First and foremost, no one on here should be doing bar stool engineering unless they want to be putting their beavertail on the blue prints.
I went through a nightmare file in St. Albert where I was acting for the Purchaser. Vendor gave an old RPR and Stat Dec with a strange Compliance Letter that had an exception on the retaining wall.
Seems the neighbour's wall was collapsing, and 2 owners back there was a caveat put on by the City of St. Albert about the retaining wall. Had to fight with Vendor's lawyer, and City of St. Albert engineering back me, which made sense given the Caveat.
I was acting for relatives and all they wanted was this house come he!! or High Water. All the bank wanted was something they could easily sell if there was a foreclosure. I knew that I was going to have to eat the time, or have problems down the road come time to sell
8 hours of my thrown away time and the Vendor's Lawyer backed down. He had to apply to the City, get the necessary permits, etc.
Sometimes removing a retaining wall, re engineering to current code, and rebuilding can cost $50,000.
This could be your "dream", or your Lawyer's nightmare, in the future, if you decided to go it alone without engineering.
Drewski
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