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11b Keble Heights Retaining Wall Problems

Photos of the fence can be found here. Click on any of the photos to get a full sized photo in a new tab.

This document is intended to provide an overview of the problem regarding the boundary retaining wall between 11B Keble heights and 14 Trinity rise, College Grove Bunbury.
This is a live document, and will update it as required.


Summary

My uphill neighbor added new retaining walls to their front lawn, and 700mm of sand was stacked against the fence with no other support.
The boundary fence broke and at the same point the retaining wall beneath it cracked and bulged.
Neither the boundary fence nor the retaining wall were designed to restrain this 700mm of extra sand.
The Bobcat used to help build this new retaining wall is estimated to weigh approx 2,700 kg, and probably ventured too close to the fence.
Council regulations require all retaining walls should not have additional loading placed on them above what they were designed for, regardless of who's land the retaining wall is built on.
A structural engineer's report stated that the extra over burden could cause the retaining wall to collapse, however the Marshes have refused to remove this overburden because of fears that it would undermine their new retaining walls, which have their foundations approx 700mm higher than the top of the original boundary retaining wall, and 550mm higher than an abutting retaining wall on our common neighbor at 14 Keble Heights.
Structerre were originally asked to come up with a solution to this problem, but not only failed to do so also failed to notify anybody that it was too difficult for them. I did not find out until much later that Structerre were the cause of this problem in the first place.
I then commissioned WML to come up with a solution to the problem. They offered two solutions, the first being to reinforce the original retaining wall and to make it tall enough so that the ground level above the retaining wall could be level. The second option was to simply reinforce the boundary retaining wall at its original height. I offered James Marsh the option of contributing towards a higher retaining wall, but that offer was flatly rejected.
I then obtained a council building permit and started to build the reinforcing myself. I purchased most of the reinforcing bar, and was compacting the sand at the foot of the retaining wall in preparation to dig the foundations when I was abused and hosed down by Sharyl. I decided at that point that me putting in effort to help them to save money was not such a good idea, and sought legal advice to see what my options were.
I ended up paying over $1,500 for contradictory advice, and discovered that I could take the matter to court myself without paying for extremely expensive lawyers.
There was a pre-trail hearing on 18th of June and the 30th of July 2015 to try to resolve this problem, but so far the only money offered has been for quarter of the boundary fence, and the overburden Structerre warned could cause the original retaining wall to collapse is still in place.
The only offer the Marshes have made to pay for the damage they have caused is to pay for 1/4 of the fence they caused to be broken. The Marshes logic being that they are only paying for half of the cost to replace the section of fence that is on their property, the section that is between our common neighbor and myself is my fault because I did not act quick enough to get the first section replaced.
I did not get that first section replaced earlier as I was concerned, and I still am, that it would make repairing or reinforcing the original boundary retaining wall a lot harder and a lot more expensive, and there is a very real concern that the Marshes would promptly add more overburden, endangering the lives of anybody working to reinforce the retaining wall.
Retaining wall.


Detailed Time Line

1991

Driveway on 14 Trinity Drive appears to have been put in before Sewer pipe.
Sewer pipe in the easement is thought to be installed this year. Legend to read sewer map.

20/08/1991

Original title issued for 14 Trinity rise. Date assumed from 17/12/2015 affidavit.

15/4/1994

Water Authority approval for building at 11b Keble Heights.

23/4/1994

Building Approval 11335 given for retaining wall at 11 Keble heights, College Grove. (West) Footing Detail

18/6/1994

Building Approval 11398 given for house. Storm water drainage and Elevation drawing. and Top view given for 11b Keble heights, College Grove.

7/7/1994

Building Approval 11489 given for retaining wall at 11 Keble heights, College Grove. (East) Builders permit page 1,    Builders permit page 2   Writing on envelop.
List of Building permits
The house appears to have been built by Ascoli Holdings Pty Ltd for Frank Cavoli who lives at 1 Possum Way, College Grove WA 6230. (08) 9795 7352. This may be the wrong person.

24/01/1996

11 Keble Heights divided as strata title according to 17/12/2015 affidavit.

01/08/1996

Marsh Contour drawing.

14/04/2003

Marshes purchase 14 Trinity Rise. Certificate of Title for 14 Trinity Rise. Date assumed from letter of defense on 7/12/2015.
List of previous owners of 14 Trinity Rise. Rodney James Melville and Cheryl Melville sold to the Marshes.
Site to locate previous owners.

25/02/2011

Settlement date. Andrew Purchased 11b Keble Heights for $465,000. Asking price was $480,000.

11/03/2011

11b Keble Heights Title registered in my name according to 17/12/2015 affidavit.

8/5/2012

Building permit issued for new retaining walls at 14 Trinity Rise to be built parallel to their lower boundary fence. Design, Permit, requirements, compliance., Marsh contour drawing I was denied access to.

4/9/2012

While I was in Melbourne cleaning up after my dads death I received a phone call telling me that the boundary wall had collapsed during a storm. I chased up retaining wall people, they rang and told me that they could not extend the retaining wall. It did not make a lot of sense until I found that the retaining wall had not collapsed, just the fence.

10/10/2012

I flew back to Bunbury for a week, mostly to deal with the collapsed boundary wall, which I found out was only the boundary fence that had collapsed. However the boundary retaining wall did have a bulge and a crack in the top row of bricks. I asked for Structerre engineering to examine the wall and to let me know if they considered the wall to be safe.

19/11/2012

Received letter from James with an attached quote from T & V fencing. for $1,980.69, of which I was expected to pay 50% or $990.34. Letter was dated 2/10/2012, Quote was dated 23/10/2012.

20/11/2012

I sent an email to Nick Arkell of T & V fencing explaining that I wanted to make sure the wall was OK before replacing the fence.
After chasing up Structerre to see what was happening with their report, I found out that they sent an invoice to 11B Keble heights.
I explained to them again that I was in Melbourne and they then emailed me the invoice as I originally requested. I then paid their invoice of $555.
Received Structerre report on retaining wall.
Email exchange where Greg Hamilton from Structerre states that the extra loading on the retaining wall needs to be removed in case it causes the retaining wall to collapse. This was sent to the Marshes on 22/01/2016 as part of my general affidavit to define documents wanted from the defense.
Based on rough calculations I worked out the the sapling mentioned in the report would have contributed at most 0.45% (less than half of one percent), of the overburden the extra sand was causing, and this was not refuted by Struterre.
Note that the crack in the boundary retaining wall is 2.4 meters from the eye bolt that held the sapling.
The diagram attached to this report shows what they were looking for when probing for backing blocks. A copy of the building permit for the retaining wall had not been requested at that point. The building permit clearly shows a different method was used, being mortared basalt or rock fill, and this was confirmed to be present by WML during their inspection.
There is no mention of what effect a 2,700 kg Bobcat would have if driven too close to the fence.
I was not aware at this time that Structerre also designed the Marshes new retaining walls.

26/11/2012

Structerre sent a quote for $3,135 for instructions on how to fix the wall.

2012 / 2013

I was in Melbourne from 7/2012 to 5/2013 dealing with family issues.
From 6/2013 to 12/2013 I was based in Bunbury, mostly working 4/1 swings.

23/05/2013

Signed sales agreement with Henry from the Professionals Real Estate.

13/12/13

Settlement date for land in Port Lincoln.
My initial loan was for the maximum I could borrow, which allowed me an approx $60,000 safety net in case of delays in selling my house.

2013

Murray from Bunbury city council inspected fence.

16/12/2013 to 9/04/2014

Chased up Murray from Bunbury city council to see what was happening re removing sand. Received this email exchange........

1/2014 to 3/2014

I was back in Melbourne dealing with family issues.

25/3/2014 to 21/08/2014

Email exchange containing this initial letter from the Bunbury city council asking why nothing had been done.

4/2014

Purchased a certified for road, rail and sea shipping container to transport my belongings from Bunbury to my new home in Port Lincoln, and put it in storage at Picton.

15/04/2014

Structerre Report concerning soil at foot of new retaining wall.
This was requested by the council to determine how much overburden on the original boundary retaining wall could be removed, but the report does not cover this scope.
I was not aware of this until reveled in court paperwork in 2015 ??

21/04/2014

Email containing a copy of Letter to Water Corp regarding clearance to sewerage pipes in the sewerage easement between the boundary retaining wall and the new retaining wall.

22/04/2014

Email exchange where Sharyl claims that no sand was stacked against the fence.
Structerre Invoice for 15/04/2014 report

8/05/2014

Email exchange with Gary from the City of Bunbury where he explains that Structerre had decided not to work on fixing the problem, without telling anybody. He also explains that the building permit for the retaining wall does not cover that section of the retaining wall.
Because the retaining wall may not have had a permit, there is no requirement for the Marshes to keep that section of land clear.

The Western retaining wall has its own separate permit, and the permit for this Eastern retaining wall clearly shows the disputed retaining wall.
I do not have a clue about what he thinks Eastern retaining wall building permit is for.
There are also notes on the original building permits stating that the retaining walls needed to be finished before foundations for the house could start. Given the proximity of the house to the retaining walls it is not possible that the failing Eastern retaining wall was built after the house was built.
Phone call at an unknown later date where Gary tells me that he could not find any evidence that the ground level had risen uphill of the boundary fence. This is despite seeing the 700mm of extra sand, and the post and rail retaining wall built on top of my neighbors retaining wall. I have never had any feedback regarding the other issue he raised.

9/05/2014

I get suspicious that Structerre are at least partly to blame for the original problem, and request a copy of the building permit for Marshes new retaining walls.
Email exchange with Gary from Bunbury City Council re privacy and their building permits.

14/5/2014 to 29/5/2014

Emailed Notice of proposed complaint to the WA Building commission, CC to Gary and Sharyl.
This Email chain.
Modified complaint to suit Sharyl's feedback.
According to defense documents the Marshes also sent the WA Building commission photos and a letter. I have requested a copy of these from the defense, but as of 4/8/2016 they have still not been provided. Update 16/8/2025, this was never provided.
After giving the required minimum of 2 weeks notice to Sharyl, I submitted the complaint to the Building Commission resolution process, who promptly emailed back to say that they do not deal with retaining walls.
The Building Commission also sent a Link to legal aid WA regarding dividing fences. where they state that they do not provide support for retaining wall issues.
Email exchange regarding the Building Commission.

7/07/2014

Email exchange where Marshes only wanted to pay half of half (1/4), of the section of fencing between our two boundaries, and not the entire section that they caused to be damaged. Their logic being that the extra damage was done because I delayed in getting the fence replaced.

17/7/2014

Quote to repair fence for $2235.20.
Email to WML asking for help with the boundary retaining wall.

31/7/2014

Received Survey explaining that boundary retaining wall is now on my property. This does not take into consideration where the top of the retaining wall was when it was built.

I commissioned WML to draw up two retaining wall options, one at the original height of the wall, and the second one higher so that the Marsh's did not need to pull down their new retaining wall(s).
I asked James Marsh if they were willing to contribute to a higher boundary retaining wall, and he made it very clear he did not want to contribute anything. I asked what they were going to do with the extra sand above the height of the retaining wall. He told me they were going to wait until the fence had been replaced, then deal with the problem.
The bulk of this is in the email exchange on 21/08/2014.
I have the very strong feeling that they intend to place a new retaining wall very close to the boundary fence and place more sand between this retaining wall and their existing lower retaining wall, overburdening the newly reinforced boundary retaining wall. This would be the reason they asked the water corp how much clearance they needed for the sewerage pipes, and also why they still have extra retaining wall blocks.

21/08/2014

Email exchange where the Marshes respond that they have no intention of removing any extra sand as that would compromise the foundations of their new retaining wall.

25/08/2014

Blank Building plan request form and freedom of information form.

2014

The Marshes had made it very clear that they do not want to contribute to a higher boundary retaining wall, so a smaller boundary retaining wall option was submitted to council for building approval.

1/12/2014

A building permit to reinforce the retaining wall between 14 Trinity Rise and 11b Keble Heights was granted by the city of Bunbury.

01/09/2014

Obtained a full set of building permits for 11b Keble heights .

01/12/2014

Building permit approval from city of Bunbury to reinforce damaged boundary retaining wall.

11/12/2014

House sale listing with Professionals expires. House had been on Market since 23/6/2013, or about 18 months.
The chances of selling the house with the retaining wall problem unresolved have proven to be very low, with an asking price that recommended by the estate agents of $430,000, or $35,000 less than I paid for it.

18/12/2014

WML invoice up to this date. I have other emails relating to WML but I do not think they are needed.

11/01/2015

Was abused and hosed down when attempting to build the new retaining wall myself.

15/3/15

Went to visit a lawyer to find out where I stood and what my options were.
Harriette Benz from BENZ LEGAL charge $420 + GST = $462 per hour, recommended by WML engineering, but not recommended by me.
They told me that the boundary retaining wall is considered part of the boundary fence under the dividing fences act, and that the Marshes need to contribute regardless of if the original boundary retaining wall had a building permit or not.
Based on that advice I spent some time giving some details of the issue to the lawyer, and created this web page, and the photos web page so that all details would be available if and when they were needed.
I later received an email from that same lawyer "confirming" that the retaining wall is not covered by the dividing fences act, directly contradicting what they originally told me.
I was required to put $2,000 into a trust account before I started, and on 6th May I asked for the balance to be returned. On June 2nd I received $445.80 back after I sent a reminder email.
$1,554.2 for giving me advice that was wrong.

10/4/2015

Original Quote from Bunbury Concreting for $19,800

4/2015

The road, rail and sea certification on my shipping container in Picton was about to run out. I had already spent approx $1,300 on storage, with an unknown time frame before my house would be sold. I sent the shipping container to Port Lincoln without things I was likely to need in the next couple of months.
When I do finally move I will fill my van and trailer and leave everything else behind, including my fridge, washing machine, desk and bed.

7/5/2015

Re-listed house for sale with "Forsalebyowner" real estate agents as I had been unemployed for 4 months, my $60,000 safety net had been used up, and there was a very real possibility that the bank would foreclose on my loan.
Also on this date, according to the defenses “Listing conference memorandum” dated 17th February, 2016, Point 11. An Unsigned letter from Agiuras to James Marsh dated 7th May, 2015. I requested but I am yet to receive a copy of this as of 8/8/2016. Update 16/8/2025. This was never provided.

1st week of 5/2015

I googled "Dividing fences act" and found the information that I paid the lawyer to tell me, and submitted my claim directly to the Bunbury Magistrates court.
Landgate web page giving advice on dividing fences.
Magistrates court list of forms.

Magistrates court documents

Form 3 General Procedure Claim
Fact sheet 13, page 1
Fact sheet 13, page 2
Fact sheet 13, page 3
Form 17 Notice of intention to defend
Form 29 Notice of pre-trial Conference.
Invoice for conference.


At this point in time, (6 June 2015), I am not using any lawyer. I have not burnt my bridges with Harriette Benz, but would prefer to find someone else if it turns out I do need a lawyer.

8/5/2015

Defendant signed an intention to defend according to paperwork received by email on 7th December.

28/05/2015

David Brightwell from the city of Bunbury send the Marshes an email stating that 11b Keble Heights has no building permits for the original retaining walls.
As well as being wrong in fact it also breached confidentiality laws. I did not discover this for a long time.

18/06/2015

Pre-Trail hearing at the magistrates court in Bunbury.
Both Marshes, their lawyer and I attended, but most of the time I was sent out of the meeting room. I gave the Marshes a copy of the building permit plans and showed them the invoice for the concrete contractor.
The Marshes had been told that the cost of reinforcing this section of retaining wall would be between $5,000 and $10,0000, and they were going to go and get a "firmer" price or quote. There was no reason given for not having done so already.
The Marshes also agreed to look into removing the overburden sand from the boundary retaining wall to comply with building regulations, and to reduce the chances of the weakened retaining wall either falling by itself or as the foundations are dug.
The invoice for the concrete contractor did not specify the length of retaining wall that was going to be reinforced, and asked me to ask the contractor to clarify this point. I chased this up and forwarded it to the Marshes once I had received it.
Ian, the Marshes Lawyer, who has previously been to the site, insisted that the sand next to the original retaining wall had been removed for at least a meter from the edge of the retaining wall. This turned out to be total bullshit.

18/06/2015

Reminded Marshes that it was costing me approx $500 per week just in Mortgage payments because of delaying the sale of my house, and to please keep me informed of any progress they make, but no feedback was received until the day before the next pre-trail hearing.

26/6/2015

Alex from Bunbury Contractors came to site and updated his quote to include the length. I discovered that the concreting quote did not include any bricks. The cost of dressing up the concrete needs to be added to the costs, but as any quote will expire before the concrete has even been poured I have simply estimated this to be around $400.
Alex also stressed that it was important to start work on this ASAP before the original retaining wall moves any more and before it rains too much and increases the load on the wall. Wet sand is heavier than dry sand.
I confirmed with WML that this change would be OK, and also asked what the maximum height the reinforced retaining wall would hold. It turns out that it was designed to hold a maximum of 30 degrees incline, less room for a spoon drain to stop water from collecting against the fence.
Factors to consider when reinforcing existing boundary retaining wall. Email, with updated invoice

27/06/2015

Date that was set to auction my house because I ran out of money. No potential buyers showed up, most likely due to the retaining wall problem.
Email requesting Marsh building permit. on page 3, second line.

01/07/2015

Follow up email requesting Marsh Building permit. first paragraph.

29/07/2015

Evening meeting with James Marsh and their lawyer. They told me that because the building permit was for 15 meters, I would need to get all 15 meters done at the same time, and they wanted a economy of scale discount. They also confirmed that it should only cost between $5,000 and $10,000 to do the shared 5.6 meters.
No quote has been shown to or received by me and I doubt very much one exists as over 4.4 cubic meters of concrete is needed, as well as form work and labor.
I told them that I simply cannot afford to do the entire section of retaining wall, and that the 5.6 meter section was urgent because of the damage to that section.
The following day I went to the council and asked them about needing to build the entire length of the permit. I was told it should be OK and to just fill in the notice of completion for the section that has been done.
If the Marshes are not happy with this then I will simply pay to get a new building permit, hopefully at their cost.

30/07/2015

Second Pre-Trail hearing at the magistrates court in Bunbury.
This delay cost me a lot of money in lost wages and lost work opportunities, and was very quick and basic. The Marshes still refused to pay anything at all, I refused to delay things any longer as it was costing me a lot of money, and the previous delays had achieved nothing whatsoever. The registrar set in motion the next stage and is going to send out paperwork that needs to be filled in.
I lodged a Form 19, General procedure claim this same day.
Emailed General procedure claim.

3/8/2015

Received a Form 25, General Order, from the Bunbury Magistrates Court.

4/8/2015

Sent Email to Marshes listing the documents I posses, and documents I would like a copy of.

9/9/2015

Submitted Form 35. and List of Documents, Form 36 page 1, and Form 36, page 2. to the Magistrates court. At this date I have still not received the alternate quote to reinforce the retaining wall that the Marshes delayed the pre-trial hearing for.
Disclosure of documents in doc format.
Form 36 in doc format.

15/9/2015

Visited lawyer (Max Owen) for an hour on this day.
Received Some of the building permit for the Marshes new retaining walls, confirming that Structerre are a part of the original problem, and the structural report they did on my boundary retaining wall is a probable conflict of interest.
No indication of who it was from and left in my letter box with no stamp and no address.
Form BA3 page 1. Form BA3 page 2. Form BA3 page 3. Form BA3 page 4. Form BA4 page 1. Form BA4 page 2. "Form BA7 - Notice of Completion" is missing, as well as site plans 1 & 2, and the Structerre Engineering detail HOR ??? drawings.

17/9/2015

I submitted a request for default judgment, 28 days after the deadline for the Marshes to submit their paperwork.

6/10/2015

Notice of default Judgment.

20/10/2015

Receipt to pour foundations

2/11/2015

Received a change of address notice, a notice to contest default judgement, which was submitted 31 days after the default judgment had been granted, and 10 days after the deadline, and the Document defending the case, that was due before 20th August. This deadline was missed by 42 days.

6/11/2015

My notice to defend default judgment., and Form 23 to go with it.

09/11/2015

Email chain asking about building part of what is on the building permit.

18/11/2015

Received the Defence list of documents available that was due before 2nd October. This deadline was missed by 40 days.

20/11/2015

Receive a cover letter, and a notice from the Bunbury Magistrates court, telling me I can defend the default judgment by phone.

11/2015

Affidavit defining costs. Not sure on date submitted.

27/11/2015

Received a copy of Defences letter to Magistrates court stating that they have a good case. This includes as attachments;

03/12/2015

Letter from the Marshes wanting to change the 9th December hearing from phone to attending. Sent by post when it was known I would be away, and when other emails were sent while I was away.
Email from Ian with Letter of Consent to be signed.

07/12/2015

Email from Ian Morrison with a letter of consent to be signed stating that I agree to pay for delays and to drop the default judgment. Also included is a outline of submissions

08/12/2015

I reply to the last minute affidavit by the defense.Doc format. and PDF format.
I provide Ian with my Building permits.

09/12/2015

Court hearing by audio link. Magistrate was in Collie, I was at the Capricorn Roadhouse camp, Ian was at the Bunbury court house.
This hearing was connected, then promptly cancelled as the magistrate was too busy.
I requested this hearing to be postponed till December 16th, as this date had been booked months in advance, but Ian had booked holidays and this took priority.
Arrangements were made to postpone the decision to determine if the default judgment would stand or not till Jan 15th.

16/12/2015

Original hearing date to determine damages set on 6th October 2015. Did not happen due to Ians holiday.

18/12/2015

Court agrees to conduct hearing by audio link. This did not happen as I was unemployed on that day anyway.

04/01/2016

Updated affidavit defining costs.

05/01/2016

Support default judgement as DOC and as PDF . This document had as attachments a List of building permits, Building license 11489 Conditions of approval, Building permit 11489 invoice, Building permit 11489, Building permit 11489 footing detail, Building permit 11335 (Western retaining wall), Building permit 11335 footing detail, and an earlier version of this time-line less the first page.

15/01/2016

Hearing to determine if the default judgement will stand, and possibly to determine the amount of the default judgement. Set on December 9th, 2015.
The default judgement was appealed and overturned.
Paperwork from court. Received the paper copy by post on Friday 22 Jan. Apparently it sat on someones desk for 3 days.
At some time in the past someone else appealed a default judgement, and the defence had no hope of defending themselves.
Because they had no hope of defending themselves, the judge allowed the default judgement to stand, regardless of any other irregularities.
That has now been twisted to mean that if the defence has a plausible defence, default judgements are not possible, making the entire default judgement process irrelevant.
The Judge also said she was surprised that I was not using the dividing fences act. The dividing fence is at most %10 of the total cost, also the dividing fences act has two specific acts of negligence, fire or a falling tree. Nothing else matters. This is definitely negligence, but not covered under the dividing fences act.
Also including the dividing fence in this action is insurance against losing and paying the Marshes legal fees.
The Judge also told me I would probably need an expert witness to attend the hearing, as it was up to me to prove that they caused the damage.
James Marsh has been added to Sharyl Marsh as a defendant.
Statement of defence. submitted later that same day.

18/01/2016

Email from Ian. Needs link.

19/01/2016

Defence list of documents. Forms 35 & 36

22/01/2016

New deadline for defence to submit forms 35 & 36, which was sealed on 19/01/2016.
I got myself in a muddle and thought I also needed to submit forms 35 & 36. Disclosure of documents and declaration.
I also submitted an affidavit to request documents from the Marshes, but Ian Morrisons office was closed when I tried to deliver them.
My Form 35 declaration in jpeg. and Form 35 in doc format.
My Form 36. My list of documents in PDF. and in DOC format.

25/01/2016

My Affidavit to request documents in PDF and in DOC format. This affidavit has this email from Structerre on 20/10/2012 attached.

27/01/2016

Email from Ian. Needs link.

19/02/2016

Original Deadline to comply with Order 4 of the general orders dated 30th July 2015.
"Each party to lodge with the court a listing conference memorandum on or by 23 October 2015 and to provide to the court unavailable dates for attendance at such conference by the same date"
Info on filling in a form 32

22/02/2016

Court fee to have witness on 2 March 2016.
Email to Ian offering settlement.
Defence form 32, Listing conference memorandum.
PDF version of my form 32, Listing conference memorandum, and in DOC format. Timeline of things to back my being a witness.
Invitation to admit facts in PDF and in DOC format. with appendix.
WML engineering report and Sketch. Email offer of settlement.

25/02/2016

WML Invoice for inspection.

2/03/2016

Court listing conference at 9:30am at the Bunbury Magistrates court. I thought this was the hearing itself, instead it was only a "Listing Conference" and although it cost $106.50, it took less than 3 minutes and the only thing discussed was "how long do you think the court trail will go for ?
Details of the actual case were not discussed.
I guessed less than half a day, the defence guessed 2 days, the court decided it was better to have extra time allocated rather than not enough, and so it is set for two days. The first two day space in the courts calendar is on the 16th and 17th of August.
And yes, you guessed it, the most amount of work I have been offered all year, and not just from one place but from two different places, overlapped with that court date, so not only did I miss out on that work, but i have most likely missed out on even being asked for other work from those same people.

17/03/2016

Received Court paperwork and bill for hearing on August 16th and 17th, 2016.

22/03/2016

Paid court fee of $678

30/03/2016

Lodged and served affidavit to have witness present during the hearing in DOC format.and PDF format.
Lodged and served statement of issues and fact and law in Doc format.and in in PDF format.
Lodged and served affidavit defining costs as an attachment to the issues and fact statement, in Doc format

13/04/2016

Deadline to lodge & serve statement of expert witness.

24/03/2016

Complaint to Ombudsman about the city of Bunbury regarding heavy bias, privacy breaches, a retaining wall built with no permit, and retaining walls built with a permit but in breach of the building regulations.

29/03/2016

Received reply from Ombudsman , acknowledging complaints on 24/03/2016.

16/05/2016

Received reply from Ombudsman referring to the wrong retaining wall, completely ignoring the retaining wall built with no building permit, ignoring the breach of building regulations for the new retaining walls with building permits and ignoring privacy issues and heavy biased wrong information.

02/08/2016

Received email from defense referring to my confidential web page containing all my legal paperwork.
The Web page http://aquasate.com/house/ was created to provide additional information for potential house buyers. I have a legal obligation to inform potential house buyers of any defects in the property I am selling, and aquasate.com/house/ had a link to aquasate.com/Wall/ to show this information. The link to aquasate.com/Wall/ was removed at a later date, and at the time a google search for "link:aquasate.com/Wall/" confirmed that this was the only link to this web page. This page was then updated to include confidential information to outline my case to a lawyer, with links to relevant documents.
Unfortunately the "robots.txt" file, which defines to search engines pages that should not be indexed, was either not updated, or possibly was updated, but then inadvertently replaced with an earlier version.
A link to this page was also provided to the Ombudsman with complaints about the Bunbury city council, including privacy breaches. It is possible the defense discovered my confidential web page via a Google search, and it is also possible that someone at the Bunbury city council also breached my privacy on this issue as well, and alerted the Marshes to search for this page.

8/08/2016

Near Deadline to lodge & serve written submissions.
Lodged Facts & Law in PDF, Facts & Law in Doc format and Request for missing documents in PDF , Request for missing documents in Doc format.

9/8/2016

Deadline to lodge & serve written submissions Lodged Affidavit claiming costs. and a predated Change of address.
Defence objection to witness Not sure when it was received.

11/8/2016

Received a letter regarding discovery sent on 8/8/2016, but did not notice it until 2017.
Received Defendants objection to WML Engineering report.

16 & 17/08/2016

Court hearing date.
1st day Transcript and Exhibit List
Exhibit 1, Bundle of 7 photos of the general area where the properties abut. Transcript day 1, page 35, 73.
Exhibit 2, Marked up Water Authority sewerage easement map. Transcript day 1, page 36.
Exhibit 3, Google Earth image dated 16/11/2015. Transcript day 1, page 39.
Exhibit 4, Email from Sharyl Marsh to Gary Bruin, Bunbury council, dated 25/3/2014. Transcript day 1, page 39.
Exhibit 5, Building permit 11489 dated 07/07/1994 for retaining wall. Transcript day 1, page 42
Exhibit 6, Building permit 11335 dated 23/04/1994 for retaining wall. Transcript day 1, page 45, 79
Exhibit 7, Bundle of 16 photos. Transcript day 1, page 46. and Transcript day 2, page 34.
Exhibit 8, Original title for 14 Trinity Rise. Transcript day 1, page 48.
Exhibit 9, Plans and contour for 14 Trinity Rise dated 1-08-1996. Transcript day 1, page 49. This is the one that I had no warning about.
Exhibit 10, Water authority contour survey dated 15/04/1994. Transcript day 1, page 50.
Exhibit 11. Building permit with contours dated 8/5/2012 for Marsh new retaining wall. Transcript day 1, page 56 and Transcript day 2, page 55.
MFI 1. Bunbury contractors quote for $1980. Transcript day 1, page 65.
Exhibit 12. Bundle of invoices. Transcript day 1, page 65.
Exhibit 13. Building permit for new retaining wall. Transcript day 1, page 72.
Exhibit 14. WML engineering report. Transcript day 1, page 78.
Exhibit MFI 2. Two drawings. Transcript day 1, page 81.
Exhibit 15. Two photos showing shovel and hole. Transcript day 1, page 82.
Exhibit 2A. Larger version of exhibit 2. Transcript day 1, page 83.

2nd day Transcript and Exhibit List
Transcript of decision.
Exhibit 16 Bunbury contractors quote. Transcript day 2 page 22
Exhibit 17, email from Laughton to department of Commerce dated 28/05/2014. Transcript day 2, page 25.
Exhibit 18, Email from water board to Laughton 11/09/2015. Transcript day 2, page 26.
Exhibit 19, Marsh retaining wall permit issued 18 May 2012. Transcript day 2, page 26.
Exhibit MFI 3. Photos marked 27, 28 and 29. Transcript day 2, page 28.
Exhibit MFI 4. Defendants 2 Photos showing shovel against wall. Transcript day 2, page 29.
Exhibit 20, Defendants certificate of title, volume 2064, folio 162. Transcript day 2, page 30.
Exhibit 21, Print out of My web page and photos. Transcript day 2, page 33.
Exhibit 22, print screen of a google search showing my web page.Transcript day 2, page 36/
Exhibit 23, Plaintiffs statement of evidence of Andrew Laughton. Form 32A. Transcript day 2, page 41.
Exhibit 24, Defendants statement of evidence form 32A as redacted. Transcript day 2, page 49.
Exhibit 25, MFI1, Engineering drawings with water authority stamp. 15 April 1994. Transcript day 2, page 50.
Exhibit 26. 3 photos of sewer easement. Transcript day 2, page 51.
Exhibit 27, MFI4. Two photos of hole with shovel.
Exhibit 28, Fence quote. Transcript day 2, page 56.
Possible Exhibit 23. Structerre report on soil at foot of new retaining wall.

08/09/2016

Appeal of decision in pdf and in odt format

16/11/2016

Bill of defense costs received.

24/11/2016

Dispute bill of costs in pdf and in doc format.
Email denying access to survey.

01/12/2016

Medical certificate

6/12/2016

Request to inspect court record of result from subpoena.

15/12/2016

Request defense for documents in DOC format. and in PDF format
Submitted an Appeal Notice in PDF and Appropriate form and Reasons

20/12/2016

Submitted an updated Appeal notice because the first one needed more detail. 2016_12_20_Appeal.pdf

23/12/2016

Applied for a reduced fee to the District court. Also applied for a reduced fee for the hearing transcript.

24/12/2016

The fax sent on 23/12/2016 was Illegible. Tried again today.

4/01/2017

Had not heard from the court, sent Appeal by fax and email.. Appeal reasons in doc.
Received letter telling me that none of my fax's have worked, and a fax lodgment form in doc format.
Appealed for cheaper transcript

12/01/2017

Received email from court.

23/01/2017

Appeal hearing notice, Appeal hearing and reason for delay.
The application to reduce the fee for the transcript was filed today as well.

1/2/2017

Summands to council rejected as case has been closed.
Transcript fee reduced to $320.

10/02/2017

Change of address in jpeg and in doc format.

12/02/2017

Cover letter to court for documents sent on this date.

2/3/2017

Visited court to catch up with paperwork.

3/3/2017

Service certificate to send Appeal paperwork to lawyers.
Received email stating Ian was no longer acting for the Marshes.

15/03/2017

Service certificate to send Appeal paperwork to 14 Trinity Rise.

28/03/2017

Sent Updated reasons to court.
Received Marshes statement they intend to fight appeal.

29/03/2017

Court costs paperwork. In doc format, and in PDF format.

20/04/2017

District court pre hearing. Notice from District court.

23/04/2017

Affidavit to support subpoena to Bunbury council

24/04/2017

Subpoena to Bunbury council for neighbors boundary retaining wall building permit
The document produced by this subpoena showed that there was no building permit for the boundary retaining wall between 12 & 14 Trinity Rise. However it did show that a retaining wall was required, and it also showed contours. The court only allowed me to view this document, but not to get a copy.

18/05/2017

Defence change of address. 2 Zoe Street, Bunbury 6230 (side entrance) PO Box 2666 Bunbury 6231

25/05/2017

Pre appeal hearing. I misunderstood the courts letter to be that the next pretrial hearing was the paperwork deadline. The defence stuffed up as well, and the court only had the transcript for one day.
Extra appeal evidence in PDF. and in Doc format.

27/05/2017

Submitted form to apply for leave to show extra evidence.

06/06/2017

Applied to submit extra evidence.

08/06/2017

Security of costs and in doc format.

21/06/2017

Court hearing for taxation. Taxation paperwork is dated ...

23/06/2017

Email from Ian with taxation details.

29/06/2017

Hearing to allow appeal to happen without paying security of costs. Stuffed up. This may have been the deadline to submit documents.

30/06/2017

Received Updated defence costs.

Need change of address form to change address to Max Owens address.

Doc format and in PDF format.

11/07/2017

Received from the defence via Max Owen a Notice to dismiss appeal and security of costs.

13/07/2017

Hearing to allow appeal to happen.
Relevant includes; Reasons why not in PDF and in DOC format.
Contour drawings from 1996 and 2012 that I was denied access to.

30/07/2017

House appraisal for $345,000 to $365,000, and Comparison of house prices document.

09/08/2017

I forgot to apply to suspend payment of costs. Did it today. Form 9 and Affidavit to support the form 9.
Also filled form B7 to say the boundary wall section has been completed.

15/08/2017

Building permit runs out to reinforce boundary retaining wall. Completed on 9/8/2017

23/08/2017

Received 19-09-2017 Form 8, application to suspend the enforcement is dismissed, and I need to pay the cost of the defence.

11/09/2017

Received 19-09-2017 Letter from Bailiffs office demanding an extra $15,371.30. $10,000 has already been paid.

22/09/2017

Change of address in PDF and District in doc format and Local in Doc format.

30/10/2017

Court verdict on appeal against the appeal.

9/11/2017

Affidavit to court regarding 30/10/2017 appeal against the appeal in DOC format. and in PDF format.

12-12-2017

Email from Max re Appeal.

09-01-2018

Draft of Appeal reasons sent to Max.

12-01-2018

Draft of application to submit a new appeal. as sent to Max.

13-01-2018

Slight update of appeal reasons sent to Max.

14-02-2018

Email from Max re appeal.

03-2018

Notice of new appeal against appeal via Max.

11-03-2018

Ask to attend hearing by phone.

14-03-2018

Email to District court asking for a hearing date.

26-03-2018

Reminder emails to District court for hearing date and to attend hearing by phone.

26-04-2018

New Appeal against the appeal Hearing date. Court could not find paperwork and rescheduled to 24 May 2018 at 10:00 am

23 May 2018

Email from Ian Morrison.

24-05-2018

New Appeal against the appeal date, did not happen. This notice from the court via Ian Morrison was emailed instead, Re-dated notice from the court asking for $13,000 deposit.

25-05-2018

Appeal against extra $13,000 deposit. and Support affidavit. Combined and signed Appeal.

05-06-2018

Letter from District court via Max Owens.
Letter from Marshes demanding retaining wall be raised.

11-06-2018

Tried to pay court filing fee, but District court people did not know how much to charge, and were going to ring me back.
Follow up phone call when they did not ring me back.

12-06-2018

Follow up phone call to court, and phone call to Max

13-06-2018

Tried to pay $13,000 security, return phone call saying I was too late.

15/06/2018

Email from Max

20/06/2018

Email from Max

25/06/2018

Pdf sent to Court of appeal Fix Links and Form 9 in doc format and Affidavit in doc format.

27/06/2018

Email from Max, I am on my own.

29/06/2018

Tried to submit Form 6 application to District court via elodgement, failed, sent email instead.

06/07/2018

Still not heard from the court, rang them up and ended up submitting the form and paying $475 application fee.
Hearing date set for 13 Sept 2018 at 10:00am Perth time.
Chased Balif on 1300558830 for refund on over paid money. Ref 180544 http://www.baycorp.com.au/contact

20/07/2018

Letter from Marshes.

03-08-2018

Received Fence quote.
Sent Marshes this letter.
Sent Darrel this letter.

13 Sept 2018

District court hearing date in Bunbury at 10:00am. Did not happen as I did not serve the notice.
District court form 6, Appeal notice in Doc format
Notice of service in Doc format.
Affidavit in Doc format.
Form 8 in Doc format.
All documents in PDF format.
Sent to Ian by Registered post recite number 518642850018, Sent by email as well.
Rang District court in Perth 08 9425 2128 3 5 to see if I owe money. $17,150

14 Sept (09) 2018

Order from District court.

17-09-2018

Emails to and from Max

18-09-2018

Email from Max.

21-09-2018

Received Bill of costs from defence.

11 Oct 2018

New court hearing. Turns out that this was a directions hearing.
Apparently I missed a phone call from the court on 24 May 2018.
The Court will post me mail giving a reference to the next court date.
Audio of court hearing. 22 Minutes.
Tried to find a new lawyer, and Young and Young agreed to look at it after I paid $2,000 into their trust account.

22 Oct 2018

Received notice of court hearing. Via Max

25 Oct 2018

Advice from Y&Y to adjust appeal notice.

29 Oct 2018

Received bill of costs for taxation.

30 Oct 2018

Received email from Max, and a second email to add a reference to the appeal document.
Modified Form 6.

21 Nov 2018

New Court hearing in Perth District Court.
Transcript

30 Nov 2018

Email to Max and Email from Max

6 December 2018

Discovered that the reason the appeal notice had not been submitted to the court was because Max was waiting on extra payment. Set Max an extra $1000.

7 December 2018

Submit Court of Appeal form 2, to appeal against District court.
Submit affidavit to support form 2.
Submit Form 09 to apply for extension of time.
Submit affidavit to support form 09.

10 December 2018

Email from Max. Includes Act I can appeal under.

11 December 2018

District court Decision

13 Dec 2018

Court costs hearing.

17 December

Sent Supreme courta form 13, Application for review of the 21 November 2018 hearing. Tracking number 945971045011.
At this point I am giving up. Once the house is sold I will probably try again before settlement date, but for now I have done everything I can towards the legal fight, and need to focus on selling the house, getting a job, and getting my life back.

28-12-2018

Email from Court of Appeal

31-12-2018

To Court of Appeal in Doc format.

02-01-2019

Posted Appeal form to Court of Appeal, as this was the first day the post office was open. Tracking number RPP44 63800 09400 04639 93600.

18-01-2019

Posted revised Appeal form to Court of Appeal, with delay reasons. PDF version. Posted to Court of Appeal, tracking number RPP44 63800 09400 04759 73607

22-01-2019

Court accepts the appeal.

23-01-2019

Received $220 invoice from CoA by email, along with a self Rep kit.

18-02-2019

Received email from Court of Appeal stating that I needed to serve the Marsh's personally and that I need to resubmit the reset of the paperwork. Received paper version on 21 February 2019.

22-02-2019

Sent CoA a copy of Appeal notice dated 19 Feb 2019, and a service certificate dated 21 Feb 2019. Tracking number RPP44 63800 09400 04568 00601
Received Notice of Intention from Ian Morrison, and notice that he was no longer acting for the Marshes.

26-02-2019

Deadline to send appeal paperwork.
Appellant case., Grounds of Appeal, Submissions, Legal authorities, Orders Wanted., Chronology, Appeal book indexes. All of the above signed and witnessed.
Tracking number RPP44 63900 05100 02119 32600, and emailed as well.
Received phone call telling me to delete affidavit parts of paperwork. Redid it, re-faxed it, and emailed it again.

27-02-2019

Email from court asking me to redo one of the papers.

28-02-2019

Was served Bankruptcy notice.at 6:20pm.
Served Marshes with new grounds of appeal at 8:15pm.

15-03-2019

Dealt with Bankruptcy notice.
How to fill in forms.   Blank Forms
PDF response. Docx version.>

21 March 2019

Deadline to submit papers to both Bankruptcy court and Court of Appeal.
Submitted all.

22 March 2019

Updated and faxed Bankruptcy paperwork

23 March 2019

Served Court of Appeal Papers at 2:18pm to Sharyl

2 April 2019

Latest attempt failed.
Supreme court rules link.




14/9/2025

Open letter / email to Bunbury city shire offering to pay for engineering inspection.
Response from shire.




The rest of this document can be ignored, they are notes to myself over a period of years.








Magistrates court forms.
District court forms.
Court of Appeal Forms

WA Laws.
Limitation Act, page 15 for general stuff is 6 years. or here.
Building code Australia section on where Balustrades are needed. and section about affecting other land.
Latest & greatest Affidavit claiming costs.
Building code, Page 5
Building act, section 77 and Building act, section 79, which includes boundary fences. Section 83 about lack of notice. Section 89 about both neighbours need to contribute to maintenance of boundary retaining wall. Also Section 91
Note to lawyer. Please do not tell the defence about this law until speaking with me. The defence have lied under oath before and will probably lie under oath again. A written statement agreeing that the most they have offered is $500 is needed, or to state this under oath. If they make an offer of half the cost of the retaining wall I would be much more likely to need to pay their legal fees if I lose the civil damages claim. If they make no such offer I should be able to get away without paying the defence costs if I lose. The overall cost to me is over $200,000 and I would like the option to recover some of it.
Report 44, Page 43 refers to Uniform building by-laws 1974; By-law 8.2(1)(a) and By-law 8.2(5) Libraries Australia ID 3834902.
Civil liability under the by-laws. Legal report. Page 34 is very relevant.
Dividing fences act exclusively magistrates court. Reference.




For Appeal against the judgement

Process to appeal to Court of Appeal.


District court web page.
District court forms page
State Law database

Court of Appeal fees
Court of Appeal forms.


Bankruptcy stuff

elodgment laughton01

WA court stuff

eportal

For next trail

Print photos of manhole covers out of the ground. Done.

Need to find reference to "selling house before being paid" court case.

> Need to get Nearmap images.
Need to write list of questions to ask witnesses.
Witnesses; Previous owners of 14 Trinity rise, Bunbury city council, owner of 15 Keble heights, WML engineering, Bunbury concrete contractors.
Need to update statement of fact and law.
Need to update Affidavit claiming costs.
Need to get 13 & 15 Keble heights surveyed, height of reference point for my retaining wall, height of sewer cover behind 15 Keble heights.
Need to find reference of previous court case used to reject default judgment.
Need to research judges previous cases used as reference.
Need to print photos of sand against fence.
Need to ask for written permission to enter Marshes property to take photos, to dig hole where they dug a hole, probe for backing blocks and to survey height of sewerage points. Done 24/11/2016
Need to finish retaining wall before August 2017. Building permit runs out.
Create subpoena for City of Bunbury.
Need to chase affidavit about setting aside default judgement. Transcript day 1, page 47.

Useless info.

Local government act.
Albany page 18.
Natural right of support to neighbours land.Info on page 13. Reference to selling property before settlement on page 14.
Legal argument regarding land owners liability
Possible lawyer.
Landgate aerial photos.
Landgate aerial photos Select "Buy Aerial photo for history.
Information on fall of soil on page 46
Information on when contour drawings are needed. Page 43
Bunbury Shire building permits for retaining walls. Page 3
Info on court process
CIVIL LIABILITY ACT 2002 and the General Principles
Just answer query


Detective desk. $100 for 14 days.
Australian People Records.
List of previous owners of 14 Trinity Rise. Rodney James Melville and Cheryl Melville sold to the Marshes.
For previous owners of 12 Trinity Rise use Landgate website.
Site to locate previous owners.
Site to Value House / Property.
Height of retaining walls before fall restraint is needed. State law "Uniform building by-laws 1974" Section 31.6(3) that states; "The height of any newly formed embankment or newly excavated face shall not be greater than 1 m unless approved by the council."

State Law publisher
Evidence Act 1995

Austlii Database
Possible lawyer.


Photos of Fence