A couple could be forced to sell their home after being left with a $163,000 legal bill when their neighbors took them to court over a fence.
Jay and his wife Kirsty Hall built their home in Sydney’s northwest in 2018.
The couple say they received verbal approval from their neighbors to build a retaining wall separating their two homes, which was signed off by the Hills Shire Council.
‘The fence was initially built with a one-metre high retaining wall. And that retaining wall was essentially a verbal agreement with the neighbors, we were on good terms at the time,” Mr Hall said. A current issue.
But in 2020, the development application revealed that the fence had crossed the boundary of the neighbour’s property.
“The neighbors had a survey done on that wall and went back to our DA terms which stated the retaining wall had to be entirely within our property,” Mr Hall said.
The municipality revoked the final occupancy deed and ordered the couple to move their fence three inches back on their property, which they did.
But the story didn’t end there and their neighbors eventually took them to the Land and Environment Court.
Jay and his wife Kirsty Hall built their home in Sydney’s northwest in 2018. They now have to pay a $163,000 legal fee after their neighbors took them to court over a fence
“We essentially have to sell our house to pay the legal costs and that’s really the devastating part because we built this house for ourselves,” Ms Hall said.
Mr Hall rebuilt the fence after the council asked them to move it three inches.
The council subsequently confirmed in 2021 that no additional work was required.
‘We thought that when the council had come out, had looked for the very last time and signed everything off. I felt a sense of relief and thought, ‘Okay, it’s finally over and we never have to worry about this again,'” Ms. Hall said.
But the couple next door then went to court, saying the fence was ‘not installed correctly’.
They also claim that they never agreed to the fence being built in the first place.
Mr Hall has already had to reconstruct the fence, but has been ordered to demolish it and rebuild it
In May this year, the Hall family received a letter from their neighbor’s attorney stating that a judgment had been entered in their clients’ favor.
The judge had determined that the Hallen fence had been built in violation of the Environmental Act.
The couple were ordered to remove the wall and fencing and replace it with a ‘structurally sound’ wooden retaining wall and fencing, and to ‘provide adequate drainage measures’.
Not only will they now have to pay for the construction of a new fence, the Halls were subsequently ordered to pay the costs of legal proceedings, which amounted to $163,424.
“It’s a fence, $163,000 for a fence is ridiculous,” Mr Hall said.
‘The Council is 100 percent to blame. We trust them to be our certifier, we pay the costs.’
The council said they had no reason to believe Mr Hall was not adhering to the approved plans, adding that because they were in discussions with either party they could not comment further.
The city offered the Halls $10,000 to rebuild the fence.