Digging into backyard issues

Q: I live on the west side of Fair field and recently our neighbor behind us decided to put in a swimming pool that is currently under con struction. If you know anything about the soil over where we live it’s pretty sandy. You can’t just dig a hole because it’s a little like digging at the beach. The more your dig the more the sides fall in. In our case, the pool looks like it’s supposed to be pretty close to the fence between our lots. Their digging has already caused a portion of our fence to fall over on his side and now our landscaping and sprinkler lines are getting drawn into his hole. I’ve tried talking to the guy and all he says is that he’ll pay his half to replace the fence once the pool is done. But we’re losing our back yard. Another 2 feet and our stamped concrete patio will be at risk of cracking and moving. What is the law is our situation?

I’m afraid there aren’t any specific laws in California specifically regarding pool construction, other than perhaps some building codes and health

Solano Real Estate Scene

and safety regulations. The issues you’re having are known in the real estate world as the right to lateral or subjacent support, the definitions of which are exactly what you’re describing.

If you’re interested in reading the law itself you can Google California Civil Code 832.

That code section is pretty long but in relatively plain English. But I’ll summarize here.

In short, anybody who digs a hole is responsible for any damage the digging, or the hole itself, causes to anyone else’s property.

The idea between lateral and subjacent support is simply that the neighboring properties have a right to keep in place whatever was holding the dirt up before the offending neighbor started digging. Or at least to have the other owner make a good substitution.

In this case, your neighbor’s dirt was holding yours in place. Once he removed his dirt, your dirt started moving.

Under the law, your neighbor was required to give you notice of his intent to excavate. The notice had to include how deep the excavation was going to be and when the work was scheduled to begin.

The digger must then take

“reasonable precautions” to protect the soil of the neighboring property.

Typically that means using temporary retaining walls to keep the dirt from moving.

If your neighbor is having a professional company dig his hole I’m surprised you are having this problem in the first place. So legally you’re in good shape, but what do you do about it?

As is usually the case, if reasonable people can’t work this out (or if you’re short one reasonable person) the court is the only real enforcement mechanism.

See Jones, Page 19