The Brew Cabin

I live in a mid-terraced house with surface water draining across my driveway and downhill onto my neighbour's front lawn. I am not aware of any excess water issues, but I would like to build a low wall on the boundary of our properties as part of a driveway overhaul.

Would I need to get agreement from my neighbour to allow any trapped water to drain onto his property through a gully built into the new driveway? If so, does this need to be documented and/or witnessed in any way?

Thanks.

Draining surface water onto a neighbour's property without a consent is risky, as it leaves you open to all sorts of claims for damages. However, obtaining a consent is a nightmare because you really do need to involve <spit> lawyers who dream up a thousand and one ways to charge even more money without doing any actual work.

Even if a consent was agreed, this makes for all sorts of legal problems if and when the neighbour decides to sell up. It means the lawyers get involved yet again, creaming off more money to rake over a legal agreement for which they (or their kin) have already been paid handsomely, and it's not unusual for a sale to fall through on such an "obstacle".

In fact, so fraught is the issue of draining surface water onto property belonging to others that it is simpler, and quite probably more cost effective, to install a separate drainage system, which is what is done on the vast majority of properties.

I would be very, very reluctant to get involved in an arrangement such as this, either as the drain-er or the drain-ee. As the drain-er, you could be asked for a large indemnity insurance to cover the cost of any damage to the neighbour's property, which could be anything from a soggy lawn to undermined foundations: as the drainee, allowing surface water onto your property could have an effect on your own buildings insurance and possibly also on water authority bills, not to mention a reduced value for the property.

If at all possible, look for an 'on-site' solution to the drainage issue. If not, speak to your solicitor first.

My original feeling was that this was not a desirable solution. Thanks for the excellent advice, Tony.