Neighbour threatening legal action - please help!

Jeepers_Creepers

Se7en?1 You braggard, you.

If the cause of the gutter overflowing is down to CatWoman actually catching the water from her roof for the first time since the bludy house was built, then fair do's... That seems unlikely, tho', surely? 

But, if that is the case, then - yes - a further downpipe might be needed, and fair enough it's installed on her land. It will cost quite a few £undred, tho', so I'd like to be sure.

Davesnave

Seven downpipes and soak-aways because we are in a bungalow with a relatively large and more complex roof, compared with a house of similar volume.

If the OP's house is an older one, the gutters aren't likely to be original or necessarily specified correctly. I'm not discounting the possibility that the neighbour might well be a plonker and/or a bully either. I agree that the OP should satisfy herself about the reasons for the neighbour's leak before parting with any money.

CatLady87

Hi all,
Sorry for the delayed reply, it’s been a tough day. I’ll try and answer the points in order. Sadly I don’t have any pictures as another roofer I’ve used came back recently to seal the joints and took pictures but he’s not sent them to me yet. 

My neighbour’s argument is that this problem is historic and whenever my gutter is altered in any way, it affects his. The two gutters aren’t joined up and have a stop cap on each end. I spoke to him today (the neighbour) and he tried to explain the issue but I don’t fully understand it. I think the crux of it is that my gutter is higher than his and in heavy rain it over spills and runs down his house. There’s a huge wet patch on his wall. I’m happy to remedy it because I feel guilty that it’s happened and it’s not about the £40 - he wants a permanent solution and he seems to think the down pipe is the answer. Does anyone know how much a soak away would be to installed and would this mean a down pipe could be safely installed (I.e wouldn’t cause any further problems with drain water running all over the road). Does anyone know if a neighbour can take legal action over an issue you’re clearly trying to remedy?

In terms of the gutter setup, I believe the neighbour’s water runs downpipe on the house adjoining his and into a soak away.  I am not really sure what the issue is, personally I think years of said neighbour and previous owners of my house messing about with the gutters and putting stops caps on has meant that they don’t function as they should. The neighbour has never actually tried to remedy the solution with whoever lived in my house - they tried to fix the gutter, it causes a problem with his and then vice versa and the cycle continues.  l agree that a gutter along all three properties might be the best solution and at this point I’m willing to pay for it. However, my neighbour is not sure that would fix the issue. He’s lived here for 16 years.

Sorry I haven’t come in sooner to clarify and I’m sorry that my original post wasn’t clear - just about holding things together at the moment.

CatLady87

I should say the wet patch is on his outside wall. Also, I think another Commenter is probably right in that the work has caused the gutter to overfill and  overspill onto his property. It seems to be a lot worse when we have particularly heavy downpours.

I had a long chat with the neighbour today. He wasn’t best pleased about me leaving a note and I think the fact I got upset made him feel a bit guilty. That being said, I don’t think he will hesitate to take legal action if I don’t remedy it in the way he wants (the downpipe)

I’ve asked the roofer who did the work to the chimney to come back and speak with the neighbour so that he can explain the history and help us find a solution. He’s not the best at replying, though. The neighbour is going to get his workman to come back and hopefully they will both give us a solution that works. I didn’t want to just rely on his workman because I’ve no idea if these people would consider the potential damage of sticking a downpipe on my property or even consider the impact on me.

Davesnave

"The two gutters aren’t joined up and have a stop cap on each end......"

Sorry, I'm still a little confused. If you have a stop end on your gutter and no down pipe, where does the water go? Or do you mean it travels in the direction of the other neighbour and into theirs?

It's hard to work with someone who threatens legal action, but as I said earlier this is nonsense, especially as all court systems are in a huge backlog situation due to Covid. We can't price a soak away from where we're sitting. In my garden, making one only takes an hour using a mini digger, but everyone's situation is different.

FreeBear

CatLady87 said: he wants a permanent solution and he seems to think the down pipe is the answer. Does anyone know how much a soak away would be to installed and would this mean a down pipe could be safely installed (I.e wouldn’t cause any further problems with drain water running all over the road).

A soakaway should be a minimum of 5 metres from any building and road. It should also be at least 2.5m from the boundary of the property - For a typical terrace house, this is nigh on impossible to achieve. You also can not allow the discharge from the downpipe to run across a path and on to the roadway. You may be permitted to connect the downpipe to your foul water sewer if there is no other alternative (you would need to contact Building Control to get the work signed off).

Note - soakaways are designed with a ten year life span. When was your neighbour's checked and cleaned out ?

CatLady87

Hiya,
Yes, the water is directed to my neighbour’s house to the right (as you look at it from the road) and I believe he has a soakaway there. I’m going to go and speak to him tomorrow.

@Freebear - thank you, that’s useful to note.  It sounds untenable, in that case.  As I’ve said above, I’m going to speak to the neighbour on the end (the one to the right) to ask about his soakaway and see if he will look in his gutter to see if it’s full of water / potentially blocked. 

Would anyone know if new guttering along the three houses might work given the down pipe / soakaway situation? I’m feeling less and less inclined to go down this route now and unfortunately I feel like that’s what my neighbour wants.

Davesnave

CatLady87 said:

Hiya,
Yes, the water is directed to my neighbour’s house to the right (as you look at it from the road) and I believe he has a soakaway there. I’m going to go and speak to him tomorrow.

I would certainly do that. If the awkward neighbour has a stop end on their gutter, there would be no need to involve them at all if you and the right hand neighbour could agree on replacement higher capacity guttering. That would be cheaper than a new soak away, but it would probably be better if you all had the same. With correctly set up gutters, water from your roof could go two ways, not just one.

If there is no room for a soak-away meeting the regulations on your property , that scuppers the left hand neighbour's preferred solution, whatever he thinks.

CatLady87

@Davesnave - Many thanks for this. So do you think checking the existing guttering and downpipe on the right hand neighbour’s house and then fitting some higher capacity guttering might be a solution?

Thank you everyone else for your advice as well, I really appreciate it

CatLady87

Just a thought. If the gutter was blocked with leaves, could that cause it to overspill? I’ve been lax with maintenance recently, unintentionally. In any event I’ve contacted someone to clean them out ASAP