I’m not sure how best way to share this but me and my wife’s home in Inchicore Dublin on Friday night suffered catastrophic damage due to collapse of the Camac River wall.
Additionally, several support beams for the nearby river tunnel/culvert have collapsed. Without urgent action, the tunnel will collapse blocking the river and will flood much of Inchicore and surrounding areas. The tunnel is publicly accessible and there is a risk to life if it were to go while people are walking over it.
We have had multiple structural surveys from 2 different civil engineers since we bought the house in 2021. While subsidence and river undermining had been flagged, at no point have we ever been told that our home was at immediate risk or that urgent action needed to be taken by us.
DCC and OPW were made aware of these issues in 2022/23 but did not act. We’ve been now engaging them since the collapse, flagging the immediate risks however they have again been slow to respond with any action as they are sighting the homeowners as responsible for these river structures.
We are honestly devastated and now facing homeless as we try to figure out if our parents or relatives can house us while we try to focus on repairing our home.
I’ll link the news articles and our social media posts in a comment but me and my wife just want to raise awareness of our situation to hopefully press the DCC into action.
Looks like it’s going to get worse before getting better, if DCC first response is – we need to ascertain ownership of the river walls….
Good luck OP
Jesus that house looks like it should be red tagged as in imminent danger of collapse. Can’t believe the council wouldn’t be out immediately to address it
Im so sorry this happened to you guys, I can’t imagine the stress.
Does home insurance cover this kind of damage?
Are there numerous other home that are at risk of the same thing?
Just wanna say OP, I admire how steady you seem in your posts given this crazy disaster. I think my sanity would have checked out. I really hope whoever you have to deal with extracts their head from their hole and understands the urgency of the situation.
Did you get an engineer to assess the property before you bought it? Did they say anything about this river?
Sorry this doesn’t help the OP directly. But being able to point out what happened before when a river got blocked might be useful in an argument
Really sorry to see that this has happened to you both. Hoping that the council can take ownership of the land and contribute to repairs in the interest of public safety.
Curious to know the history of the house, is that a 2 storey extension to the rear on the river wall? Obviously the conservatory was an extension out to the right.
If it is an extension, it looks like that 2 storey extension either should not have received planning or was built without proper surveying/planning. I wonder if the surveyor could be held accountable.
Looks like the foundations of the house are exposed. There’s a reason insurance companies won’t insure houses built close to rivers and prone to flooding.
It’s surprising this one was built so close to the river, without the builder putting in some underground retaining wall to support and reinforce the foundations. The municipal wall was most likely put in place to control the river, but definitely wasn’t put in place to provide protection to houses built so close to it.
The house foundations should have had its own reinforcement that close. Bad design. Terrible planning. Inevitable outcome.
You need to get the deeds for the boundary and then a civil engineer.
Who maintains the river – cleaning etc
Go back through plans and see if the river has been moved at any stage, especially by the council to allow for building work.
Something similar happened to people I know years ago but the homeowners had proof that the river was not their land and that they wrote to the council when the river was changed to allow for buildings and the council answered saying it was fine.
Fight tooth and nail, get everything in writing and mention your solicitor/ civil engineer going forward
while i have a huge amount of sympathy for these folks….surely somebody shoulda said to them dont buy the house as its too close to the river? from the reports they seem to have bought in 2021. I’d guess their insurance wont cover this either
On the plus side there’s room for a batcave, a batboat and some spelunking now
Before you bought the house, your engineer told you about this risk and you ignored it.
You also knew the risks and didn’t have insurance, that’s why the house was cheap in the first place. It was your choice to do this and it was your choice to ignore multiple engineer/surveyor reports which flagged these issues. Now you’re looking for the public/taxpayers to bail out the risks you privately took. You work for Senator Lynn Ruane, right? Not an unexpected reaction, in that case.
Inchicore was one of the areas we were looking to buy in last year. We actually went to a fairly chaotic viewing on tyrconnell Street. I remember wondering around the area and felt it had alot going for it. We were aware the river previously flooded. The house didnt really have a front/back garden so we bowed out and it eventually sold for €511k.
I cant really offer anything but i feel for you guys. Those photos are shocking
Ive nothibg to add, I just want to say im really sorry to see what’s happened to your home, OP ❤️
Did you have home insurance?
Ah fuck, that’s a nightmare.
Saw this story on rte.
They knew it was a property on the er edge with subsidence problems but bought it anyway which leads to so many questions about the mortgage and surveys.
How does this even happen? A huge air pocket under the foundation caused the soil to sink??? It looks so clean like it got dug out.
Any idea where? Assuming this is in a floodzone.
Just seen inchicore. I’m not entirely surprised. We looked to buy near Emmet road and was completely put off.
I heard your wife talking on Moncrieff, and I have to say the level of composure is something I don’t think I would be able to maintain with the absolute run around you guys seem to be given.
Your wife made a great point about if you got your own builder in to start lobbing concrete and supports into “your” section of river wall, the council would be on top of you like a light. Can’t seem to win with them some times!
I really hope this gets sorted for you guys with 100% cover, because no one should expect to have to maintain a piece of public infrastructure!
must be horrible but you made a lot of very bad choices and you got really unlucky. expensive lesson
Some houses are built so the front doesn’t fall off at all.
Have my sympathies OP. This is an awful thing to happen. Wish you all the best with it. Keep your spirits up
Hope everyone was safe
Was the property adequately surveyed before you purchased it?
All the best, OP. Probably a long road but I hope it comes out well for you.
You say these structural issues were notified years ago yet you only bought recently? So you bought a house with an issue and now complaining that it’s not your issue? Interesting, while I have sympathy your home is now destroyed. It is in fact your home and your lack of investigation that lead you here. It’s your house and either you didn’t cause enough headache to get it fixed or didn’t care enough to fix it. Don’t be looking for handouts or publicity to force the hand of OPW / DCC for your own mistake.
Ridiculous that a house was ever built that close to a river. Surely it was obvious that this was going to happen.
All other houses in that strip are at risk of the same
I can tell you exactly why that wall is not DCC’s responsibility, and it’s because your house is directly on top of it.
Any river walls, quay walls, dams or bridges that are their responsibility to maintain will not have a house on them, unless they are social housing (which you are not going to find many examples of that are over a river) or a public building owned directly by them.
The wall that collapsed is part of your house’s foundations, and those are your responsibility to maintain.
Oh OP I saw this story via CrazyHousePrices instagram . I feel so so sorry for you guys. I could see the devastation in your wife’s face during the interview and am amazed that she was able to hold it together for the piece. Really hope you get somewhere with this. Keep the pressure on DCC and continue to share-hopefully someone can help you guys
I’d like to see the engineers report they got when they bought that property
Jesus, terrifying stuff. Hopefully you’re able to get some resolution to an awful situation to find yourselves in.
I don’t see why the council needs to fork the bill for damage to your property.
I’m sorry that this has happened to you but why should the taxpayers foot the bill for this?
Take some personal responsibility that goes along with owning that property and sort it out yourselves.
Is there someone planning to live in the garage conversion? next door?
Have you tried contacting your home insurance company. They might have a legal team who will help you. It’s in their interest to mitigate the damage.
36 comments
I’m not sure how best way to share this but me and my wife’s home in Inchicore Dublin on Friday night suffered catastrophic damage due to collapse of the Camac River wall.
Additionally, several support beams for the nearby river tunnel/culvert have collapsed. Without urgent action, the tunnel will collapse blocking the river and will flood much of Inchicore and surrounding areas. The tunnel is publicly accessible and there is a risk to life if it were to go while people are walking over it.
We have had multiple structural surveys from 2 different civil engineers since we bought the house in 2021. While subsidence and river undermining had been flagged, at no point have we ever been told that our home was at immediate risk or that urgent action needed to be taken by us.
DCC and OPW were made aware of these issues in 2022/23 but did not act. We’ve been now engaging them since the collapse, flagging the immediate risks however they have again been slow to respond with any action as they are sighting the homeowners as responsible for these river structures.
We are honestly devastated and now facing homeless as we try to figure out if our parents or relatives can house us while we try to focus on repairing our home.
I’ll link the news articles and our social media posts in a comment but me and my wife just want to raise awareness of our situation to hopefully press the DCC into action.
Looks like it’s going to get worse before getting better, if DCC first response is – we need to ascertain ownership of the river walls….
Good luck OP
Jesus that house looks like it should be red tagged as in imminent danger of collapse. Can’t believe the council wouldn’t be out immediately to address it
Im so sorry this happened to you guys, I can’t imagine the stress.
Does home insurance cover this kind of damage?
Are there numerous other home that are at risk of the same thing?
Just wanna say OP, I admire how steady you seem in your posts given this crazy disaster. I think my sanity would have checked out. I really hope whoever you have to deal with extracts their head from their hole and understands the urgency of the situation.
Did you get an engineer to assess the property before you bought it? Did they say anything about this river?
https://www.rte.ie/archives/2022/1011/455873-floods-in-dublin/
1963 footage of a flood in Kilmainham. In case it helps with a “if you don’t fix this this is what you’ll get argument”
In 1954 Fairview had massive flooding due to the tolka https://youtu.be/MNgt3phAk3s?si=soGYOZYCi4IlUVFI
Film includes botanic road https://youtu.be/Jbb4ibQuZkk?si=4wSgfegB1syzRPjo
Sorry this doesn’t help the OP directly. But being able to point out what happened before when a river got blocked might be useful in an argument
Really sorry to see that this has happened to you both. Hoping that the council can take ownership of the land and contribute to repairs in the interest of public safety.
Curious to know the history of the house, is that a 2 storey extension to the rear on the river wall? Obviously the conservatory was an extension out to the right.
If it is an extension, it looks like that 2 storey extension either should not have received planning or was built without proper surveying/planning. I wonder if the surveyor could be held accountable.
Looks like the foundations of the house are exposed. There’s a reason insurance companies won’t insure houses built close to rivers and prone to flooding.
It’s surprising this one was built so close to the river, without the builder putting in some underground retaining wall to support and reinforce the foundations. The municipal wall was most likely put in place to control the river, but definitely wasn’t put in place to provide protection to houses built so close to it.
The house foundations should have had its own reinforcement that close. Bad design. Terrible planning. Inevitable outcome.
You need to get the deeds for the boundary and then a civil engineer.
Who maintains the river – cleaning etc
Go back through plans and see if the river has been moved at any stage, especially by the council to allow for building work.
Something similar happened to people I know years ago but the homeowners had proof that the river was not their land and that they wrote to the council when the river was changed to allow for buildings and the council answered saying it was fine.
Fight tooth and nail, get everything in writing and mention your solicitor/ civil engineer going forward
while i have a huge amount of sympathy for these folks….surely somebody shoulda said to them dont buy the house as its too close to the river? from the reports they seem to have bought in 2021. I’d guess their insurance wont cover this either
On the plus side there’s room for a batcave, a batboat and some spelunking now
Before you bought the house, your engineer told you about this risk and you ignored it.
You also knew the risks and didn’t have insurance, that’s why the house was cheap in the first place. It was your choice to do this and it was your choice to ignore multiple engineer/surveyor reports which flagged these issues. Now you’re looking for the public/taxpayers to bail out the risks you privately took. You work for Senator Lynn Ruane, right? Not an unexpected reaction, in that case.
Inchicore was one of the areas we were looking to buy in last year. We actually went to a fairly chaotic viewing on tyrconnell Street. I remember wondering around the area and felt it had alot going for it. We were aware the river previously flooded. The house didnt really have a front/back garden so we bowed out and it eventually sold for €511k.
I cant really offer anything but i feel for you guys. Those photos are shocking
Ive nothibg to add, I just want to say im really sorry to see what’s happened to your home, OP ❤️
Did you have home insurance?
Ah fuck, that’s a nightmare.
Saw this story on rte.
They knew it was a property on the er edge with subsidence problems but bought it anyway which leads to so many questions about the mortgage and surveys.
How does this even happen? A huge air pocket under the foundation caused the soil to sink??? It looks so clean like it got dug out.
Any idea where? Assuming this is in a floodzone.
Just seen inchicore. I’m not entirely surprised. We looked to buy near Emmet road and was completely put off.
I heard your wife talking on Moncrieff, and I have to say the level of composure is something I don’t think I would be able to maintain with the absolute run around you guys seem to be given.
Your wife made a great point about if you got your own builder in to start lobbing concrete and supports into “your” section of river wall, the council would be on top of you like a light. Can’t seem to win with them some times!
I really hope this gets sorted for you guys with 100% cover, because no one should expect to have to maintain a piece of public infrastructure!
must be horrible but you made a lot of very bad choices and you got really unlucky. expensive lesson
Some houses are built so the front doesn’t fall off at all.
Have my sympathies OP. This is an awful thing to happen. Wish you all the best with it. Keep your spirits up
Hope everyone was safe
Was the property adequately surveyed before you purchased it?
All the best, OP. Probably a long road but I hope it comes out well for you.
You say these structural issues were notified years ago yet you only bought recently? So you bought a house with an issue and now complaining that it’s not your issue? Interesting, while I have sympathy your home is now destroyed. It is in fact your home and your lack of investigation that lead you here. It’s your house and either you didn’t cause enough headache to get it fixed or didn’t care enough to fix it. Don’t be looking for handouts or publicity to force the hand of OPW / DCC for your own mistake.
Ridiculous that a house was ever built that close to a river. Surely it was obvious that this was going to happen.
All other houses in that strip are at risk of the same
I can tell you exactly why that wall is not DCC’s responsibility, and it’s because your house is directly on top of it.
Any river walls, quay walls, dams or bridges that are their responsibility to maintain will not have a house on them, unless they are social housing (which you are not going to find many examples of that are over a river) or a public building owned directly by them.
The wall that collapsed is part of your house’s foundations, and those are your responsibility to maintain.
Oh OP I saw this story via CrazyHousePrices instagram . I feel so so sorry for you guys. I could see the devastation in your wife’s face during the interview and am amazed that she was able to hold it together for the piece. Really hope you get somewhere with this. Keep the pressure on DCC and continue to share-hopefully someone can help you guys
I’d like to see the engineers report they got when they bought that property
Jesus, terrifying stuff. Hopefully you’re able to get some resolution to an awful situation to find yourselves in.
I don’t see why the council needs to fork the bill for damage to your property.
I’m sorry that this has happened to you but why should the taxpayers foot the bill for this?
Take some personal responsibility that goes along with owning that property and sort it out yourselves.
Is there someone planning to live in the garage conversion? next door?
Have you tried contacting your home insurance company. They might have a legal team who will help you. It’s in their interest to mitigate the damage.
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