Wall on property boundary

Hello everyone,

we are currently in the building application phase and I have a question.
Our house is to be built on a slight slope, the plot is located on a curve and has only a small access possibility to the house in this very curve. We are obliged to create two parking spaces and are planning a carport directly next to the house.

Now the upper neighbor is already in the construction phase, wants to use his basement as a living basement and accordingly has the garden about two to three meters below our single-family house and also below the level of the street that borders directly on his property.
The problem now is that we have to build a retaining wall on the northern property boundary, because we have to somehow support both the entrance to our house and the parking spaces and their driveway. We can only reach our house and the parking spaces at this point.

I hope this is somewhat understandable so far. The wall was planned so that a ground area of 25 sqm is not exceeded and is intended only to compensate for the slope to the neighbor’s garden so that we are back at our single-family house level. The remaining part between our house and his garden will be filled in.

Now our neighbor is already threatening with a lawyer and that he will not approve the building application anyway. However, we have no choice but to build this wall; furthermore, we are within the building window both with the house and the planned carport.

Has anyone perhaps had a similar case and knows whether the neighbor even has a chance here?
It is certainly not our intention to involve a lawyer right away, as we attach great importance to good neighborly relations. Nevertheless, one does have concerns...

Thank you for your answers!

Hello,

perhaps 1 or 2 sketches would be helpful.
Who has (or will) dig into the property.

I will put it simply as a layman:
If the neighbor has dug out a part of their property to create their basement/garden, they are obliged to secure YOUR property in such a way that you do not suffer any damage. This means they must support the excavated property so that there is no risk of your ground sliding. Therefore, building the wall or a slope would be their obligation. If the regulations do not allow building a wall along the entire height, they must construct the wall on THEIR property and compensate the remaining height by a slope on THEIR property.
If you dig into the neighboring property, you must secure it accordingly in the reverse way.

In short – the one who digs out is obliged to secure the neighboring property so that no damage occurs to the neighbor.

If case 1 occurs and your neighbor already reacts that way – then good luck.
We had exactly that problem – only our neighbor had already erected the wall. Unfortunately, the wall is on the property boundary and about 1.2m too low. The slope of the rest now lies on our property – which means this part is hardly usable for us anymore = financial damage between 1000 and 2000 Euros. The neighbor is not in the least bit reasonable.
Now there are 2 possibilities for us – 1. (reluctantly) live with it for the sake of peace or 2. sue against it, without knowing if the judge will see it as a minor issue and reject the claim/suggest a settlement + risk a poisoned neighborly relationship.
We decided on option 1. OK – the poisoned neighborly relationship we already have now, since we dared to address it.

If I have not described anything correctly, perhaps one of our legal experts here can correct it.

Hi f-pNo,

thanks for your reply. True, we hadn’t looked at it from that perspective before. We had always only paid attention to not getting in the neighbor’s way as much as possible with our wall.

I have made a small sketch with a cross-section and hope it is somewhat recognizable and understandable. On the right is the neighbor’s house, on the left ours, which is almost the same single-family house. The street slopes slightly downward, the neighbor’s garden is below the street and should be accessible from the basement.

In the sketch, I wonder what the neighbor expected? Does he want you to slowly slope the hillside so he doesn't directly face a wall, or does he expect you to dig down to his level as well? But I also know it this way: the person who changes the natural terrain is responsible for ensuring that neighboring properties are not affected.

According to the sketch, I would then say that the neighbor has to do something so that your property is not altered. For that, he can either build the wall himself or have the land on his side sloped (although then he probably can hardly use his garden properly).

That's exactly what we were wondering too, what he had expected. Especially since our building envelope requires that we build the house to the north, basically right in front of the neighbor's nose. His garden is therefore located in a hollow, and if he had looked at the development plan, it should have been clear to him from the beginning.

The question is, what is the "natural terrain slope," or how is it determined? Before construction began, it looked like quite a bit of soil was already missing on the neighbor's property (and also on ours), and the street was about two meters higher than the two parcels of land. The building regulations require that parking spaces be created, which means the driveway must in any case be adapted to the level of the street.

So, does one generally have to orient oneself to the height of the street, or what is the applicable guideline here? Does anyone know?

I read nowhere that the neighbor buried [abgegraben]!
Did he?