Water leak from neighbours property

Smevchenko

We own a semi-detached property, with a garage extension on the side. Our neighbour on the non-adjoining side, also has a garage extension. There is a small gap between the garages, and the guttering on his side sits above ours. He has an outdoor tap on the front of the garage, and a pipe runs to the back of his house which as far as I can tell, runs pretty much directly above his guttering.

His house is in a very poor state, to the point it almost looks derelict. He is very frail, and has not been in the house since December 2018. We noticed the leak about 4 months ago, and as far as I can tell, the water is coming from the pipe that services the tap at the front of his garage.

We managed to get hold of a social worker who had contact with him in the care home he his in, and to our knowledge, he came back to the house to turn off the mains tap (I have never been in his house, and quite frankly, you would not want to go in), but do not know if this has happened.

Anyhow, the water leak did stop for a period of time, which led us to believe the issue was resolved, but the leak has now come back, and water can trickle between the garages (near the front), and is pretty much continuous. This is not rain water, that is backed up somewhere and taking ages to drain, as the leak was visible during periods where we have not had rain for over a week etc. The inside of my garage wall appears noticeably damp as a result. The water will also be running into our foundations, and down our driveway, possibly causing unseen damage.

I have contacted the council, who say as it's an owned property, they can't do anything.

We have contacted United Utilities, who got as far as digging up the pavement to locate the water pipe, but could not find it, so repaired the hole and said there was nothing else they could do.

I have also lodged a complaint with the council, which led to some correspondence with a Housing Standards Officer, but as yet, we have not had a resolution.

Any other suggestions on who we should contact would be much appreciated. Should we also be contacting our insurers, to let them know that a leak from a neighbouring property could be causing damage to ours?

G_M

You need to take this up with the home owner.



* a formal letter sent with proof of posting, sent to the property - not that this will likely help short term, but in the event that this escalates eg legally, that is a sound first step
* visit him in the care home if you know where. Does he have mental capacity?
* does he have relatives? Do they have POA? Speak to them.
* From what you say, I doubt he has valid insurance. He'd need a specialist policy for an unoccupied property (plus sounds like he could not answer the question 'Is the property maintained in a good state of repair'!)


Having one gutter overhanging the other is poor practice. Depending who owns the boundary, one of you is trespassing!


If the leaking pipe is above his gutter, does the water not run into the gutter and then away via the gutter's downpipe?


How about if you just got a ladder and went up, identified where the water was leaking, and adjusted the gutter(s) to catch the water? Not ideal (and admitedly has some legalimplications....) but might be a practical solution to protect your garage.

Grenage

I would do as GM suggests - get up there and have a look; you can probably work a solution.


I'd turn the water off in the street as a last resort.

Smevchenko

G_M wrote: »

You need to take this up with the home owner.

* a formal letter sent with proof of posting, sent to the property - not that this will likely help short term, but in the event that this escalates eg legally, that is a sound first step
* visit him in the care home if you know where. Does he have mental capacity?

* does he have relatives? Do they have POA? Speak to them.
* From what you say, I doubt he has valid insurance. He'd need a specialist policy for an unoccupied property (plus sounds like he could not answer the question 'Is the property maintained in a good state of repair'!)


Having one gutter overhanging the other is poor practice. Depending who owns the boundary, one of you is trespassing!

If the leaking pipe is above his gutter, does the water not run into the gutter and then away via the gutter's downpipe?

How about if you just got a ladder and went up, identified where the water was leaking, and adjusted the gutter(s) to catch the water? Not ideal (and admitedly has some legalimplications....) but might be a practical solution to protect your garage.

We do not know the care home he is in, but previous knowledge of the man suggests he is not very helpful, or would be concerned with appropriate insurance whilst not in his home.

I will send a letter to his property, although as you suggest, short term, that will have no affect. I do realise the suggestion is to keep the issue documented, so can do this.

I believe he does have a relative, but this is based on another neighbours knowledge (they have lived on the road for much longer than we have). Not sure how we go about trying to contact them. We can try to get hold of the social worker again, and see if she still has contact.

There is obviously an issue with the guttering, maybe I can bodge a temporary fix to ensure the water is captured by the guttering and drains away properly. Should this not succeed, is the neighbour the only person who can give permission for the water to be turned off to his property? I think previously when UU came out to locate the water pipe, they couldn't find it on the pavement, so would need permission to access his land to find it. They suggested if they found it, they could install a tap to turn off the supply.

When I say his house is in a poor state of repair, from outside you can see:

Guttering hanging down in multiple places, or gaps/holes.
Rear windows broken, house is therefore not secure and will allow vermin entry.
Porch is literally hanging off, so clearly not safe.
Gardens to front and rear are littered with stuff - Vehicles/Ovens/Large Storage boxes and overgrown
Front window boarded up.

You can only imagine the state of the inside, house is 1930's, but everything looks original, bar the extension.

G_M

Strictly speaking, you need either his consent, or a court order, to go onto his land and do any work (even turning off the supply).

But realistically, if you prevent his and your properties getting damp and/or improve the guttering, what's he going to do? Sue you? (even assuming he knows).

But I would follow up the relatives via the neighbour and see where that gets you.

As for the social worker - well, if you plan to take action as above yourself, perhaps best not to approach him personally as it sounds like he would simply say 'No', which would then make any further action by you even more dodgy.......

BrownTrout

Couldnt you just turn his stopcock off in the street?, assuming its a separate supply
I certainly would.....

Puflet

This may be of interest: https://www.clarkslegal.com/Blog/Post/Can_I_have_access_to_a_neighbours_land_to_carry_out_works_to_my_property
In practice, there shouldn't be an issue if you can reach an agreement with the neighbour - I know I've granted permission in the past, with no need to go any further.

As far as I can gather, they aren't allowed to refuse unless they can demonstrate that it would cause such terrible hardship that access should not be granted.