Hi All
Our 4 acre property (wales) holds the main house for the farmland around us and was split off from the farmland 25 yrs ago, when the owners son bought all the farm land from her.
The main driveway on the property to the old house now serves all 3 houses on the property ,but is not owned by us, but by the son who owns all the farmland.
There is a pond on his land, to the right side of the driveway, and it has been there for years as it is on the old maps.
It receives all the surface water runoff from all of his land by way of hidden pipes lying under the ground (old victorian ones- no one knows where any of them come from or go to) so it fills up in winter and the level is lower in summer.
He is selling his property, and the driveway was in appalling condition, so a year ago, he got the old tarmac chewed up and rollered back down int a compacted dirt drive surface to look better for sale.
Before that, water was bubbling out from the road surface all the time, and after it was "fixed" it was not.
We were away at the time and came home to find that on our side of the drive (the left) where there is a lawn strip and an old yew hedge, the he had been "digging", and that he had uncovered a drainage inspection chamber (approx 40x40) that had been previously filled in with compacted dirt and with lawn grown over the top.
It has always been like that, for the 8 yrs we have owned the property.
Not only did he dig there, and leave a dirt berm on our lawn on either side from that, but he also dug a trench under and through our hedge, because once he dug out that inspection chamber, water drained through pipes from his pond filled it up quickly and it overflowed, and not wanting the water to flood down his driveway and damage the surface, he decided to dig a trench and send it all over to our property, which has flooded our woodlands foot deep, washed away our vegetable garden and then flows over our septic soakaway through our field, has rotted the grass and waterlogged our field and then flows onto the public road like a waterfall off the end of our field.
So being decent neighbours and wanting to appeal to his good side and not wanting to rock the boat, we went over to speak with him and alert him to the issues that his little digging trespass had caused to us. He acted surprised, but said he has no idea there were victorian clay pipes running out of his pond, but they had broken under the drive (causing the water flowing out of the surface) and when he had the drive fixed, he replaced that pipe, and found the inspection chamber so dug it out to see if he could free up that drainage route again.
His family has owned all the land for around 60 years and none of them knew of its existence to maintain it.
He had the pipe on our side of the drive jetted, but they couldn't unblock it, not unsurprisingly, as it has decades of silt and crap washed down it, and that they needed to jet it from the bottom, but no one knows where that might be anyway. We know the pipes follow our hedge down the side of the drive and turn right into our field entrance, because he also dug a big trench in our field driveway without asking a year ago and has left it in that condition with the pipes exposed.
Where they go from there is anyones guess, but ours is that they go across our field, pass under the road at some point and drain into the basin of the valley, which now belongs to another farmer (but was probably all the same ownership at the time it was installed 100 yrs ago.)
He said he would sort it, but a year has passed with lots of "friendly conversations" on our side to enquire on what his plan is, and now he's done a you turn and said that "The pipes that are blocked are on your side of the drive so your responsibility to maintain!
The pipes ONLY serve to drain his pond- they do not serve our property at all, as we have no standing water that we need to drain) and my understanding, and what the solicitor has told us, is that he is the dominant owner of those pipes that serve his land, and we are the servient owner, so must allow him access to maintain and repair his drainage pipes with permission, but that we are not responsible for repairing his his ancient drainage pipes that don't even serve our land.
There is nothing on either of our deeds mentioning these drains, but seeing as they're old victorian drains, they've predated all of us.
I said to my neighbour that I would speak to the purchaser of the new property (my friend FIL) about the issue as he needed to know about the dispute and he said go right ahead.
He said he had seen the issue (but didnt know of a dispute) because he was there the day the owner dug up the drive and all on our property, and he ageed it was ridiculous that we were being flooded and was not our responsibility to maintain the drains to his pond and he said the current owner is just as tight as a fishes a*s and didn't want to spend a penny so was trying to avoid responsibility- leave it with him, he'd talk to him about sorting it before he would buy the property, as he didn't want to be shouldered with the problem himself.
However, it is a year on and the sale still hasnt gone through yet as the farmer lost a number of the deeds to the fields which has held things up and we are now being inundated with water again.
I am totally fed up with being polite and patient about it while our property is repeatedly flooded by a large volume of water, and the solicitor told us to stop waiting about and take measures to protect our property and sand bag it so the water cant flow across it.
So we told him this was our advice and that is what we would do come friday.
He has not only dug 4 trenches on our property to direct the flow across our land, but he has also used sandbags to make sure every scrap of water goes to us and not his drive and even built up dirt berms with his hands on the drive.
So last night we sandbagged it and suddenly his drive looks like a river and its inundating the public road- and I think he will be hopping mad.
he's unreasonable, shouts and tries to intimidate, even though we've never raised our voice, yet would have every right to do so given how he's behaved.
We've got a guy coming out from the council to take a look next week, but its virtually impossible to clearly find out in black and white who must repair this.
He insists it's us now, and from everything I have read on the subject, and from what the solicitor has advised, we believe that as these pipes solely serve his land with no benefit to us, they are therefore his duty to maintain so his land continues to drain without causing a flooding risk to others.
Our land is servient to his drainpipe running across them, but he is responsible for maintaining them in good order.
If he isn't reasonable and doesn't take action to stop this water trespass the solicitor said the only way to force him is via an injunction, but that is upwards of £20,000, and who wants to have to get legal with a neighbour in order to persuade them to do the right thing? We certainly don't want to go there!
I just want the responsible party to deal with the situation, and I don't believe that we are the responsible party?
From what you know about how this all works, what are your thought on the matter and how to resolve it?
Our 4 acre property (wales) holds the main house for the farmland around us and was split off from the farmland 25 yrs ago, when the owners son bought all the farm land from her.
The main driveway on the property to the old house now serves all 3 houses on the property ,but is not owned by us, but by the son who owns all the farmland.
There is a pond on his land, to the right side of the driveway, and it has been there for years as it is on the old maps.
It receives all the surface water runoff from all of his land by way of hidden pipes lying under the ground (old victorian ones- no one knows where any of them come from or go to) so it fills up in winter and the level is lower in summer.
He is selling his property, and the driveway was in appalling condition, so a year ago, he got the old tarmac chewed up and rollered back down int a compacted dirt drive surface to look better for sale.
Before that, water was bubbling out from the road surface all the time, and after it was "fixed" it was not.
We were away at the time and came home to find that on our side of the drive (the left) where there is a lawn strip and an old yew hedge, the he had been "digging", and that he had uncovered a drainage inspection chamber (approx 40x40) that had been previously filled in with compacted dirt and with lawn grown over the top.
It has always been like that, for the 8 yrs we have owned the property.
Not only did he dig there, and leave a dirt berm on our lawn on either side from that, but he also dug a trench under and through our hedge, because once he dug out that inspection chamber, water drained through pipes from his pond filled it up quickly and it overflowed, and not wanting the water to flood down his driveway and damage the surface, he decided to dig a trench and send it all over to our property, which has flooded our woodlands foot deep, washed away our vegetable garden and then flows over our septic soakaway through our field, has rotted the grass and waterlogged our field and then flows onto the public road like a waterfall off the end of our field.
So being decent neighbours and wanting to appeal to his good side and not wanting to rock the boat, we went over to speak with him and alert him to the issues that his little digging trespass had caused to us. He acted surprised, but said he has no idea there were victorian clay pipes running out of his pond, but they had broken under the drive (causing the water flowing out of the surface) and when he had the drive fixed, he replaced that pipe, and found the inspection chamber so dug it out to see if he could free up that drainage route again.
His family has owned all the land for around 60 years and none of them knew of its existence to maintain it.
He had the pipe on our side of the drive jetted, but they couldn't unblock it, not unsurprisingly, as it has decades of silt and crap washed down it, and that they needed to jet it from the bottom, but no one knows where that might be anyway. We know the pipes follow our hedge down the side of the drive and turn right into our field entrance, because he also dug a big trench in our field driveway without asking a year ago and has left it in that condition with the pipes exposed.
Where they go from there is anyones guess, but ours is that they go across our field, pass under the road at some point and drain into the basin of the valley, which now belongs to another farmer (but was probably all the same ownership at the time it was installed 100 yrs ago.)
He said he would sort it, but a year has passed with lots of "friendly conversations" on our side to enquire on what his plan is, and now he's done a you turn and said that "The pipes that are blocked are on your side of the drive so your responsibility to maintain!
The pipes ONLY serve to drain his pond- they do not serve our property at all, as we have no standing water that we need to drain) and my understanding, and what the solicitor has told us, is that he is the dominant owner of those pipes that serve his land, and we are the servient owner, so must allow him access to maintain and repair his drainage pipes with permission, but that we are not responsible for repairing his his ancient drainage pipes that don't even serve our land.
There is nothing on either of our deeds mentioning these drains, but seeing as they're old victorian drains, they've predated all of us.
I said to my neighbour that I would speak to the purchaser of the new property (my friend FIL) about the issue as he needed to know about the dispute and he said go right ahead.
He said he had seen the issue (but didnt know of a dispute) because he was there the day the owner dug up the drive and all on our property, and he ageed it was ridiculous that we were being flooded and was not our responsibility to maintain the drains to his pond and he said the current owner is just as tight as a fishes a*s and didn't want to spend a penny so was trying to avoid responsibility- leave it with him, he'd talk to him about sorting it before he would buy the property, as he didn't want to be shouldered with the problem himself.
However, it is a year on and the sale still hasnt gone through yet as the farmer lost a number of the deeds to the fields which has held things up and we are now being inundated with water again.
I am totally fed up with being polite and patient about it while our property is repeatedly flooded by a large volume of water, and the solicitor told us to stop waiting about and take measures to protect our property and sand bag it so the water cant flow across it.
So we told him this was our advice and that is what we would do come friday.
He has not only dug 4 trenches on our property to direct the flow across our land, but he has also used sandbags to make sure every scrap of water goes to us and not his drive and even built up dirt berms with his hands on the drive.
So last night we sandbagged it and suddenly his drive looks like a river and its inundating the public road- and I think he will be hopping mad.
he's unreasonable, shouts and tries to intimidate, even though we've never raised our voice, yet would have every right to do so given how he's behaved.
We've got a guy coming out from the council to take a look next week, but its virtually impossible to clearly find out in black and white who must repair this.
He insists it's us now, and from everything I have read on the subject, and from what the solicitor has advised, we believe that as these pipes solely serve his land with no benefit to us, they are therefore his duty to maintain so his land continues to drain without causing a flooding risk to others.
Our land is servient to his drainpipe running across them, but he is responsible for maintaining them in good order.
If he isn't reasonable and doesn't take action to stop this water trespass the solicitor said the only way to force him is via an injunction, but that is upwards of £20,000, and who wants to have to get legal with a neighbour in order to persuade them to do the right thing? We certainly don't want to go there!
I just want the responsible party to deal with the situation, and I don't believe that we are the responsible party?
From what you know about how this all works, what are your thought on the matter and how to resolve it?