Problem neighbour

Mopalop · 6 July 2021 at 10:00AM

I am at my wits end we moved into our current home 10 years ago . It is a detached property with unattached double garage but this double garage is attached to Next-door Annex . 9 years ago we demolished this garage and built a one bedroom bungalow attached to my neighbours annex , this was built with planning permission party wall agreement and building control etc at the same time we pot in a block paving driveway however this is classed as our back garden !! In February 2021 we had a solicitors letter accusing us of water runoff and flooding our next-door neighbors annex the driveway is on incline away from Nextdoor and our water is collected by echo drain connecting to our drains . They are claiming £30000 so far part of which is £700 a month for not renting out their annex. We have answered their Solicitors letters refuting the allegations with 3pages of Corrections two months on no further Correspondence However we know they are still continuing this if anyone could give some advice I would be very grateful

Jeepers_Creepers · 6 July 2021 at 10:45AM

Don't panic!

As I understand it, they would need to prove that run-off from your land was causing this damage - it's not for you to prove it isn't.

So, have they sent you an independent surveyor's report?

Next thing - do you have Legal Protection on your house insurance? Phew - good. Call them up and let them handle this.

As far as I can see, the worst case scenario is that there is something wrong with how your driveway was laid and/or with the echo drain, and there is run-off which could be causing damage. In which case (a) they need to prove there is, and (b) your insurance will cover any claim (after they make a claim on their insurance - that's what it's for.)

Best case scenario is that they haven't yet had the situation independently surveyed, and - once they do so - it'll report nothing amiss except possibly a poor conversion of their own garage.

In either event, it would appear that you have done nothing wrong; you have not been negligent. If your drains have failed or something like that, then that's why you have 3rd-party cover in your insurance.

Unless your insurance also covers drains and stuff, then - if there is a flaw in your 'echo', you may need to pay for this out of your own pocket.

But I'd say not to give a moment's concern about you being liable for £30k or anything else.

I'd love to know what this solicitor's letter claimed? Could you let us know?! :-)

Mistral001 · 6 July 2021 at 11:29AM

Please tell me that you have employed a solicitor to act for you.

Mopalop · 6 July 2021 at 12:18PM

Yes Solicitors helped draft the reply we are waiting for their reply and then will engage our insurance Solicitors I have checked their solicitors feed back and it’s Appalling

Mistral001 · 6 July 2021 at 12:43PM

Mopalop said:

Yes Solicitors helped draft the reply we are waiting for their reply and then will engage our insurance Solicitors I have checked their solicitors feed back and it’s Appalling

If you have not informed your insurers yet that a claim has been made against you, you should inform them immediately. If you wait, it could invalidate any insurance claim you make in connection with this matter.

Jeepers_Creepers · 6 July 2021 at 2:02PM

Mopalop said:

Yes Solicitors helped draft the reply we are waiting for their reply and then will engage our insurance Solicitors I have checked their solicitors feed back and it’s Appalling

So you don't have LP on your house insurance? :-(

What do you think of their claim? Could it possibly have any merit? How sure are you that there is no excessive run-off from your drive that could cause this flooding?

Just curious about these points, because bottom line is - as I understand it - if you were not negligent (eg fully aware there could be an issue and yet did nothing about it, or was 'put on notice' by the neighbour that there were issues but ditto) then it just isn't a problem for you - they were flooded, they claim off their insurance to fix everything, and - if there is an issue with your driveway and/or drain - then you need to sort that so's there's no repeat.

If their insurance then wants to try and claim off yours, that's up to them. But now't to do with you. (Provided you weren't negligent...)

Mopalop · 6 July 2021 at 2:36PM

We have legal protection with insurance they have been informed and it’s been logged ,we are all waiting for the neighbors next move we have told insurance that a solicitors letter has been sent however the Accusations are so ludicrous we were hoping that would be the end of it . But the neighbors are lying to the Surveyors and they are believing them

Jeepers_Creepers · 6 July 2021 at 2:52PM

Mopalop said:

We have legal protection with insurance they have been informed and it’s been logged ,we are all waiting for the neighbors next move we have told insurance that a solicitors letter has been sent however the Accusations are so ludicrous we were hoping that would be the end of it . But the neighbors are lying to the Surveyors and they are believing them

Cool, you have LP.

In that case, if it's as you describe, you have nothing to worry about.

I'm a bit concerned about your claim that the 'neighbs are lying to the surveyor and they are believing them'. A credible surveyor will be looking for evidence, and evidence only. They will not take one party's comments as gospel - they will be well aware that there are two, usually conflicting, sides to each issue, and would be utterly daft and unporfessional to be swayed by something unprovable said by one.

Could you give us an idea of the sort of thing being claimed by the neighb that the surveyor is simply believing without evidence? If it's truly as you say, then it's time to contact the surveyor's regulating body, and also explain all this to your LP and insurance.

Bottom line - if it's as you say, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

(So, what sorts of things is the surveyor swallowing?)

Rosa_Damascena · 6 July 2021 at 3:20PM

Basic question - if the loss was £700 pm, why has it taken this long for your neighbours to make you aware of the problem? Why would they risk accumulating their losses.

Mistral001 · 6 July 2021 at 3:24PM

The surveyor will report on the evidence he/she sees. They will listen to the plaintiff to get background information of course, However, they will expect exaggerations. For example the plaintiff might have said that the water was two feet deep at the height of the flood, but if there is no evidence to that effect, they will not write this as a fact in the report.

Mopalop · 6 July 2021 at 3:57PM

Thanks the surveyor said that they hadn’t seen any evidence of flooding and they queried our neighbors dump roof membrane or lack of it and also the threshold to the annex door is also too low they thought our drive might have been put in to high however we have photographic evidence that this is not the case they also asked that we put in echo drain This was put in 9years ago we were also blamed for their gate post rotting the surveyor was overheard saying well gate posts do rot but it hadn’t done badly as was put in in2006!!