Laws regarding what someone can do on their property when it affects the neighbors

Factual Questions
1

General question: What limits do people have whe it comes to modifications that they make to their own property when it adversely affects the property of neighboring domiciles?

Specific Issue that propmpted the question (and if this puts this into the realm of MPSIMS, my apologies):

I live in a row house very typical for the area I live in just west of Philadelphia. My basement flooded about six weeks ago, destroying a lot of personal property. I assumed this was because of the incline leading to my basement in the back yard and just got around to spending $2100 to waterproof the basement.

The “contractor” I hired was a friend (who has done stuff like this all his life and who did a splendid job, I only mention this because of what he did aside from the septic tank and drains he installed). When he got here it was raining and there was a pool of water atop the mud and other debris that this rain (and other rain fall previously) had deposited in a concrete area in front of the garage door and entrance door.

He looked at the surrounding area and showed me that the person who lives next door to me put in a concrete barrier on his property near where a small fence that separates our houses and his house is. He also showed me how the water is supposed to flow: The house is on an incline but also it slants to the left as well. As he pointed out to me, the water should flow not just down to my property but also past it, and also past his house, and flow down to the street/sewer since there my neighbor’s house is the last in the row.

With the concrete barrier there, the water stops right at my place, pooling up, causing water and mud to cake the area where I enter the house in the back. Aside from the obvious problems with this, I fear for the long term implications of several inches of water and caked mud against my house. I mean, water carved the Grand Canyon, right?

My friend, trying to be helpful to me, attempted to remove it but my neighbor apparently heard this and came out extremely angry, saying he was not to remove it. My friend told him that it was flooding my area out, and his reply was that wasn’t his problem.

In short: Is that true?

At best, my neighbor put it there after the flooding (he claimed to my friend that he had just had it put there and I know that he was flooded out when I was) but it is still causing proplems for me; at worst, it was there and a contributing factor to the basement flood which cost me a lot of time and money and loss of irreplacable property (including a vinyl LP collection). Either way, it’s causing problems now that the drain and septic tank won’t help.

Do I have any recourse here? I am not close to our neighbor and given his reaction to my friend, I am doubtful that he will be willing to be take it down when I explain to him how much of a problem this is.

If I do have recourse, who should I call? A lawyer (who I may not be able to afford)? Or can I handle this myself by callling some local authorities?

2

Typically in the U.S., there are laws which state that a person cannot divert or block the flow of stormwater such that it adversely affects the neighboring property.

That would cover this type situation, which if I’m reading your post correctly, has him blocking the flow of water onto his property so that it backed up onto yours.

Where do you live (generally speaking)?

I do suggest that you contact an attorney. The attorney can hire experts who will assess the situation and let you know what to do next. If it turns out that the neighbor is at fault, you may be able to recoup attorney’s fees from him.

Alternatively, you could contact the local government and ask to have them come look at the situation. Sometimes the city/county/parish will work with homeowners to try to get this kind of dispute resolved. If there is a government-owned stormwater easment where your neighbor put the barrier, for example, the government can insist that it be removed.

3

It’s in the OP, but just west of Philadelphia.

4

Oops!

Okay, then folks from the City might be able to point you in the right direction.

I have a couple of cases I’m expert witness on which are related to this kind of thing. If you can show that the neighbor’s actions caused your flooding you may have recourse.

5

Your cheapest route would be to start with the city. They need to assess the drainage and if your neighbor is impeding the planned flow, he will have to rectify it and the city may back you up in requiring him to help you with damages. If that doesn’t work out, get an attorney. Document EVERYTHING, starting now if you haven’t already, so you have it all for an attorney if one is needed.

6

Second that. Take pictures of everything, and ask your buddy to write an account of exactly what he saw.

7

I would get an attorney and go to the borough. They may have had to get that permitted. If a permit was required and they didn’t get one, the borough may be able to get that torn down. But since the OP said that they were living in a rowhouse, I am guessing that the houses are older and the barrier may have been built prior to code changes.

The borough may tell you that you are outta luck and you have to get someone to remediate the problem.

In any case, if you can’t pay for an attorney now, the borough has a code enforcement officer and an engineer who can at least explain whether it was legally built or not. But if you want something done, a lawyer may still be necessary.

8

Also contact your local politician (the one representing your town or local district). There are almost certainly established procedures for addressing this, the politician (or his or her staff) will know how to direct you to start employing them, and you may not have to hire a lawyer after all.

9

I’m curious to see how you come out on this. Post an update when you can. :slight_smile:

10

Unlikely since the owner intimated that he put that up recently when he ranted to my friend.

I called the city township office (it’s Upper Darby for those who care) for the Public Works department since they dealt with Stormwater Management however they transferred me to Licenses & Inspections.

Once there, the very helpful woman told me that it might be a civil matter however she took my information down and said an inspector will get in touch with me in a week or so.

She also asked me whether I had a permit for the sump pump I installed! Fortunately for me, I didn’t need one since I didn’t do any electrical work (the pump is plugged into an existing outlet in the garage) so I am in the clear… That would have sucked (I did have three professionals give me an estimate and none of them said they needed a permit so I thought I was safe but now it’s confirmed).

I’ll let people know what happens as soon as there’s something to say.

I asked my wife if she thought it would be more neighborly to have a discussion with my neighbor to hopefully rectify this without getting the township involved but she said I shouldn’t and I tend to agree with her. He screamed at my friend once, I don’t know how likely he would be friendly to me even if I wasn’t trying to remove it myself.

11

if your septic tank and drain field are improperly drained or flooded this could cause the system to backup into your house and allow sewerage to make it out of the tank onto lawn. this would be a violation or problem for you.

as mentioned altering drainage without permit is illegal at many governmental levels.

12

I already looked this one up - it is against the rules for me to drain my sump pump (not a septic tank!) into the sewer - i.e. I couldn’t have it pump into a sink or pipes leading away from the house. However, when we did do - pump it through pipes inside the drop ceiling of the basement all the way to the front of the house and leading onto the lawn right next to the drainage pipe that comes from the roof and gutters - is perfectly up to code, as they say.

As far as I can tell, we did nothing wrong here.

13

My bolding - it sounds like your friend pissed off the neighbor by trespassing & attempting to damage his property. Not that the neighbor wasn’t wrong in installing the barrier, but I’d be shocked if your friend actually had any legal right to go onto his property and remove it. Given that you didn’t have water pouring into your basement at that moment, unilaterally removing the barrier was a bad idea. You may want to go over to the neighbor , hat in hand, and apologize and then try to see if you can come up with a mutually acceptable solution.

14

in your first post you said you had a septic tank. do you have a septic tank or are you connected to a sanitary sewer? septic tank is for your house waste water, sump pump is for storm water that doesn’t drain away from your house.

15

I don’t know why I typed Septic Tank. It’s a sump pump. We live in a real urban area, probably no septic systems for miles. Sorry for the confusion.

16

I agree. It can’t hurt to talk to your neighbor, right? And a mutually acceptable solution will be way, way, better in the long run than making him do something.
I’m not guaranteeing you won’t have to explore legal options, but always talk first (doesn’t mean you don’t keep documenting everything, including notes about your conversations).

17

We did have several inches of standing water and sediment in the area in front of my garage and entrance doors plus it was still raining and the barricade as designed was causing (or at least exaserbating) this plus it is most likely not up to code to begin with. I don’t fault my friend for trying to remove it as it was possible if it didn’t stop raining that the water could have reached inside my house again. Maybe he should have knocked first but that wouldn’t have changed the outcome, I don’t think. As it was, my friend did no damage to the barricade.

This neighbor already said to my friend that the water flooding our place was “not my problem” (direct quote) so I think the best thing is to have an inspector look it over and see if it is indeed against code.

My neighbor made this modification not caring what it did to my property and even if he wasn’t aware of the problems it is causing me, he is aware now and made his position perfectly clear.

18

Update: The city inspector called me back and told me to pound sand… Actually he just said it’s a civil matter, they only concern themselves with larger issues than impact stormwater management much more severely than just my house.

As such, I plan on talking to him soon. If that doesn’t work, I will take some pictures and do what I have to do… Possibly with an attorney though if I can document all of this myself, that would make a lot more sense economically for me.

19

Does your construction friend have an inspector working for him? Sometimes a letter from a knowledgeable person is enough to explain to people why they need to fix something like this. Alternatively, you could contact a local engineer. Save the attorney for last resort, maybe.

20

Is there a homeowner’s association or similar neighborhood ruling body that might have some kind of rules regarding the alterations your neighbor made?