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Old 02-23-2014, 03:33 PM
 
1,114 posts, read 1,199,365 times
Reputation: 1320

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Does anybody know anything about drainage laws? My neighbor is demanding that I made some changes to the drainage in my yard. I am somewhat sympathetic and will probably just acquiesce, but I'd like to know what I'm required to do vs. simply being a good neighbor.

I have a series of drainage pipes that collect water from my downspouts and some drains in the yard. The drains dump into a ditch in the side yard that connect to the ditch that runs along the street. The drain outlet is on my property, but the water immediately flows into the neighbors ditch. This drainage was put in by the previous owner and has been there probably 10 years. Apparently the side ditch was there at the time. The complaining neighbor later had the ditch improved by adding rocks.

The neighbor wants me to extend the pipe to the ditch along the road. This will be somewhat challenging because the land transitions to uphill between the current outlet and the street. It is also in close proximity to utilities. I suggested we could run the pipe through the ditch, which wouldn't require any digging. I also suggested I buy the problematic piece of land. The neighbor seemed agitated by both suggestions.

This side yard ditch is where water flows naturally. If the drainage system wasn't there, the water would end up there anyway. In fact, in heavy downpours, the drainage gets overwhelmed and a river forms in front of and behind my house that flows to the ditch in the side yard.

Some questions I have:

- Does it matter that I didn't actually do this?
- Does it matter that it has been like this for a long time?
- Does it matter that my neighbor improved the ditch to accommodate the drainage.
- If I leave it as it is, what is my neighbor's recourse? ie if she sues and wins, what would I be ordered to do?
- If I didn't have the drainage system and the water flowed there just the same, would the neighbor have a valid complaint? If that's the case, does it matter that the water comes out of the drainage pipe or flows naturally?

 
Old 02-23-2014, 04:46 PM
 
Location: The Triad
34,091 posts, read 82,464,944 times
Reputation: 43647
Quote:
Originally Posted by BullCity75 View Post
The drain outlet is on my property, but the water immediately flows into the neighbors ditch.
And that right there is really all there is to it.

If it were your tree that overhung in his yard he would have the right to trim it into nothing.
Same with this. Far better for you to trim the problem in a way that also suits you.
Better yet... engage and involve the neighbor and do it together.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."
 
Old 02-23-2014, 04:49 PM
 
Location: Johns Creek, GA
17,404 posts, read 65,552,552 times
Reputation: 23516
You left out all the "critical criteria"-

When was the house(s) originally built (that would be the period of code compliance)?
Is this within the city limits of Durham?
Is this a development/subdivision; or a city/county road with multiple homes?
By your description (pictures would really help) it sounds like there is no curb&gutter for the road(?)

From the City of Durham Development Code (But remember this is CURRENT CODE):

http://durhamnc.gov/ich/cb/ccpd/Docu...30601_City.pdf


Check section 12.8

Last edited by K'ledgeBldr; 02-23-2014 at 04:58 PM..
 
Old 02-23-2014, 05:11 PM
 
1,114 posts, read 1,199,365 times
Reputation: 1320
When was the house(s) originally built (that would be the period of code compliance)?

1998, though I'm told the drainage was done later.

Is this within the city limits of Durham?

My house is, the neighbor is not.

Is this a development/subdivision; or a city/county road with multiple homes?

My house is on a city road with multiple houses. Neighbor is on a state road with multiple houses.

By your description (pictures would really help) it sounds like there is no curb&gutter for the road(?)

That is correct.


You can see a ditch along the road and the drainage area in the side yard. The rocks are on the neighbors property.


You can see the outlet on the bottom left. The property line is about 6" to the right of the outlets.
 
Old 02-23-2014, 05:32 PM
 
1,834 posts, read 2,681,146 times
Reputation: 2675
I would do whatever makes the neighbor happy. But this is what I did do. I purchased a heavy duty sump pump from Home Depot. I sunk a old rain barrel and I installed the pump in the barrel. I installed a short water collection area free of dirt to drain into the rain barrel. I installed a pool water discharge line from the pump to the street area. Works like a charm and seems to use very little electricity.
 
Old 02-23-2014, 05:39 PM
 
1,114 posts, read 1,199,365 times
Reputation: 1320
Quote:
Originally Posted by mortpes View Post
I would do whatever makes the neighbor happy. But this is what I did do. I purchased a heavy duty sump pump from Home Depot. I sunk a old rain barrel and I installed the pump in the barrel. I installed a short water collection area free of dirt to drain into the rain barrel. I installed a pool water discharge line from the pump to the street area. Works like a charm and seems to use very little electricity.
I'm hoping to avoid pumping. That seems like a maintenance nightmare. I THINK I could run it to the ditch without resorting to pumping, but it would be close and I'll have to dig out the ditch a bit.

I think the real question I need to figure out that answer to is whether my neighbor is being unreasonable. She is adamant that this is my problem, not our problem. I feel like this is a joint problem that we should work together to solve. I may not have mentioned, but plenty of water makes its way to the side ditch naturally, so moving the pipes is not going to eliminate the water standing in the ditch. I think we should focus on fixing the ditch.
 
Old 02-23-2014, 05:53 PM
 
Location: Cold Springs, NV
4,614 posts, read 12,214,826 times
Reputation: 5208
Would this water have naturally migrated to this area without the drain pipes, and was this grading done during the original construction approved by the municipality? It wouldn't hurt to stop by the building department and pose the question. It just seems odd it has been fine for all these years and is now a problem.
 
Old 02-23-2014, 06:00 PM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
44,888 posts, read 59,882,454 times
Reputation: 60433
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWillys View Post
Would this water have naturally migrated to this area without the drain pipes, and was this grading done during the original construction approved by the municipality? It wouldn't hurt to stop by the building department and pose the question. It just seems odd it has been fine for all these years and is now a problem.
Following on to the above. If this was on the approved site plan, and drainage has to be shown on them in a lot of areas, then your neighbor really doesn't have much to say. It's quite possible that the whole set up is the sedimentation/drainage requirement.
 
Old 02-23-2014, 06:05 PM
 
16,235 posts, read 25,078,297 times
Reputation: 27047
Lengthen the pipe, so that it doesn't drain into your neighbors trees...making it a ditch...just move the pipe so that it is only on your property, which should have been the case when you put all this maze of pipes together originally. Looking at your pics above, I'd be PO'd too....You've made a mess of her area...while yours looks nice and neat. Correct it...IMO she has a valid complaint...especially since you're essentially routing and redirecting the run off from a series of pipes...as you stated in your first post....gutters etc....IMO, she has to have been putting up with this, probably why she tried putting stones there....and is just fed up.
 
Old 02-23-2014, 06:47 PM
 
1,114 posts, read 1,199,365 times
Reputation: 1320
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWillys View Post
Would this water have naturally migrated to this area without the drain pipes, and was this grading done during the original construction approved by the municipality? It wouldn't hurt to stop by the building department and pose the question. It just seems odd it has been fine for all these years and is now a problem.
Yes, all the water from my property and the properties uphill migrates to the side ditch naturally. A good bit of water drains to the ditch in addition to the pipes. Also, a couple of times per year, we'll get a big enough rain that the pipes get overwhelmed and rivers form in the front and back of the house that flows into the side ditch.

According to my neighbor, the drainage was added later. My neighbors house was built in the 70s and my house was built in the late 90s. The developer did some drainage work on my neighbors property, but I don't know if that included the side ditch.
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