about 8 feet. Somehow this is my fault?
Woori

I really feel for you. There is nothing worse than neighbours who are rude and abusive and won't even try to come to an amicable agreement. They really sound like ignorant fools!! I do hope it doesn't affect your life too badly.
Cheers,
Dee.

Oh dear, Woori, I really feel for you. I lived next door to the "neighbour from hell" for years. The main bones of contention were (a) our refusal to let her dog "play" in our yard (its idea of playing was to chase our cat and try and kill it - she thought the answer was for us to get rid of our cat) and the temerity of us to try and grow shrubs in an attempt to screen her view from her high set kitchen window - looked straight onto the side of the house where our main entrance was located. It wasn't so much that she could see everything/everyone, but she started abusing our friends, as well our young children.

After considerable pruning/hacking on her part (unfortunately you seem to need witnesses for a successful action for trespass/malicious damage), we put up a timber screen - which she tried to demolish as we were building it.

She also used to throw things over the fence - her garden prunings, rubbish off the street, etc. My daughter, who was about 6 or 7 at the time, was having a picnic lunch in the garden with her girlfriend and madam threw a beer bottle over the fence which hit the friend on the head!! Luckily, no damage to head but it could have been very nasty.

After many years of putting up with her, I came home one day to find a huge mass of prunings thrown over the fence at the front of the garden. I was so peeed off!! Went to trusty printer and printed up a very clear sign which said "Mrs Wright throws her rubbish into my garden", fixed it to a garden stake and hammered it into the front lawn in the midst of the mess.

I got a letter from her solicitor threatening me with defamation (he should have been threatening libel - some solicitor) if I didn't remove the sign. On the Chamber of Magistrate's advice, I wrote to the solicitor telling him I would remove the sign if madam desisted from "the following actions", which comprised a list three pages long. The sign stayed there until it more or less fell to pieces, along with the rubbish (now that took determination). We finally decided to sell the house and move on.

I now have two rental units next to me and have had partying young people, couples with major domestic problems, a couple of leases to drug addicts, and one lot of very noisy and messy petrol heads. But compared with madam, truly wonderful neighbours.

Re the Chamber Magistrate - in NSW a solicitor (who has a chamber in the courthouse??) employed by the courts to offer legal advice but does not actually take on cases. There is no charge for the service. I guess there is a Victorian equivalent. After tearing my hair out with police, council officers, paying solicitors to write letters, etc., I found the Chamber Magistrate very helpful and sympathetic.