Decking on sloping ground

[Bruce]

Then someone should sue the builder. Meanwhile, the neighbours are in the dark, unless they read this newsgroup and can work out that the anonymous poster is in fact their neighbour.

[terry]

Sounds like joint effort? Previuos owner/s-builder having been responsible for altering the landscape. Problem maybe if OPs land 'founders' into neighbours either naturally or after being disturbed by any activity at all!!!!!

[Adrian C]

You seem a bit raw. Personal experience of this?

[John Rumm]

Having read the other relies so far...

It seems that you need to do something as ultimately a lump of your garden is likely to end up falling into the neighbours if you don't.

If you decide to keep the soil, then building a wall of some sort on your side of the fence will be the lest disruptive probably. The least damaging method would probably be to sink some piles every couple of metres and then use those to anchor the fence restraints. There are companies with small augured piling machines that can be driven through a normal door width and are small enough to work inside a house.

That would relieve the load on the fence and restore it to just a normal fence.

The latter sounds like a reasonable idea.

45 would be ok - you may be able to go steeper. With 45, you would need to excavate 1/2 m^3 per linear metre of fence length.

Excavation wise there is not much in it really, A block wall would take most excavation since you would need to dig a foundation strip. But a piled, or sleeper based wall would require not much more than the decked solution.

TMH can tell you that...

If you can argue the ground level is the current level, then probably not. If you take the original base level before you owned the place, as the level, then possibly.

Probably worthwhile taking photos of everything before hand anyway. If you put in a deck a bit lower than the current soil level then it seems like a good solution from everyone's perspective - you still get a usable flat area with no risk of it ending up in the neighbour's garden, and you both get a bit more privacy.

[Bruce]

That's exactly what it should be.

You cannot blame a previous occupant for what happens after someone buys the house. Caveat Emptor. The current occupant's solicitor and surveyor should have identified - and sorted - this problem before the purchase was completed.

[Bruce]

Yes, but probably not in the way you think. As a professional, I have been consulted by property owners who want advice on how to develop or "improve" their property while keeping their neighbour(s) partially or completely in the dark. In that position, I have always declined to accept the work.

It's good to talk. ;-)