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- 12 Oct 2024
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Hello,
Long story short, next door neighbour's property is on higher ground than mine. Perhaps 8" in the difference. I inherited drainage problems at the front garden and side of the house when I moved here and after a lot of hard work that didn't fix the issue, I just had the front lawn and borders all removed, permeable material put in with land drains, and a drain pipe down the side of the house to a soakaway at the rear, all finished with membrane and gravel. Not cheap.
The drainage problems went away and have stayed away over the past few years.
The neighbour's driveway was one of those block paving ones that gets all the weeds, with some areas on the other side from me with slate and gravel. He was too lazy to maintain it so it became a forest of weeds spoiling the look of his fancy cars, so he has now gone and got a massive area of printed concrete over the whole area. It was always built up high against the fence gravel board on their side of the fence and had ruined all the fence panels over time from splashing, which I recently replaced at my own cost. The former blocks were removed first but not much else, so the new driveway is just about one brick below his DPC although they've put a skinny trench in to the house. There is then a trench intended for stones at the edge of his new drive to the fence shared with me.
My problem is that they have, to some extent, increased the height on their side further but also now have a hard surface that is sloping towards my side, more so than was previously the case and without any degree of permeability which the former blocks afforded to some extent. So where is all the run off going from that new surface? During heavy downpours, not only will I get the rain falling on to the driveway, but also quite a bit from his roof since his gutters don't work properly and loads of water ends up both down the side of his own house and on the driveway area between our houses.
No aco drain has been put in to intercept the predictable flows and take them elsewhere. The concrete is curing as we speak, the grey dust they put all over it only just washed from my hedgerow and windows.
We do not get along, in fact had an argument only two weeks ago. Entirely him shouting and swearing, me attempting to talk calmly. He is one of those people who is pretentious at the same time as being lazy, cheap and quite ignorant about outdoor related matters. Discussing it with him will be a waste of time.
When the contractor arrived this week, I politely drew attention to my concerns. He said, "your side is lower than his". This is true, but it doesn't mean you should make things worse. I suggested having the driveway kick up a bit near the boundary. He said he would do more of a dish shape in the area between our houses and said flows would be to the main slope going to the highway. Unfortunately he hasn't kept his word. The slope towards my side isn't severe but it is obvious where water will go across an area measuring perhaps 8m in length and 3m depth.
Anyway, it's a shame they didn't do the right thing, as I have done across my property. As I understand it, it's illegal to cause flooding on third party land. They should really have spent a tiny bit more money and reduced the levels further on their side whilst this golden opportunity presented itself, or at least used an aco drain or shaped the driveway so I don't get all the water.
In terms of where to go from here, I am thinking...
A) speak to the contractor next week when he comes back to seal it. Suggest he uses the stone trough between the drive and the boundary fence to pour postcrete or something and create a fillet that stops water coming down the side and under the gravel board onto my side. If they slope it gently towards the front over a distance of maybe 4 or 5m, they might get any bad flows away from my house and worst case into the soakaway zone I now have at the front.
If they fail to comply, will have to see what happens in terms of issues, but if I get water logging again...
B) go to the council and ask why planning permission wasn't sought. If the former driveway had a degree of permeability, then this new one really needs permission. It isn't a like for like replacement, and you can only create so much hard surface at the front?
C) get a solicitor to send a scary letter and put it back on to the neighbour to sort it that way. Although it won't be easy now with a massive slab already down. No doubt he will go crying to the contractor who, in truth, should know better.
Am I missing anything here? Some images below. The whole thing is enormous and goes around the other side of their house.
Long story short, next door neighbour's property is on higher ground than mine. Perhaps 8" in the difference. I inherited drainage problems at the front garden and side of the house when I moved here and after a lot of hard work that didn't fix the issue, I just had the front lawn and borders all removed, permeable material put in with land drains, and a drain pipe down the side of the house to a soakaway at the rear, all finished with membrane and gravel. Not cheap.
The drainage problems went away and have stayed away over the past few years.
The neighbour's driveway was one of those block paving ones that gets all the weeds, with some areas on the other side from me with slate and gravel. He was too lazy to maintain it so it became a forest of weeds spoiling the look of his fancy cars, so he has now gone and got a massive area of printed concrete over the whole area. It was always built up high against the fence gravel board on their side of the fence and had ruined all the fence panels over time from splashing, which I recently replaced at my own cost. The former blocks were removed first but not much else, so the new driveway is just about one brick below his DPC although they've put a skinny trench in to the house. There is then a trench intended for stones at the edge of his new drive to the fence shared with me.
My problem is that they have, to some extent, increased the height on their side further but also now have a hard surface that is sloping towards my side, more so than was previously the case and without any degree of permeability which the former blocks afforded to some extent. So where is all the run off going from that new surface? During heavy downpours, not only will I get the rain falling on to the driveway, but also quite a bit from his roof since his gutters don't work properly and loads of water ends up both down the side of his own house and on the driveway area between our houses.
No aco drain has been put in to intercept the predictable flows and take them elsewhere. The concrete is curing as we speak, the grey dust they put all over it only just washed from my hedgerow and windows.
We do not get along, in fact had an argument only two weeks ago. Entirely him shouting and swearing, me attempting to talk calmly. He is one of those people who is pretentious at the same time as being lazy, cheap and quite ignorant about outdoor related matters. Discussing it with him will be a waste of time.
When the contractor arrived this week, I politely drew attention to my concerns. He said, "your side is lower than his". This is true, but it doesn't mean you should make things worse. I suggested having the driveway kick up a bit near the boundary. He said he would do more of a dish shape in the area between our houses and said flows would be to the main slope going to the highway. Unfortunately he hasn't kept his word. The slope towards my side isn't severe but it is obvious where water will go across an area measuring perhaps 8m in length and 3m depth.
Anyway, it's a shame they didn't do the right thing, as I have done across my property. As I understand it, it's illegal to cause flooding on third party land. They should really have spent a tiny bit more money and reduced the levels further on their side whilst this golden opportunity presented itself, or at least used an aco drain or shaped the driveway so I don't get all the water.
In terms of where to go from here, I am thinking...
A) speak to the contractor next week when he comes back to seal it. Suggest he uses the stone trough between the drive and the boundary fence to pour postcrete or something and create a fillet that stops water coming down the side and under the gravel board onto my side. If they slope it gently towards the front over a distance of maybe 4 or 5m, they might get any bad flows away from my house and worst case into the soakaway zone I now have at the front.
If they fail to comply, will have to see what happens in terms of issues, but if I get water logging again...
B) go to the council and ask why planning permission wasn't sought. If the former driveway had a degree of permeability, then this new one really needs permission. It isn't a like for like replacement, and you can only create so much hard surface at the front?
C) get a solicitor to send a scary letter and put it back on to the neighbour to sort it that way. Although it won't be easy now with a massive slab already down. No doubt he will go crying to the contractor who, in truth, should know better.
Am I missing anything here? Some images below. The whole thing is enormous and goes around the other side of their house.
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