IANAL and all that stuff, but I have been in similar situations (but different problem-type). If you can find the exact language (in City Code or such) that prohibits such ‘construction’ and/or altering of floodwater/etc, you may also find the ‘how-to’ of addressing grievances of violations (remedy?). A person, in some cities, may use ‘abatement’ that allows a person to legally declare something as ‘bad’ and can allow it (the violation) to be removed and cost charged to owner of the violation (in so many words). I would think that a person has an avenue to put this up before a judge of some sort without too much legal representation (unless it gets really nasty).
You might be able to this yourself depending on City Codes (if any are to be found, though such almost always exist, ime) and abatement can be powerful to avoid if in the ‘wrong’. Having an attorney walk you through whatever process is needed is the best advice, of course, but it may kinda easy if it is obviously ‘against Code’, per se.
Is there a way to drain your property without the water going onto his property. Maybe a section of drain tile would solve the problem. Yes your neighbor is a jerk, but sometimes the best way to win a fight is to avoid it.
The evil part of me thinks you should tell the neighbor downhill from this neighbor that he should build a small dam to keep flood water off his property. This would flood jerk neighbor’s property. This of course the wrong way to handle this, but I still like to plot revenge.
I knocked on the door and their teenage(ish) daughter answered. Explained the situation and she said we need to speak with the landlord. Presumably, they are renting and the landlord decided to put up the barricade in response to the flooding two months back.
She said she didn’t have the info but she would tape it to our door. At least I don’t have to deal with angry dude…
So the wife and I knocked on the door today to try and get the landlord information and the woman answered the phone. She gave us a ton of attitude and flatly said she didn’t care whether her landlord’s solution was causing us problems as long as her backyard and basement were fine.
Then she said she didn’t like my wife’s attitude and slammed the door in our faces.
So that went about as well as I anticipated…
I did a search and found out the name of the property owner but not a phone number. I am unsure what to do next… Any thoughts?
Talk to the next person in the chain of command. Ask for his supervisor, the City Engineer, Village President, Mayor etc…
Actually, the first thing I would do is pick through your city’s code and see if he needs a permit to put up the barrier. If you need a permit to put up a fence (and you probably do), I’m guessing you need a permit to put this up as well. You can probably go down to your city hall and ask to see it.
In fact, your best bet might actually be to go down to your city hall and just calmly explain the problem. “Hi there, I have a quick question for you, I live over on Addison St. A few weeks ago my neighbor put up a concrete barrier in his yard and I’m having this problem where every time it rains all the water [whatever the water does], before he put this up it [whatever the water used to do]. I tried to talk to him about it but he said it’s not his problem. So, my question is, is this a city issue? Is this something that an inspector should have had to sign off on or do I need to deal with this on my own in court?”
I’d start with something along those lines. If they tell you to talk to the inspector, just say “Well, I already did, he told me that he doesn’t deal with problems that are this small*, is there someone else I can talk to? Does he have a supervisor?”
*if the inspector said anything rude, use his exact words
Did the tenants put up the barrier and not the landlord? That could be why they are so squirrelly about giving you the contact information for the landlord.
Does your jurisdiction have the real estate assesments online? That will give you an address. Use something like Zabasearch to get the phone number or send a letter Certified mail. I bet that if the tenants did something like this, the landlord will be pissed since this opens him up to liability.
Talk to an attorney who handles nuisance cases. This is a common law tort, and one which may likely apply here.
Not that this is relevant, but in my county (SoCal) you can not drain water from your property to or over an adjacent property. It must flow to to the street/storm drain.
Ask the city for the landlord’s contact info. Explain the situation, acknowledge that it’s probably too small a matter for them to do code enforcement on, but ask nicely if they can at least help you get in touch with the landlord. Couldn’t hurt, and might help.
