Has the wall got weep holes; or does it ooze in wet weather?

Apart from whingeing and putting down black plastic, have the neighbours installed any drainage at the foot of the wall, like a gutter leading away to a soak area of some kind. Even an ephemeral wet zone on the lawn would be a help.

Is the water actually run-off from your place - in which case contouring the ground on your side to capture it in shallow hollows and garden beds could reduce the problem. If it's gathering speed on a sloping hard-surface path or drive you might need to get in a concrete cutter to create some grooves to lead it away to soakage areas alongside.

If it's seepage down an underground rock sheet or similar, perhaps because of the grading work on the property, then a field drain - properly laid and heading into a catchment area that you can check - looks like a reasonable answer.

If you're on a new subdivision you might find it useful to talk with the drainlayer who put in your sewage system and find out what he knows about the subsoil in your area.

If there is a drain it could be safer to leave it free of deep-rroting plants. They'll go into amazingly tiny spaces in search of water during a drought. Enough to choke out even a 100mm pipe. Tree ferns are very good at this...

Good idea to install drippers instead of sprinklers.

Then they built a 40ft shed and put it across the block and it floods, same thing they dug out, should have put the shed long ways, plenty of room they have over one acre, too bad cant stop nature thats why we didnt buy a block at the bottom of the slope, we also put our house up on 4ft steel stumps so we are safe.

Seems your neighbour is a whinger, its their block, so their water, their problem, tell them to get rid of that plastic it wont help, they need more drains or aggie pipes especially under those pavers. You just tell them you cant stop nature, that what the council told us years ago with another house we had built in Melbourne, so this time we built up not down it is so much better.

Good luck with your neighbour....MM

The "handyman" who he employed to build the retaining wall initially wanted to build a retaining wall of sleepers on our side of the boundary because he had already put in a concrete path on the available land on their side. We had visions of the side of our house slowly falling onto their roof.

I won't go into the dramas - involving solicitors, injunctions, a building inspector who, we suspect, was instructed to give more consideration to the council's accountant than to the various building codes - AND THE COST!!! In the end we got what we wanted - a properly constructed retaining wall, with the required footings, ag pipe, etc. and on their side of boundary. Which was no more than we were entitled to.

But to your problem - perhaps the next time the neighbour complains you might suggest that you arrange for the building inspector to come at a time to suit you both and discuss the situation (assuming the building inspector is not a friend/relative of the neighbour). The inspector will probably give pretty much the same advice as you have been giving but it might be better accepted coming from an "official" source.

Don't forget, though, evergreens do a wonderful job of blocking out unsightly objects - like neighbours :-)

It has tiny leaves. I scanned a sprig with a teabag for comparison - it's posted on Oz Garden Gallery if you'd like to look.

Wondered if you might be interested - the leaves are so small the neighbours might not notice them.

Ian

All he gets from my side is a bit of seepage for about 8 feet. Somehow this is my fault?
Woori

After considerable pruning/hacking on her part (unfortunately you seem to need witnesses for a successful action for trespass/malicious damage), we put up a timber screen - which she tried to demolish as we were building it.

She also used to throw things over the fence - her garden prunings, rubbish off the street, etc. My daughter, who was about 6 or 7 at the time, was having a picnic lunch in the garden with her girlfriend and madam threw a beer bottle over the fence which hit the friend on the head!! Luckily, no damage to head but it could have been very nasty.

After many years of putting up with her, I came home one day to find a huge mass of prunings thrown over the fence at the front of the garden. I was so peeed off!! Went to trusty printer and printed up a very clear sign which said "Mrs Wright throws her rubbish into my garden", fixed it to a garden stake and hammered it into the front lawn in the midst of the mess.

I got a letter from her solicitor threatening me with defamation (he should have been threatening libel - some solicitor) if I didn't remove the sign. On the Chamber of Magistrate's advice, I wrote to the solicitor telling him I would remove the sign if madam desisted from "the following actions", which comprised a list three pages long. The sign stayed there until it more or less fell to pieces, along with the rubbish (now that took determination). We finally decided to sell the house and move on.

I now have two rental units next to me and have had partying young people, couples with major domestic problems, a couple of leases to drug addicts, and one lot of very noisy and messy petrol heads. But compared with madam, truly wonderful neighbours.

Re the Chamber Magistrate - in NSW a solicitor (who has a chamber in the courthouse??) employed by the courts to offer legal advice but does not actually take on cases. There is no charge for the service. I guess there is a Victorian equivalent. After tearing my hair out with police, council officers, paying solicitors to write letters, etc., I found the Chamber Magistrate very helpful and sympathetic.