Can I Remove This Downpipe?

[Spuggy1uk]

Hi,

Hopefully posted in the correct sub-forum...

I'm currently try to renovate the back of our house, however this downpipe is causing a problem.

Our house is on the left, and as can be seen, the downpipe crosses into our boundary. It discharges roof rainwater into our sump pump to be taken away with our sewage.

I've asked the owner next door to move his downpipe, but he has refused and claims that it has been there too long and a precedence has been set.

Can I just remove it myself and cap off my end? Our side of the guttering (in white) runs away from this pipe and discharges to a soak-away at the back of our garden.

 

[CBW]

It might just be tough luck and this is how many properties were done. What if your neighbour doesn’t have a drain?

 

[Spuggy1uk]

It might just be tough luck and this is how many properties were done. What if your neighbour doesn’t have a drain?

Cheers CBW. Yes, neighbour has another drain very close to this one. Would only need the outlet to be moved to the other end to join into his own existing drainage...

 

[johnny2007]

Would need to change the guttering fall to the other side and you would have to do the same with yours because surely he's not going to accept your water into his drain.
Offer to pay for it if it bothers you that much and see what he says.

 

[Spuggy1uk]

Would need to change the guttering fall to the other side and you would have to do the same with yours because surely he's not going to accept your water into his drain.
Offer to pay for it if it bothers you that much and see what he says.

Cheers Johnny2007. Our guttering (white-ish on the left) is already capped and drains away to the left from that downpipe into our own soak-away. It's only next doors that goes down that downpipe. I tried speaking to the owner a while back about it. A very difficult and arrogant chap. He's a surveyor of some description and tried blinding me with legal waffle.

I'm bothered by the pipe coming into our property, and us having to pay the electric bill to pump away his rainwater from our sump pump each time we have a downpour!

Edited to add - The owner doesn't live there, but rents to a very nice couple who we get on very well with.

 

[RandomGrinch]

For that short length of guttering, as long as the fall was ok, I would remove the end caps in the gutters (...and add a connector), so that the whole length drained into your soakaway.
For context, my downpipe takes the water from five properties on the terrace, and that's pretty consistent down the road!

Discuss it with the owner, but a very small modification on your part should benefit everyone - his water is still taken away, and you're not spending money on the sump pump.

 

[^woody^]

Can I just remove it myself and cap off my end?

No. The neighbour has a right to roof drainage and you have a duty to allow it.

The fact that he may be able to alter his drainage is irrelevant, unless you both agree something and costs.

Unless you can prove that the arrangement is not original. But it won't help if you bought the place with that downpipe like that.