PM sent.

S,

Give me a call or PM.

Sounds to me like the contractor is a real dick, and troublemaker. Perhaps your neighbor could find someone that could do the work without stirring up trouble with the neighbors.

Does he need the hassle ?

In his position, this would send me looking for someone else.

Good luck in moving thru this and keeping harmony in the hood.

Nice selection of the best porsche has offered, sweet!

Cheers Richard

Clearly this is a job for baby poo yellow paint!

Nice cars btw.

Have a talk with your neighbor and have them control their pet monkey so they don't stir up any more dog poo. Keep peace. Like others have said, and inspector can't determine if the wall isn't structurally sound unless its falling apart or snapped and are not holding up any more dirt, but he can call out the city engineers.

Haven't seen a post from Oddjob for awhile. Wonder if his Crazy Canuck neighbors offed him and finished painting the fence?;)

I wish that I could just have the room to store all those cars! All of them are very nice!

Not sure how the contractor can unilaterally waive responsibility for damage. The short answer is, they can't. If he effects your wall, he is responsible.

Take pictures of your wall. I would also set up a webcam to record the installation of the neighbors wall... could be helpful in the future...

Over here on Mercer Island, unless someone can show that an issue poses a clear danger for residents, the city isn't interested in issues not spontaneously seen by their inspectors in their normal course of work.

Apparently, too many times in the past, warring neighbors have tried to use the city to cause issues for each other and the city doesn't want anything to do with that.

Yes, people can file formal complaints. But it's hard to file a complaint about a long-standing, legal retaining wall and not look like a total dufus.

So, the short of it is, I don't think the contractor can say anything to the city that they'd be interested in. If your neighbor causes damage to your property, you can get help from almost any attorney--or even simply small claims court if the repair is below their threshold. I'd simply try to have some decent pics (if possible) to show conditions before issues occurred.

You have gotten some great advice here.

I had a similar situation on poverty rock, with a neighboring contractor who was planning on digging a very near an existing property-line French drain. (chance of undermining was high). I hired an atty, and the city quickly had him moving the house/dig further from that property line.

The atty I used specialized in land use, and often went up against the city. I can get you the name if needed. Sounds like you'll be ok w/o.

Not much to add other than the fact that when someone damages your property, it does not really matter whether they "accept liability" from a legal standpoint. All that matters is that you have some cell phone pics of his ugly mug working on adjoining wall and maybe a couple of his vehicles with license plates showing. Explain that to him. Threats to sic govt. agencies on someone in cases like this are generally considered extortion or coercion.

If you pay my air fare, I'll pimp-slap him for you.

Wait, is he a big fella?

speeder, you sumpin' else. :D

In Seattle, all you need to do is threaten to expose that they haven't contributed as much to the Nature Conservancy as they claim. That always sends 'em running.

Actually, in Seattle proper, fines are going out for people who put compostables in their garbage. :eek:

But at least smoking weed in public places produces only warnings.

IOW, pollute the air with weed= meh...
pollute the trash with compostables = $fine.

I was thinking that contractor is FOS. But then I recalled my own issue where a leak from my condo damaged some drywall in the neighbor's. I did cover the repair to his property out of my own pocket sans insurance. But my insurance company and a few other folks said I was not liable for doing so. Unless the damage caused is a result of negligence, IIRC, everyone is responsible for damage to their own property. When I was notified of this leak, I had a guy out to fix it within an hour and so negligence could not be claimed. Obviously, the neighborly thing to do would be to pay for small repairs and pay the insurance deductible for larger ones. But there might be a loophole here, where the contractor can claim your wall is really old vs. your claiming he was negligent.

A 90 year old wall which fails within days or even years of nearby excavation?

Cause<-----Causation.

The neighbor's contractor has a legal obligation to design his wall installation so that it does not affect neighboring property through runoff.
However he does it is of no concern to adjoining properties.