Day 9 - underpinning

Our new house required a good deal of earth works where we basically excavated so that we could have some level building platforms to construct out home on, this has meant that our drive way is lower than the neighbours and there is a possibility, though very remote that their carport could collapse before we have the retaining wall in place, so for a mere few thousand dollars I will pay to extend their foundations more deeply than they are, and thus ensure their asset is protected.  In order to do this I need to get their consent, and they need to understand the implications this has for them before providing that consent.  This has taken over 1 week, but is now in place and further work can be scheduled to get my site started.
My advice is if underpinning is mentioned as a possibility, then get the consent straight away as the only risk is that the engineers may decide it is unnecessary but you will have no real delay.  My delays started with the half week to even be able to inform the neighbours of the need, then the week and a half to get the consent and be able to act on it.