Neighbor痴 run off

[Scooby074]

I feel for your pain!. Im going thru exact same thing. Neighbour is sending all his water down my drive, washing out the gravel

Hes above me, sharing my drive, and by the time it runs downhill to my place its moving pretty rapidly, washing more and more gravel as it travels and gains speed.

havent figured out what im going to do yet. Im thinking about putting a swale in to deflect his water onto his land, or into the ditch along my section. Dont know. But just today, i found that he has no right of way to use my drive anyways. Easiest solution would be to remove the culvert to his place... that would catch the water and prevent it from going down my drive

Were not at that point yet, but hes been mowing 30-40 feet into my property the last few days. Dont know what hes trying to start, but hes going to get a suprise if he keeps it up. Hard to get to your house when a garage is built where your "driveway" was.

 

[Frosty2]

If he wants to play unfair paint the side of your house that faces him an ugly color. View of the lake will be the least of his problems.

 

[Paddy]

I understand on a county road around here, to get a driveway permit they have to inspect. Often, they see a need for a culvert and require it. In this case being a private road, we all have easements getting back to our homes. He has a family background around farming and has always been very practical. So this suprised me about drainage. The road location issue has always been there but mainly with another home.

The private road is over 1 mile and we live at the end, the lake. But along the road there are many cases of ditches and culverts. Go figure. Even on this neighbors 15 ac 600' of road frontage before getting to his home, there are ditches and culverts. I'm sure I ticked him off being diverting the water without a person to person discussion, but I see now his real bone is the road location. His suvey shows a completely diff picture than mine. My survey shows the road starting at my property line. His shows the property line as center of road.

I'd like to talk with him but would be very akward at this point.

 

[MarkV]

Paddy you need to find out who's survey is correct. That for sure is the first step. When you say "My survey shows the road starting at my property line." Do you mean that the road is totally on your property or you don't own any of the road and have an easement for access and regress? In most cases here, with a private common road, the property line is the the center of the road.

MarkV

 

[Zick]

From my understanding of the law around here is that you cannot divert the natural flow of water into someone else's property. Sounds to me that he's the one that is breaking the law. Time to lawyer up.

 

[stravis]

He's already started things with a lawyer. Unfortunately that means it's time for you to do the same. I wouldn't say a word to him face to face. If he comes to talk to you, tell him to do so through the lawyer. Any lawyer worth his salt will twist anything you do from here on without a lawyer.

It's unfortunate, but trust me, you will lose this "argument" without one.

 

[impdaddy]

good call stravis. Isn't country living grand?

Now we know why new subdivisions have so many rules and covenants. keeep at it paddy:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Paddy]

Yep, hate to to go the lawyer route but I see that's the only way. I'm writing a responce that I will forward to my lawyer. That way my lawyer does not have to take my words to print. I talked with brother-in-law, formerly in county eng dept. He had two statements, old roads don't get moved even if they are well off track and the water issue is his problem to solve, via a ditch or colvert.

So I guessing once he finds out old roads don't get moved and his water is his responcibility, it will end there. Sad part is, what was once a OK relationship will be bad here out.....

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Sad part is, what was once a OK relationship will be bad here out.....

But that was his doing, not yours.

I had a neighbor once who I helped out a lot, fixing his computer, helping work on his house, etc and then one day he decided to make a mountain out of a molehill because my cat walked thru his yard, and he hates cats. His loss, he wasn't helping me out constantly like I was helping him.

 

[inveresk]

I think I'd make one attempt to chat to the guy before positions get too entrenched. It should be possible to meet to discuss this problem and see if there's a win/win situation. Once two lawyer's are involved, every exchange of legal letters makes it harder to make an informal approach. One phone call to see if he's receptive to your approach just might save a lot of legal costs and retain reasonable neighbourly relations.