Surface water runs onto my garden from next door!

sweenytodd · Post: # 39933Post **sweenytodd** Mon Jul 20, 2009 4:09 pm

A couple of years ago my next door neighbour flagged his entire back garden and cemented all the joints in between the flags (24 feet x 18 feet rough estimate)
He left a small square patch in the middle for surface water too run off into.

Since he had this work done a section of my garden and some of my patio floods everytime it rains,this is also making the grass impossible to cut or even walk on,even after a few days of fine weather.
I have tried talking to my neighbour on two occasions to solve the problem but he is addament its not his concern even though he has sealed in with cement all the joints ,do you know where i legaly stand on this issue, please help ?

Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:34 pm

this is a paving forum ,not a legal one

however I am fairly sure this question has arisen before and it is not ok for him to run his surface water into your garden

problem is,solicitors can get nice cars out of cases like this,better to sort it out amicably, if it goes legal you will both lose out

LLL

irishpaving · Post: # 39940Post **irishpaving** Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:49 pm

how close is the flooding to the house

Post: # 39944Post **Dave_L** Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:09 pm

Would it be cheaper/less hassle etc for you to install some sort of backedger between the properties etc to stop the water coming over to yours?

Or even a linear drainage channel?

Pablo · Post: # 39958Post **Pablo** Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:39 pm

I'm with Dave would be easier to just deal with the water with drains etc. By law you are not allowed to dispell storm water onto a neighbours property but by the time the lawyers have finished with you all you'll want to move house and hire someone to kill your neighbour and you'll be broke. We recently paved a driveway that was flush with the neighbour whose paver had got his levels wrong. We put a 100mm kerb to it so our side would be neat and tidy which has left the neighbour with some massive puddles. He gave off to me but it wasn't our problem. Serves him right for not getting me to do the job when I priced it last summer. :laugh:

Edited By Pablo on 1248126046

rab1 · Post: # 39973Post **rab1** Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:21 pm

This happened to my workmate. as Dave said, you could dig a trench 450mm deep and concrete in 3x2 slabs against the boundary about 150mm higher than his patio an hunch in concrete to make it watertight, his patio will become a swimming pool and your garden will dry out but you`ll never be on talking terms with your neighbour again. ???

DNgroundworks · Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:09 pm

Rab 1 on that basis id say that a linear drainage channel would be the best option.

rab1 · Post: # 39978Post **rab1** Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:24 pm

Giving the man an option, not a very good one but an option all the same. Don't do what I said, not spoken to my neighbour in 2 years over a minor matter that escalated over nothing.

Post: # 39979Post **Dave_L** Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:27 pm

Never mind eh rab? My neighbs are so quiet it's unbelieveable! All I hear of them is their 6am shagging and that's about it!

rab1 · Post: # 39994Post **rab1** Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:38 pm

to be honest, it used to bother me a first, couldn't care less now. :p

DNgroundworks · Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:59 pm

I wasnt having a dig mate just merely stating that a drain might be better!

Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:01 pm

as a builder,I would never buy a house on a hill or near running water (i am on number 4) half the grief i see is from houses backing on to hills or near babbling brooks.

I am sure you could build some kind of barrier that would repel his water,but are you sure its all coming from his side?

have you checked your gutters and soakaways?

LLL

sweenytodd · Post: # 40149Post **sweenytodd** Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:34 pm

I dont want to go down the road of getting a solicitor but he refuses to accept that there is a problem, even though we,ve lived in the house 8 years and this has only started to happen since he flagged his entire garden!. Forgot to mention that he,s managed to raise the level of his now "backyard" by gradually making it higher towards his concrete back wall. When we pointed out to him the differance in hieght, which was clearly visable just looking at the fence, he said "the fence had sunk then"!
I,ve already suggested a linear drain as it would fit quite easly replacing the single row of blockpaving he,s used to border his flags, but he just doesnt want to know.
When it rains the water also floods the small patio right up to the house, which can,t be good can it?

Post: # 40154Post **Tony McC** Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:07 pm

While <spit> lawyers should be the last resort, I'm often called in to report on just this sort of thing by one side or the other, when the two of them can't settle it amicably.

The long and the short of it is that you can't drain surface water from a hardstanding onto a neighbouring property without an agreement. Where a construction project has caused surface water to be directed or diverted onto a neighbouring property, the affected property owner can require the source owner to undertake remedial action to prevent ingress of water onto the adjacent property, and, in the case of damage being incurred, can compel the source owner to pay for any loss or damage.

I've been involved in a case in Birmingham where a property owner had 4mÂ² of paving laid to his front garden, but the pillock that laid it put it in at DPC level, and butted against the neighbour's porch. The patio owner didn't want to fall out with the neighbour, but couldn't get the pillock contractor to come back and make good. So, the neighbour sued the patio owner, who in turn sued the contractor, who was found liable and received judgement against.

The contractor begrudgingly returned and put the minimal amount of effort and maximum amount of truculence into re-laying the 16 flags to the corrects falls and levels; the neighbours resumed their previous indifference to one another; and the <spit> lawyers laughed all the way to the bank.