Next door neighbour draining surface water into my garden

[mondyman]

I moved into this house roughly 2 years ago and got on well with the neighbours. I spent a lot of money as the house had been empty for a year on renovations etc and a new garden ( lawn , fence etc )

A few months ago it rained heavily and i happened to notice that he had 2 pipes through my wall to take the water run off for the top layer off the garden into mine ! View media item 7745 View media item 7748 ..heres a pic of the 2 gardens mine is on left

View media item 7747
the next 2 pics show the ammount of run off im getting from his top level. needless to say we have fallen out bigtime over this as he cannot understand what is wrong..!!! any advice please out there as to the best way to get this sorted...here's the pics

View media item 7745 View media item 7745
any advice gratefully received , im not a malicious person but i'ts getting me down....any advice anyone ?

Cheers mondyman

 

[breezer]

you gave the game away when you said

as the house had been empty for a year on

while you were not there, obviously thats what some one did.

all i can suggest is talk to him, show him the pictures.

if that does no good, be nice and say its not your fault, but his problem if he does nothing about it you will have to take it further with a solicitor, in which case he will loose and cost him a lot of money, why not do it now? and save money.

or the alternative shove something up the pipes.

 

[big-all]

my thoughts

assuming its your fence

do NOT BLOCK ANYTHING DIRECTLY

raise your fence panel by a few inches untill its 2" above there concrete[more if theres a slope in that direction on his garden

install concrete gravel boards/build a brick wall fully on your land to within 15mm off the fence and wait for the rubbish off the garden to fill in the pipes

make shure the fence dosnt go above 6ft6" or 2m or they can moan about it

 

[noseall]

there are regulations governing the collection and drainage of storm water run-off which asks each homeowner to drain storm water within each property boundary.

this deals with hard standing areas, roofs and driveways etc.

whether it actually covers instances where the lie of the land would normally allow the passage of water to follow a natural course, i.e. down hill is another matter.

for example, if you lived on a hill and you happened to live at the bottom of the hill, and none of your neighbours had any paving whatsoever, and all the water ended up flooding your garden naturally, i guess it would be tough luck.

 

[breezer]

i guess it would be tough luck.

but this blokes neigbour is doing it on purpose

 

[Symptoms]

mondy - if the guy won't see sense and work with you to find a solution then let him have his water back. How?

Well (no pun intended), looking at the gradients in the photos it might be possible for you to capture the water in guttering or similar, then pipe it along the fence and then discharge it back through the fence onto his lower garden.

Less extreme ... maybe a couple of cork bungs in those holes will eventually force the discharge through the wall drains at the end of his garden. Being cork bungs you aren't damaging his retaining wall.

 

[Thermo]

if he wont be reasoned with then it would be worth speaking to a solicitor. if i recall rightly from my college days he's tresspassing on your land by interfering with your enjoyment of the land. May be worth seeing what the house deeds say as well.

alternatively as said let him have it back. pipe to each hole then into a drain pipe and back it goes!

the suggestion of that may make him see sense!

 

[thebear843]

Think I would be shoving some concrete into those drainage holes.

Good idea of 'big-all' about raising the fence. Take the panel out, remove the gravel board, replace with new gravel board, put the fence panel back.

Problem solved, unless its not your fence.

 

[mattylad]

In which case you can install your own fence right upto it & block them off.

Ask this question on gardenlaw.co.uk & I'm sure you will get a good response as this has been asked many times there.

AFAIK he cannot do this.

 

[mondyman]

Heres some more pics i took which show he actually built up his top area when no one was living here and deliberatly put these pipes through the wall to drain off on to our land...

Think im going to plane down a piece of 2 by 2 and hammer it up tight followed by a concrete plug about 4 inches thick...that should solve it and i'll do it when hes in work so hell be none the wiser till his garden waterloggs...

heres the pics with the pipes through the wall...( his garden was originally the same level as mine but he built a patio at the bottom and used the earth he dug out to build his top layer )

View media item 7764 View media item 7763

 

[thebear843]

Perhaps there is something in his house deeds relating to drainage and what he can/cant do.

Might be worth reading your deeds as im sure his will be the same.

 

[mattylad]

Deffo read your deeds, you can download his from the land registry site for about £6.

looking at the construction of it, I take it that the fence is next doors and NOT your property?

Do not put a wooden spike in, instead some rubble, muck etc with some bonding stuff (cement, glue etc) filling the entire pipe with rubble before blocking (do on a dry day) so that it does not look as obvious that you just blocked it.

AFAIK you are completely entitled to build your own higher wall right upto his, this would in effect leave the wall to fill with water if the pipes are not blocked, but then there is nowt he can do about it.

Some neighbours are just ignorant bullies & will do what they want to you unless you stand up to them.
Court action is very expensive, a resolution from the site I mentioned above may help.

 

[mondyman]

cheers matty i posted same on that site and the reply was he cannot drain his water onto my land so itll be a case of block em up on a sunny day when hes in wrk....

roll on the next damn thunderstorm...hope it washes his house away

As to the fence it is mine as its on my land ( garden ) and i had no choice to put it up as when we were on holiday his kids aged 16 and 18 were in my garden playing football with my sons goals !!! good neighbours on one side( they told us when we got back ) ....why is it the **** ones always end up on the other

 

[Thermo]

id be tempted to build a small wall right next to his since that is your land and permanently block them that way. You could just end up with you blocking them and him unblocking them otherwise.

by the way, what exactly is it draining as thats a hell of a lot of water coming out of there!

 

[noseall]

by the way, what exactly is it draining as thats a hell of a lot of water coming out of there!

i was thinking the same thing big T.