How to handle neighbor issue with water

[Anonymous]

A neighbor has extensive work on their with an addition, swimming pool, patio, and other work that has disrupted the yard for months. The water from all of this work has washed away a good deal of our back yard and it has finally gotten to the point where three of the neighbors whose yards back to ours have had severe flooding in their back yards. Those three neighbors asked a city inspector to come out to look at their yards to determine the cause of damage. While their the city inspector also looked at our yard and said it was worse than their yard. Those three neighbors want us to join with them to ask the neighbor to control the water better. We are just waiting for the work to be done, so that we can install drainage in our yard to collect the water from the neighbor's yard. I think we should just wait and take care of the damage ourselves, but the neighbors think we should ask the neighbor doing the work to help pay for the damage. I don't want to irritate either the one neighbor or the three neighbors -- or the City. Any suggestions for a middle ground. We have already had estimates and are just waiting until the neighbor finishes to start the work.

[Anonymous]

Look up the rules for where you live. Where I live, your neighbor doing all the work would be responsible for ensuring that they are not negatively affecting the water runoff in anyone else’s yard.

[Anonymous]

Can you ask for a temporary solution during construction then do your permanent work as you planned? Approaching them now will also give an idea of what their permanent plans are for remediation.

What did the city official say?

[Anonymous]

As long as the pool follows the approved grading plan. You will need to modify your yard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as the pool follows the approved grading plan. You will need to modify your yard

Yep this. Our house is downhill from a ton of older houses and our yard takes 100% of the runoff from 4-5 houses uphill from us. It sucks but you just have to deal with it. I’m hoping that one of these houses will get torn down soon and their lot will be re-graded according to the new standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you ask for a temporary solution during construction then do your permanent work as you planned? Approaching them now will also give an idea of what their permanent plans are for remediation.

What did the city official say?

Thanks for responses. The City official said that the people doing the building had created the problems and that they were responsible for correcting the drainage problems in their yard that were creating the washout problems in our yard and the neighbors' yards. The inspector said that they had given the neighbor numerous citations for water runoff into the street and putting construction debris into the regular trash. He wasn't clear if they did anything about it, because when it rains the water gushes not only through our yard but down the street. I feel bad for our three neighbors, and we will do everything we can to control the water being dumped into our yard. It seems like the City has no enforcement mechanism and we just have to clean up their problems if we want to preserve our yards.

[Anonymous]

These houses wouldn't happen to back up to a golf course in Leesburg, would they?

[Anonymous]

Op you seem like a good neighbor….wish more would have your mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you ask for a temporary solution during construction then do your permanent work as you planned? Approaching them now will also give an idea of what their permanent plans are for remediation.

What did the city official say?

Thanks for responses. The City official said that the people doing the building had created the problems and that they were responsible for correcting the drainage problems in their yard that were creating the washout problems in our yard and the neighbors' yards. The inspector said that they had given the neighbor numerous citations for water runoff into the street and putting construction debris into the regular trash. He wasn't clear if they did anything about it, because when it rains the water gushes not only through our yard but down the street. I feel bad for our three neighbors, and we will do everything we can to control the water being dumped into our yard. It seems like the City has no enforcement mechanism and we just have to clean up their problems if we want to preserve our yards.

This sounds incredibly frustrating. What is the point of City citations if they can’t be enforced? I believe you want to be a good neighbor but I think you need to take action with your neighbors because it not sound like the building neighbors would be willing to cooperate with you if you’re not willing to cooperate with the city.

[Anonymous]

In that case, join forces with the 3 neighbors, hire a lawyer, and go Trump on them until they cry uncle & fix the problem.