I Love the View From My Hillside Lot. My Brothers Say I’ll Lose the House in the First Big Rain

A reader writes:

I am fifty-three, a nurse, and for most of my working life I have lived in rented places where the only view was the wall of the next building. Two years ago I finally bought a piece of land up in the hills. It is not big. It slopes down quite steeply from the road, but from the top you can see all the way to the sea, and in the evening the breeze comes up the valley and I can hear birds I haven’t heard since I was a child in the country. The first time I stood there I cried. I knew this was the place.

My two older brothers have not been kind about it. One of them builds for a living, mostly small houses on flat land, and he walked the lot for about five minutes, kicked at the soil and told me, “You going to lose the whole house in the first big rain.” The other one just keeps sending me videos of landslides on the family WhatsApp. My sister-in-law tells me to sell and buy something “sensible” in town. Even my pastor, when I asked him to pray over the land, looked down the slope and asked me if I was sure.

I am not a foolish woman. I know there have been slides in the area over the years. There is a gully at the bottom of my lot that runs heavy when it rains, and I have noticed that one or two of the older houses further down have cracks in their walls. But I also see new houses going up on slopes all around, some much steeper than mine, and they look fine. I have saved for this for twenty years. I don’t want to give it up because my brothers think they know everything, and I also don’t want to build my retirement home somewhere that will slide down the hill with me in it.

Part of me wonders if they just can’t stand that their little sister did something on her own. Part of me is frightened they are right. How do I find out, and how do I stop this from turning into a war in the family?

— Joy-Ann, St Andrew

Our response

Joy-Ann, first, congratulations. Buying land on your own after twenty years of saving is no small thing, and the joy you felt standing on that slope is worth taking seriously. So is the fear. The good news is that this is not really a question of who in the family is right. It is a question the ground itself can answer, if you ask the right people to read it.

Many homes are built safely on hillsides. Many are also built badly, and the difference usually lies in what happens before the first block is laid: understanding the soil, managing water and designing the foundation for the slope rather than for flat land. Your brother’s instinct is not foolish, but five minutes and a kick at the soil is not an assessment either.

Get the facts before the arguments

• A geotechnical or soil investigation. A qualified geotechnical engineer can test the soil and assess slope stability. This is the single most useful thing you can pay for right now.
• A structural engineer who has designed on slopes. Stepped foundations, retaining walls and drainage need to be designed together. Ask to see hillside homes they have worked on.
• Your local planning authority. Ask whether the area has known hazard records or particular requirements for building on steep land. They may also need to approve your plans.
• The gully and the neighbours. Water is usually the main enemy on a slope. Find out where the water goes in heavy rain, and ask the owners of those cracked houses what happened. Their stories are information.

Be ready for any of three answers

The report may say the site is suitable with normal precautions. It may say it is buildable, but only with retaining walls, deeper foundations or drainage that add real cost, in which case you will need to decide if the budget stretches. Or it may say that part of the lot, perhaps near the gully, should not be built on at all, and the house must sit somewhere else on the land, or not there. Decide now that you will listen to whichever answer comes, even if it hurts. That decision will protect you more than any wall.

Bringing the family along

You might invite your builder brother to walk the site with the engineer and hear the findings first-hand. Being included often softens someone who feels dismissed, and his practical knowledge may be useful. You can also tell the family, kindly and clearly, that you have heard their concerns, you are getting professional advice, and you will make the decision once the report is in. That is not defiance; it is maturity. Proverbs reminds us that plans succeed with many advisers (Proverbs 15:22), but it does not say the loudest ones get the final word.

Your pastor’s question, “Are you sure?”, is a good one to carry into prayer. Not as a verdict against you, but as an invitation to hold the dream with open hands until you know it is safe to build it. We hope you get to sit on a finished verandah one day and watch the evening come up that valley.

This article is general information only and is not financial, legal, tax or other professional advice. Please speak to a qualified professional about your own circumstances.

Reader letters may be edited for length and clarity, and names and identifying details are changed.

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