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My neighbor lives below me on a hill. I am draining aproximately 25 ft of gutter run-off within 50-60 ft of his property. I am draining onto my own grass, then into the overgrown right-of-way, and then onto his property. I don't think this amount of water will make it to his yard, but he thinks it will. Any comments.
Where I live, normal water flow has to be tolerated... as in water flowing downstream... it gets complicated when the water is directed artificially and often the city will require a dry well to be constructed as mitigation.
I don't know where you are located, but in Texas, as hot and dry as it is, I would appricaiate any run off onto my property when it rains. More water for me!!!
I don't think it's really an issue. If he is downhill, there is no way to determine if your causing excess water for him or not. In a heavy rain, he is going to get the water from uphill...from everyone.
Be mindful....how recent did you install the gutters?
But if it has been there a long time- your neighbor has to be the one to take care of water issues.
I understand the problem water runoff can cause- my back yard used to be dry...now it's a swamp. The land next to mine was cleared for cattle- and they graded theirs as to be 'higher' than mine so all the water just dumps into my yard....stinky and mosquito ridden.
But local law- I only had so long to complain about it. And didn't. So now I have to grade my land to be higher than theirs, build a retaining wall to not allow water to pass, or something else. But it's my costs...not theirs.
The general drainage rules are that water cannot flow off faster AFTER development than it did before development. Each locality has different specific rules. If you are close to an area maintained by the Army corp of engineers there may be even more regulations.
We have a problem with our neighbor's roof draining onto our property and pooling. The water always dries up within a day of rain, so we just ignore it. But, now they are complaining about that wet spot because their kids cut through our yard to get to their friends' house.
Where are you located?
Is the right-of-way an easement for utilities or is it a drainage easement?
Is the r-o-w between you and the neighbor or is it at the street/road?
How old is the development/ houses?
The general drainage rules are that water cannot flow off faster AFTER development than it did before development. Each locality has different specific rules.
Yep, same exact rules. Normal runoff is normal runoff. The natural drainage should be equal before and after. But if you change and direct runoff into concentrated areas, your liable if it causes a problem on the other property.
Thanks for the comments. Apparently all our years of living above this neighbor came to a head with this issue. He essentially wanted us to tie all of our gutters to drain into a drywell, because we were having drainage work done and were redoing the lawn, and according to him "it wouldn't cost that much more." Before I realized his true goal, I made adjustments to my yard plan, by cutting back one of the drain pipes by 15 ft and extending the other just a foot past where is was to get it out of the mulch of the garden. (This work is now 75 feet from his property.) We built a swale with plants above it and directed any additional flow of water (which would be extremely rare, but shouldn't happen now anyway because additional plants are there and the grass has grown in) toward the road. Apparently, he is still upset that I didn't go with his plan, as he is not talking to me. By the way, to answer some questions: I am in NE; the gutters have always been there; my other neighbor tells me she thought the purpose of this overgrown right-of-way was for drainage, which makes sense as there are no utilities running through it; I am at the top of the hill on a corner, he is below me, also on a corner (so two houses per block); he has a street drain on his corner. He also told me that he built a drain to go through his curb onto the street below him and the town has never said anything about it.
I think this depends upon a few things like how much you want to remain "friends" with your neighbor and how much water is draining on to his property.
Those who wrote it can't be anymore than was originally planned for when the dwellings were built are correct.
A drywell may not work well if the percolation of the gathered water doesn't drain as fast as it collects in the well. You could dig one, line it with stones, bricks but that is back breaking work.
I don't think a dry well will do in this case since it will only collect water near it while water one foot away will simply bypass it and continue on to your neighbor's property..
I would try and devise a way to make sure the water always drains toward to roadway since there seems to be storm drains there.
You could install a trench along the entire part of the property that is in question. Line it with black fiber lining then, crushed stones, and then lay in plastic perforated pipe and cover again with more crushed stones. You can manually dig the trench about two or three feet deep and about 18' to 24" wide or rent a small excavator to dig the trench.
If you live up north and the ground freezes, I would certainly recommend a at least a three foot deep trench since the earth moves and shifts with frreezing and thawing and you don't want that pipe twisting or heaving. Remember you will have to glue and securely fit the 8 foot sections of pipe together..
Perhaps you can propose to your neighbor you both do this project together and share the expense? It will be a neighborly type project and you will get to know each other better and probably become goood friends while doing the project. This seems a reasonable compromise to me.
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