This is difficult to describe but this morning, when I opened the curtains, I was confronted by a huge heap of stones - the wall dividing my house from the community centre had collapsed into my garden. My house is on a slope and the community centre is behind it but not attached although its south wall borders my garden. The wall, however, is attached to both buildings running between the two. Directly behind my house is a small building used by the community centre for storage and beyond that a car park. There was once a building on my side that may have been attached to the wall - or the wall may have been a later addition. The wall on the CC side is a short wall whereas on my side what remains is almost a storey high. I can find nothing on the cadastral maps or in the deeds with reference to who is responsible for the wall. The buildings were once part of a farm sold to the municipality in 1851, the main building/CC converted to a school with my house providing accommodation for two teachers, allegedly. The car park came much later. Iām wondering about responsibility and insurance and yes, Iāve read the French governmentās pages on walls but Iām none the wiser. I am not in a financial position to have the wall rebuilt and my age and a recent health issue mean that itās impossible for me to do anything physical - I can barely lift the stones. Has anyone come up against a similar situation? Advice and thoughts appreciated. TIA.
Off to see the Maire or get them to call round if you can, may not be your problem or they may pay some or all of the clearing up re building costs.
We had a similar problem last year. As far as we could tell the garden wall wasnāt covered by the insurance, but if itās a boundary wall there should be joint responsibility, though in our case this was problematic. The wall was a boundary between two adjacent plots, with different owners. One of them is penniless and the other has let us store stuff above his workshop for free for the past six years, so we owed him a big favour. By chance we were able to get a mason straight away, so we decided to pay for the whole job.
However, you may be more fortunate with your insurance and, if the adjoining plot is owned by the commune and the mairie will hopefully probably be able to arrange the repairs. Iād contact them ASAP.
Good luck
In the UK boundary walls and fences are usually the responsibility of the owner of one side or the other i.e the wall or fence is fully within one property and marked as so on deeds. Is this not the case in France?
ā¦and also not often covered by homeownerās insurance if damaged by storms or floods, bizarrely - I did some casual research on this the other day with Storm Isha incoming - fortunately the only casualty of that storm on our premises was a council garden waste wheelie bin blown over. 
Not as far as Iām aware - as I indicated above, I had a similar problem last year.
Thank you. Iāll visit the mairie as soon as Iām able. Basically, the wall will have to be shored up to prevent whatever lays behind the remaining stones falling into my garden. I anticipate that more of it will fall over night as the mortar is just soil. Thereās nothing I can do as I simply donāt have the funds ā¦ .
Your situation seems similar to ours - the garden wall is on a steep slope and it was originally two outer walls of a mediaeval house with just earth between the stones. I hope the mairie will be very helpful.
Yes, itās simple in the UK but this is a very different situation as the wall isnāt a typical wall and the top third is physically part of the community centre and the bottom two thirds less of a wall and more of a shoring.
As I mentioned in another thread that just happened to mention falling walls - off topic - a report of a fallen wall of a householder was repaired by the council because the rubble had fallen into a āpublic amenityā
Hereās an example, 200m down the lane from my place. Photo 19 Nov.
It fell down about 3 weeks ago, after lots of heavy rain. If it rains like that again before they fix it, there will be a great deal more come down. Theyād then have to shift the rubble and clear the road, at least.
The lane is definitely āa public amenityā. Good of them to put this sign up
Iāve often wondered why these signs exist. Itās not as if you could do much about it if there was a fall of rocks. Youāre either lucky and they miss you or not and they hit you.
Thereās no buildings showing anywhere near the wall where the collapse is, so it must be down to the the council to fix it. Their āRoute Bareeā board has a printed notice on it, so I guess itās gone into the in-tray of the people responsible for the work.
Unfortunately for Jean-Luc at #24, when his wall fell down he was stuck with repairing it
The section with stone ābricksā collapsed, bringing a lot of back-fill with it. He - +/- 75 y.o. - did all the work himself, apart from borrowing a local chap as muscle to tote the bags of materials and concrete blocks.
A neighbour told me that any wall for which I would be responsible will be shown/included on the plan of the property.
I suspect itās meant more as a warning that there might be lumps of rock lying in the road i.e. slow down & be aware. Seems daft that they generally donāt add a low speed limit to the warning though.
I think it would be impossible to give a suitable/correct speed limit and, frankly, itās down to the driver to match the speed of the vehicle to whatever is found on the road. The Warning is clearā¦ and itās down to the driver to approach with caution 
Yup - in the UK Highway Code at least you are supposed to ābe able to stop in the distance you can see to be clearā.
So the āfalling rocksā sign is an advisory that you may encounter an obstacle around the next corner and should be slowing down accordingly, not one of those that tell you that a scenic attraction is ahead. 
