Flooding by Neighbor

[JanJan007]

My neighbor has built a new house, and has brought in dirt and filled 3 feet above my yard. What can I do. I complained to the City and they are doing nothing, plus they told the neighbor that I complained, now all havoc has broken loose.

[marksr]

You need to consult a good real estate attorney. Laws vary but in a lot of locales it's illegal to alter your property in a manner that causes damage to the neighboring property.

[GregH]

Unfortunately you complained to the wrong entity.
The correct process would have been to talk to the neighbor in a non combative and friendly manner.

Since you tried to force him to do something by getting the city involved you likely have no choice but to get a lawyer involved if there will be some harm done to your property.

You could maybe still try a diplomatic approach by knocking on his door and try to wiggle out of the city intervention by saying you were only looking for info at the city hall.

Sometimes all folks have to do is just have a friendly conversation.

[condo-owner]

Originally Posted by JanJan007

My neighbor has built a new house, and has brought in dirt and filled 3 feet above my yard. What can I do. I complained to the City and they are doing nothing, plus they told the neighbor that I complained, now all havoc has broken loose.

sounds like the guy has friends at city hall.

[the_tow_guy]

That was my read, too, but I think Greg has the right idea. Is this a fairly small town by any chance?

[rjordan392]

Some homeowner's are under the impression that they can do what ever they want with their property. Try to reason with him and mention that its against the law to interfere with your view of the area or in your case creating a situation where water may back up against your side of his homemade dam and damage your property.
Hire a real estate attorney if he does not cooperate. Also by creating this homemade dam, will lower your property value. Don't feel bad about talking to an attorney; Your neighbor is building and ignoring your property rights. This could turn against you if you wait too long.

[itjustme]

You may want to find out if his raising the ground level is required by new building codes. Here in Florida the flood maps and building codes have changed and caused new construction in older neighborhoods to have a higher height above sea level than older requirements. You can drive through certain areas and see the homes built in the 70's sitting 3 to as high as 7 feet lower than the new home next door. The county has either required this or the new owners insurance required it to protect the home in the event of a hurricane or flood.
I'd check with the city or county to see what the current requirements are. The new owner may be following a code or law that has changed since your home was built. I would think that he would also be required to put some kind of drainage system in place to prevent the height from affecting your property if this is the case.

[chandler]

Similarly, I have an absentee owner of a house behind me. Before they moved back to their permanent house in Florida and put this one for sale, they decided to level their lot and put more parking in. Well, they pushed their dirt into the middle of a wet weather creek. My property line is listed to the middle of the creek, so in essence they pushed dirt onto my property. I woke up one day to a deluge of rain running down the creek, hitting his abutment and falling over into my lower acreage, into the area of my barn and shop. I documented it and forwarded the pictures to them, but no action yet. I can't even correct it according to the EPD. It must be done professionally with a game plan and permits, etc., so that leaves me out, even though it is on my property.
While the EPD fiddles, the county inspector passes the buck, the owner whistles, I have the potential of flooding again and again.
So I am waiting on a "for sale" realty sign to go up. I will inform the realtor of the problem and I will file a protest on the property to see what happens.
Regardless of what the codes say, he cannot detract from your property, nor can he cause damage, now or in the future due to his actions or omissions.

[SeattlePioneer]

GregH,


Someone who brings in 3' of fill dirt is very unlikely to bwe amenabkle to a friendly chat to haul it out again.

And someone who hauls in that dirt who then gets angry at the neighbor for calling the city is just plain dumb.

That might be a good approach with a lot of problems, but calling in the city right away would normally be the right answer.

Too bad it didn't work in this case.

[archangel2003]

There are some locations where if you even use a rain barrel to collect the rain off your own roof, you could be fined as it alters the rain runoff to those down hill of you!

I find it interesting that there was no communication before the construction began.

We have to tear up my Motherinlaw's mail box and replace it as it does not conform to the guidelines that the HOA has set down!

Wrong color and shape!