The law and adjacent land

[tim401]

Can anyone point me where to find out about land drainage law? My neighbour is claiming that water coming across my driveway is leaking into his foundations. The driveway (gravel) preexisted the neighbours extension that was built within 2 ft of the feu line. Now he tells me its my problem and is threating to take me to court if I don't dig a drain along the drive.

Would he win?

[lutonlagerlout]

he sounds like a victor melrew,personally i would tell him to go forth and multiply but thats not very constructive
if he thinks water is coming from your land to his the onus is on him to put an edgeing between the 2 properties or a wall to stop it
ask him to give god a quick buzz and tell him to stop it raining on your drive. its sounds like he is trying it on but remember if you end up in a legal dispute with him you have to declare it when selling your houses (not good)
best regards LLL

[tim401]

Actually it's a little more complicated. There is a field drain (Cuddy) 3ft below my drive. He has excavated down to his foundations and we can now see the water coming out. As far as I am concern it is his problem being lower down the hill than me. The driveway and cundy pre existed the extention he build and so i guess should have sorted the drain. Victor Meldrue is a good description though! Thanks for bringing a smile to my face on this one, life has been a bit serious over this.

[bobhughes]

Your local council is the place to go for info.

[TheRobster]

Most laws concerning drainage are to do with the defendant (i.e. you) changing something which then impacts on someone else. In this case, it's your neighbour who has changed something (built an extension) so I find it highly unlikely that he can sue you over any damage he's now incurring if you haven't made any alterations to your land. The responsibility was on him to ensure that ground conditions were suitable before building the extension, not on you.

I don't even know if he could prove that the water is coming solely from your garden. It's possible that he's just digging into the water table and so the water he has found could be coming from all over the catchment area. Basically he should have checked for this before building the extension and then installed the appropriate infrastructure (e.g. a land drain) to route the water away from his foundations.

Good idea to check with the local council though...if they have a land drainage department, ask them. Or the planning department would be worthwhile asking as well. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't win a court battle but I'm not an expert on drainage law...my advice is to get a professional opinion if you can.

-Rob

[bobhughes]

I copied this from Leeds CC's website but the rules should be pretty much the same everywhere (even in Scotland)

Run-off from higher land
Individual landowners are responsible for the drainage of their own land.

This means accepting and dealing with natural flows from adjacent higher land. It is not an offence to let water run off onto nearby land unless the flow has been artificially concentrated in a particular place.

We does not become involved in private disputes of this nature. If you have problems you may need private legal advice.


Water in cellars (where not from sewers, drains, water mains or blocked watercourses)
Property owners are responsible for dealing with groundwater water ingress into cellars. Note that specialist advice should be sought before preventing water ingress by sealing walls externally or internally. A resulting external pressure build-up could cause structural damage.

Our environmental health officers may be able to help investigate the source of the water, provided that Yorkshire Water has already investigated and ruled out the possibility of leakage from sewers and water mains (see above).
Leeds City Council


Waterlogged gardens (not due to the above sources)
Property owners are responsible for dealing waterlogging problems.

[tim401]

Many thanks for your help - looks like I can start to relax on this one

Cheers

[flowjoe]

If its an existing land drainage system serving your property then your neighbour will have to deal with the outflow if he has disturbed the system as part of his building works.

Sounds more likely that at 3ft deep your talking about a culverted water course, if so then this will probably be classed as a riparian ownership issue, which basically means that nobody owns the culvert, but you are responsible for ensuring that the culvert flows between your boundaries, so again if the water problem arises on his side of the boundary then it is up to him to deal with it.

Thats how it works on this side of the border, you will have to check with your local authority to clarify.

[lutonlagerlout]

TBH i can see what his problem is,if the water is underground so what??
he has dpc in his house, dont he??
chances are its an old land drain from when your houses were farmland
as the old saying goes "big fences make good neighbours"
cheers LLL

[tim401]

Many thanks for all the advice.

It's been much easier to negociate from a strong position. I think the problem will now resolve with any cost to me.