Advice on neighbouring building works

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Not sure where best to post this but looking for some advice dealing with a neighbouring building site causing problems with our land. Morris Homes are building a large housing estate on the land behind us. They have already increased the height of the land behind and left a large pile of earth (largely clay soil) and rubble dug out from all around the site. With recent rain, the neighbours’ gardens are flooding substantially and ours is starting to at be back. Drainage has never been great with it being clay soil but it has never been this bad until they started the building works. I’m worried that the things they’re doing, including building up the ground level will permanently ruin our drainage. Is there anything we can do or anyone we can go to about this to ensure they put something in place to ensure this doesn’t happen? It just seems unfair that they can do this and ruin our gardens in the process. Any advice appreciated. Thanks
 
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That large pit they have dug looks like it migh be a balancing pond. A balancing pond takes the water from heavy rain and then allows it to flow into the drains at a slower rate. This prevents flash flooding when the drainage from the site cannot cope with the amount of rain falling.

If it is a balancing pomd then they are aware of the drainage problems on their site. This could be a way to start a dialoge with the company with the aim of getting them to provide a drainage route from the affected gardens into the balancing pond.
 
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Thanks for this, I hadn’t heard of those before. I know they’re putting a row of houses there so assumed this had been dug our for the foundations.
Have included a better picture of the site to see mound of earth! It finishes about a metre from our back fence. There is a ‘small’ pond behind our fence which there had never been in the past as it was sloping ground, so there are obviously more issues on the site than before they started.
 
You are on clay bud and we're experiencing a very cold wet Winter. What were you expecting.
 
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Thanks for the helpful reply. I do realise drainage won’t be great, but it’s a lot worse since the mound of earth appeared mid way through this ‘very cold wet winter’ you say we’re experiencing.
 
Really you have 2 issues, immediate temporary issue of surface water flooding and long term when the estate is finished

I imagine the flooding is run off from the mound of earth.

I expect when the housing is finished the other side of your fence will be somebodys back garden, so you probably wont have an issue then.

You could voice your concerns with the site manager, he might be able to get a chanbel dug so the water doesnt run into your garden.

You could perhaps talk to their architect or building inspector and ask for details of how the site will be dealing with surface water. Building regulations and planning do require surface water to be dealt with correctly and I a flooding impact assessment may have been needed to be done
 
Thank you. I honestly didn’t know who to go to- will contact Morris homes and ask for the contact for the site manager. Who do I contact to get in touch with the building inspector? Will this be someone in the council or someone employed by the firm? Worried long term as there could be a hard surface small car park directly behind us so would want to make sure drainage has been sorted.
 
but it’s a lot worse since the mound of earth appeared

http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=103 said:
Responsibilities of property owners
The law (common law) requires that you use your property or land in a way that does not increase the risk of flooding to a neighbouring property. If you do carry out acts on your property that results in flooding to other people’s property, you may face a civil action.

To reduce the risk of flooding to neighbouring properties, the law requires that you:
  • Keep your drains clear in your property and to ensure that you do not drain water into your neighbour’s property or foul drain. There is a natural right of drainage that allows water that flows naturally across your land to flow downhill naturally to your neighbour’s land. But you are not allowed to artificially channel water a way that will cause damage your neighbour’s land. If you do, you may face a civil action. (Example: Yes - Rainwater that falls on your lawn is allowed to flow downhill through your neighbour’s land. No - You are not allowed to channel roof water through a down pipe on to your neighbour’s property.)
  • Maintain your flood defences (if you have any). If failure to maintain these defences leads to flooding, you could face a claim in negligence or nuisance.
If your garden previously drained onto the land where the mound has been created then the builder has prevented your right of natural drainage.

While it is a civil claim for loss of use of the garden due to the extra water due to the mound preventing previous natural drainage the Environmental Office of the local council may be prepared to advise / assist in any action you take against the builder.
 
Perfect, that’s great to know. Neighbouring houses are council owned so guess environmental office might be more helpful. Thanks
 
You are on clay bud and we're experiencing a very cold wet Winter. What were you expecting.

I think he was expecting the building contractors not to cause any damage to the surrounding occupants, BUD. Fat chance of that happening though with "tradesmen" doing the work.
 
It's no good quoting law or regulations or whatever. You have a temporary situation, and you will be hard pressed to claim anything other than an irritation. Inconvenience is stretching it at this time of year and certainly no damages.

Any thought of taking legal action - the massive expense and months of time is just nonsense.

Speak with the site manager, or the company's PR person. It's really that simple, no drama, keep it real.
 
Picking up the law theme from earlier.

There is classic case law that has established the responsibilities of land owners to be prevent anything on their land from harming neighboring land. This case related to flooding and it is Rylands vs Fletcher (1898).

Have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_v_Fletcher

The thing to note about this case law is that there is NO requirement for you to establish "why" your land is now being flooded. You only need to establish that your land "is" being flooded and who's land the water is emanating from. So there is no need for you to get into the technical details of changed ground heights, soil types, balancing pools etc.

Quoting this might have the desired effect.

Just to be clear - IANAL

Regards
Geoff
 
And how much will the legal action cost?

BTW, it's not that simple to prove.
 
You only need to establish that your land "is" being flooded and who's land the water is emanating from
It has been raining and snowing heavily and temps have been sub-zero and the properties are sat on clay. The water is emanating from the sky, it ain't rocket.
 

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