Building defects database - Leaning wall

Record details

© Copyright Philip Santo	(a) View along a leaning retaining wall which formed the rear boundary of this residential property, see (e) below.
© Copyright Philip Santo	(b) The rear garden is relatively shallow so a surveyor or valuer inspecting the house would need to stand near the boundary to see the rear roof slope. The lean to the wall was less obvious when facing it from the house but was clearly apparent when looking along the wall.
© Copyright Philip Santo	(c) Looking along the wall in the opposite direction to the preceding two photos, towards the location where they were taken. The lean is even more obvious at this end of the wall, where it is higher and the retained ground level beyond is similarly greater.
© Copyright Philip Santo	(d) Vertical fences and walls built above the leaning lower section proved that movement in the retaining wall was long-standing and had not taken place in the weeks immediately preceding the inspection when the photos were taken.
© Copyright Philip Santo	(e) If there was any doubt that the higher ground levels beyond the rear boundary, and retained by the boundary wall, were not immediately obvious from garden level there was no question that they were clearly apparent from the first-floor windows of the house (and even more so to the right, beyond the photograph).