The amount of digging in the photo upthread would make me worry that my own land might shift, particularly if there’s a lot of water in there. On the other hand, that’s probably just as big a worry if she were to decide on pouring a new foundation. By agreeing, you might be able to build in some protections for your property.
I was reading about them on this site.
The image posted with all the excavation is not the normal practice.
Does your house have a basement, too? Will its walls need fixing next year, or next decade?
Will you need to dig/excavate around your own house some day?
You won’t be able to, because the digging would disturb the anchor bolts that your neighbor installed in your property.
And now, (say, in 10 years ) your attempts to fix your own house will cause serious , expensive damage to the neighbor’s house…so you are screwed.
My post before yours states:
I’d say the opposite. If the OP’s basement needs the same treatment then he can now rely on help from his neighbour to install the same braces, partially on the neighbour’s property.
Just let the neighbour do it.
It most certainly is. Even if the anchors are subsurface, there is an implied responsibility to maintain them and their conditions, without benefit to the owner. Any of several kinds of neglect or action - trenching and cutting through an anchor, possibly causing collapse of the supported wall and a chain reaction of damage - is just one.
People have been killed over things like sharing a common driveway or a misplaced fence. Something that has the potential to cost one homeowner or the other huge bucks, even decades later, or has liability issues that could cause injury, death or major destruction… yeah. It affects the property in many ways.
This is should be a long term fix, it is a similar process used in making bulkheads (seawalls). It should have no effect on your home, but if it does it should be a positive effect, revealing pressure from your basement wall, which would tend to negate you one day needing this done also.
Quoting advertising copy from the anchor manufacturer’s website probably isn’t the best way to backup your claims.
They could go in on this project together and anchor their walls to each other! 
Ha, I was thinking the same thing, Tom. How close will these things end up to your own foundation, op?
This. Generally, the problem isn’t the neighbor who asks if he can put in some anchors. It’s the one who buys the house from him later and thinks he now gets to use that part of your land for other stuff. Or the guy who buys the OP’s house and starts tearing the stuff up.
For the OP and his neighbor’s protection, the agreement should be in writing. Your neighbor is essentially asking for an affirmative easement appurtenant, which is a complicated legal arrangement that has a number of implications for future buyers.
You do need the legal protection, a covenant in the deed to your neighbor’s house may be possible. But don’t stand in the way if you can get those assurances. An abandoned or unsellable or uninhabitable house next door doesn’t do you any good.
ETA: Is that the only solution for your neighbor?
I’m not an engineer but from my own experience in construction know this system won’t harm the other house’s foundation. Each of those rods only exerts a small amount of pressure on the ground. Thats why they had to use a dozen rods in that photo I linked. They placed those rods about every 2 to 3 ft to evenly distribute the force along the entire wall.
Those rods are not under any great tension. Cut one and its not going to slap you in the head like a utility pole guy-wire. The rod would bend if much tension was on it.
All they are doing is countering the force of gravity. Preventing the wall from leaning further and collapsing. This system will not straighten that wall. Its supporting the leaning wall.
Absolutely. “When dealing with your neighbor, smile, but have a witness.” You’d gain very little from refusing the request, all legal issues considered.
Almost certainly not, but shoring up or replacing a basement wall is an expensive proposition. It’s probably worth asking what the other options are and what the estimated costs would be. Maybe these anchors are just this contractor’s go-to fix and there’s another option within the same price spectrum.
Whats happened here is the wall’s footings weren’t put in deep enough. They are tilting and so is the wall. Could be that water undermined them or the original builders screwed up fifty years ago. The OP said a lot of houses in that neighborhood have that issue.
Solution #2 is called benching. Benching involves digging down to undisturbed soil or bedrock. Pour footings and build a short support wall in front of the old one. I’d expect about 4 to 5 ft tall but thats up to the consulting engineer. He may want the entire wall supported. This work will require engineered drawings when the contractor applies for a permit. I’ve been a laborer on jobs like this several times in my college days. Working summers for my tuition. Its quite labor intensive and expensive. Those engineered drawings aren’t cheap either. A french drain will protect the new footings.
btw, make certain the contractor got his permit for the rod system too. That way it gets inspected before the trench is backfilled.
you can see why its called benching. Don’t be fooled. That little wall has footings two or more feet into the ground. Footings must go below the frost line or they will heave.
btw the reason for permits is legal protection. The city or county inspects the work, passes or fails the work, and closes the permit if it passed. They are legally affirming the work was done to current building standards and codes.
How much legal protection that gives would vary from county to county. State to State. But at least there is signed paperwork passing the work.
They’re 100% permanent. Buried, but down there for the life of the house.
These look like residential application of soil nails used in high rise construction. Most buildings in downtown settings have these, sometimes they are removed after lower floor construction and sometimes they are not.
In a high rise that has below grade parking, the walls go to the property line. You can excavate a 8 story hole without using some means to hold up the vertical walls before the parking floors are poured. Thus soils nails are used that extend into the public right of way typically, but sometimes they go into an adjacent neighbors property. And as I said sometimes they are left and sometimes are cut off, the last ones I used had a mechanism to clip and remove the majority of the rod, leaving a small remnant on the adjacent property. IF down the road that owner decides to build a high rise with a basement the soil nail is removed, no harm no foul. In fact now that neighbor has a solid wall to build against.
However some owners use the request to try and extort huge concessions from developers, but there are other options, such as piles, etc but you give up 3-4’ of property to do that. Ah–but Karma is a bitch because now when the adjacent developer (who chose to not play nice) tries to build on his site, he can’t do soil nails and has to be very careful to not undermine the existing pile at his cost. If he had played nice he would have a nice wall to build against.
But regardless there are always legal documents allowing the easement and use of soil nails. I am not familiar with the residential type but it sounds similar in practice.
You should find out if it’s safe to dig in your yard , we ‘Dig Safe’ in my state , you have to have the someone come out and check for any gas lines etc underground. . I would have a lawyer write something saying if your neighbor damage anything on your property they have to pay to fix it.
This is the one I was wondering about. There are a lot of old houses in this area and I’ve heard of this being done. I’m sure it’s more expensive to do because you have to get under the old footing and that takes a full size excavator and forms.
The OP said this has been common in the neighborhood. When he needs to have the same thing done, he won’t be able to dig without running the risk of collapsing her walls.
I try to avoid the OMG LAWYER thing, but this is a good case for getting one that says you can sue her (not the contractor, her personally) for any damage the results due to the installation or in the future because of this. You’d also need to make sure that permits are pulled for the project so the city is on top of it.
Personally, I might even ask the city if having these extend onto your property is even legal. You might get lucky and find out it’s not, even if you sign off on it, and that would be the end of that.
Also, think about the fact that during the process there will only be 6 or less feet of earth next to your house. If your foundation is getting ready to fail, this is when it’s going to happen. It would be nice if you can say ‘ooooh, so sorry, you’re gonna have to pay for that’ as opposed to them saying ‘sucks to be you, but that paper you signed said we’re not liable for any damage to your house’.
As for other ways to fix it, the common way to fix a bowing foundation is to slightly lift the house off the foundation (just some jacks in the basement can do it) and rebuild or repour the wall. That, I would think, would be the superior way to do it since it’s a brand new wall and not a failing wall being held back with some metal plates. But I’m sure it’s more expensive.
Now, to go in the other direction, if you’re having any foundation issues at all on that side of the house: water coming in, clogged french drain, bowing etc, this is the time to address it. Make your deal with the neighbor and ask the contractor for a deal taking care of your issues. Since they’re already they’re and have most of that area dug up, you can tell them that you’d like a good price (remind them what good sport you’ve been).
PS, I’ll echo what others have said that you need to have them cover your lawyer fees. This should cost your zero out of pocket.