Can I re-direct drainage water from my property?

[TrueBlue1150]

As my property is at a lower elevation from property above me. The drainage water has naturally drained into my property for years.

About 7 years ago the amount of water increased due to a housing estate being built beside me. This meant the natural drainage of land was altered as the water could no longer flow through the green field site. Instead the water could only flow one direction (down hill) and onto my property.

I was unable to deal with the increased quantities and I tried to alleviate the problem by redirecting the water into another area of my property. I had hoped that the flow of water would be slowed down and perhaps naturally filter into the ground.

Unfortunately, the water found its way into some rabbit holes and into my neighbour's property. I did not think this would be a problem as the water originally entered my property from his property, but at a higher elevation.

The recent bad winters have made the situation worse due to the amount of rain fall and now I have noticed that work is being carried out next door in order to redirect the water back into my property.

Is it my responsibility to deal with the water problem as the natural course was always through my property, even though the increase quantities are now causing me problems?

 

[onq]

This is a thorny one.

Seven years ago in 2004 developers were cavalier about taking account of groundwater movements and ensuring their additional quantum of water did not impact downstream properties.
Unless you monitored upstream developments and made Observations on them at planning stage, the local authority might not have been spurred into action unless they were pro-active in this regard.
Regardless of the legals and planning process issues, I think you need to engage a competent civil engineer to review matters and start talking to the people involved to try to arrive at a mutually agreed solution.

Engineers are very good at this kind of thing, whereas involving legals or heading to court may end up multiplying costs and achieving very little.

 

[TrueBlue1150]

Thanks onq for your reply. I agree with you that the legal route would be an expensive way to resolve the issue. I have already engaged with my neighbour but this has not helped in any way. He is very clear that as the water has ran through my property for the past 100 years then I do not have a right to redirect it back into his property.
Taking the legal route would always be my last resort, but also having dealt with engineers in the past, I know that it could go either way. An engineer would be more confident to make a decision if he/she had experience in a similar situation or if he/she knew who was legally in the right.
I was hoping that perhaps someone else might have been in a similar situation in the past and may be able to shed some light on the likely hood of my neighbour being right in what he has said.

 

[onq]

Hi TruBlue,

I think your neighbour may well be correct.
However its what a judge says that matters.


ONQ.

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.

 

[Slim]

Unfortunately, the water found its way into some rabbit holes and into my neighbour's property. I did not think this would be a problem as the water originally entered my property from his property, but at a higher elevation.

If you can show that it enters your property from his, is he not in some way responsible for part of the problem or solution?

 

[TrueBlue1150]

He can quite easily see it entering my property from his but he still claims that because it has always flowed from his property into mine, then it should continue to flow the same way. He probably thinks that because he did not cause the increase in volume, then why should he now have to be saddled with it. It would be very difficult to prove why the volume of water has increased to a level that is so difficult to deal with but as we are experiencing more rain fall due to climate changes, it could also be argued that mother nature has also been part of the problem. If this is the only cause that can be easily proven, then perhaps he is right and it is my responsibility to deal with it???

 

[Leo]

You can counter-claim that the development carried out on his property has led to or aggravated the issue. Any development will have an impact on the grounds ability to drain rain water. What did he do in this development to deal with rain water, run-offs, etc.? Look up the planning permission granted for the development and see what the provisions were and determine if he followed them.
Leo

 

[onq]

I understood that there were three parties - the OP the Developer and the Neighbour.
The Developer made the OP's land wetter and the OP made the Neighbour's land wetter.

I wasn't of the understanding that the Neighbour's land was where the Developer operated.
I thought they were both separate holdings and separate individuals - is that not the position?


ONQ.

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.

 

[ajapale]

About 7 years ago the amount of water increased due to a housing estate being built beside me. This meant the natural drainage of land was altered as the water could no longer flow through the green field site. Instead the water could only flow one direction (down hill) and onto my property.

I was unable to deal with the increased quantities and I tried to alleviate the problem by redirecting the water into another area of my property.

When this problem first came to your attention what action did you take?

Did you consult your solicitor at this stage?

Does the development comply with planning with respect to drainage?

... taking account of groundwater movements .....

Just a point of information, what we are talking about here is surface water. Groundwater is water stored under ground which comes to the surface in springs and wells.

 

[TrueBlue1150]

ONQ is correct in his explanation... there are three parties, in fact there are probably even more as the developer sold sites and the individuals who must have had water draining into their sites from the fields above them stopped the problem by building up the backs of their gardens to stop the surface water from entering their gardens. The problem with water is that as one person stops it or redirects it, the problem is greater for the next person and so on if they do the same thing.

@ ajapale.

When the problem first came to my attention I had a visit from the Co. Council as the water ran through my property, into a blocked drain outside of my property and on to the public road. They told me that I was responsible for the water on my property.

I tried to redirect it into a soak pit but this did not contain all of the water. The remaining flowed out on to the road. I did not consult a solicitor at this stage as I did not know who was responsible for the increase in surface water. There seemed to be too many possibilities as to who may have contributed to the problem but as the problem meant that the amount of surface water was increased into my neighbour's property, this meant that as I was at a lower elevation to him and the natural flow was into my property.

I thought that there wouldn't be a problem when the water found its way back into his property. I don't know for sure if the development complies with planning with respect to drainage but based on the quality of the development I would assume that it does. There are no surface water problems in the development. Any problems would have been easily dealt with by the individuals who bought sites from the developer by building up high banks to the rear of their gardens.

 

[onq]

I would investigate the Council's liability in this regard.
They granted the planning permission for the housing development.

Was there an environmental review carried out re the likely effects of groundwater.
This was becoming a major issue at the time in relation to increased risk of downstream flooding.


ONQ.

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.

 

[ajapale]

Was there an environmental review carried out re the likely effects of groundwater.

Surface water is the issue in this case.

TrueBlue,

It appears to me that when the problem was first brought to your attention (by the coco roads authority) you should have engaged withe the upstream party suspected of increasing the flow of surface water onto your property. Instead you took steps to redirect the water onto other lands.

As an aside, are the houses and your house connected to a public sewer or do you have septic tanks?

aj

 

[onq]

Surface Water or Ground Water - it doesn't matter .
Both can lead to flooding and while the OP mentioned SW, GW saturation contributes significantly to SW flow.
If the soil type can absorb water, the existence of a seasonally high water table level or temporary saturation will prevent this and ensure that precipitation remains on the surface.


ONQ.

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.