Water in neighbour's cellar

flashnazia

Just some background before I go into it:

My neighbour has a room that goes under my hallway. This is the room with the problem.

Anyway, my neighbour is hassling me over puddles that appear in his cellar storeroom (which is the room below my house).

The puddles seem to appear in the morning or after rain. It hasn't rained past few days but he is still getting water coming in overnight.

The puddle is next the the outside wall (not the wall adjoining mine), water is coming down that wall.

We have had the water board out and they have replaced all the gulleys on my property.

Someone from environmental health came. He told me to put washing machine on etc and then he said he didn't think it was my fault, he said it was probably ground water. (But, to be honest, I didn't think he was that bothered to check properly, even though I was relieved to be in the clear!)

But he was standing in for the proper environmental health officer, who was on holiday. So now my neighbour is hassling me again and wants access to my cellar.

His cellar room has been recently tanked (render, not the oldroyd stuff)

I'm guessing he should take this up with the builder for not tanking it properly?

If it is coming from my property what can I do about it? My cellar is damp but I thought that what cellars are?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

27col

It seems a strange arrangement to have someone else's cellar under your house. If the neighbour had his cellar tanked and it is still leaking the surely it a problem with the tanking. I'm not at all sure that you should be expected to do anything about it. Especially if it will cost you money. I do not know much about tanking, but I'm betting that it would cost a lot more than "rendering" to have a cellar tanked properly.

angelavdavis

Sounds like a flying freehold arrangement of some sort. I agree with 27col in that I think your neighbour will have to get an investigation done on his insurance by a RICS registered surveyor as it looks like you have exhausted the easy options on your part and if the work has been recently completed he should get a second opinion on the quality of the job.

The company that installed the damp poofing should have underwritten the work. If the property is located on a high water table (not sure if you have had the heavy rain some areas of the UK have had recently), using a rendered solution will not waterproof the cellar. A rendered solution is a damp proofing - as opposed to a tanking solution.

skinback69

hi it could be just the watertable this is a bit like if you dig in sand at the sea side you will get to water so if it rains it could make the water table slightly higher even more so if its happening in all the cellers near you

Doozergirl

Let him in as long as he brings a surveyor with him to categorically decide what the problem is.

I'd put money on it being a problem on his side. If you want a wet cellar, you can have a wet cellar - cellars are wet! If he has water in his then it simply hasn't been made watertight.

He sounds a bit thick, to be frank.

angelavdavis

I don't understand what allowing your neighbour into your property (with or without a qualified surveyor) is actually going to achieve if clearly the water is coming in from a wall that isn't related to your property.

Is your cellar experiencing leaks? If so, is it the same level/occurrence as the neighbour? If the leak is coming from a different direction to your cellar (such as the external wall?) - why is the neighbour insisting its your fault? If your cellar isn't experiencing issues in anyway, take photos as proof and give copies to investigating RICS surveyor (not neighbour).

I think your neighbour needs to concentrate the investigation elsewhere first as a priority.

You have already checked the washing machine and guttering.

Are you on a water meter? If you switch off all water, is the meter still registering usage?

Is your heating on overnight? Does your boiler lose pressure on a regular basis? This could indicate a leak.

Coupled with what you have already done, if none of these elements seem to explain the situation, then you have readily excluded your property (and therefore your liability) as the source(?)

What sort of amounts of water are you talking about? Central heating/water supply leakage would surely give a constant puddle, whereas what you have described seems to differ according to weather, etc.

Bottom-line, (and as no expert) I certainly don't think, based on what you have told us, that it is coming from your property - it's almost certainly ground/drainage water as Env Health rep mentioned (why should him covering holiday make any difference?).

Neighbour needs to get in a RICS qualified surveyor as suggested who can assess whether cellar treatment was appropriate for his situation. I suspect not.

flashnazia

Sorry for replying late and thanks for all the replies.

While I was at work yesterday, the OH let them in with the 'proper' env health officer (the one who was away).

They all trundled off into my cellar and the health guy was like, "well? where's the water in here then?, If it's coming from here I can't see it!"

Apparently, my neighbour's face falling was quite a scene to behold!

So even env guy no.2 concluded it was ground water.

So, unless, env guy no.2 doesn't want to make env guy no.1 look bad by disagreeing with him, I'm in the clear.

But that hasn't stopped my neighbour arguing. Eventually env guy caved in and said he could do one more test which would involve lots of dye and lots of water being hosed onto my front garden.

I don't want this!

bryanb

Suggest the hose and dye treatment for the neighbours property first.

amcluesent

Isn't it too much of a co-incidence that neighbour has had work done and is now in bother? Sound like he's had some cowboys in and they've bodged the job.

Protect yourself NOW by taking pictures of everything, and writing down the dates of visits, who came, their contact info, what was said and agreed etc.

flashnazia

Thanks for the responses.

He called his surveyor last week and he said he thinks it was the gulley outside (which water company replaced only a few weeks ago).

Haven't heard anything since. Thought I'd post an update in case anyone wondered!