Downpipe issue

travis-powers

That’s brilliant a bit of weight in your corner!
pretty fair to say that if anyone’s roof need remedial work it’s your neighbours!
Agree about the mute button!
JC reply was pure gold!

Jeepers_Creepers

Thanks AN. And that's really good news - folk are actually acting.

As for 'mute', you may have noticed, I quite like writing.

Section62

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Rather than divert the water on to a neighbouring property, the simplest thing for the neighb to have done is extend the pipe a further foot. Oh look - he has!

Yup, and it confirms what the OP said about the neighbour not be adverse to doing a 'bodge'.  But when the pipe sags, gets blocked, and the overflowing water starts damaging the OP's walls, we can all hope the neighbour doesn't say "so what did you expect?" (whilst trying not to 'smirk').  You probably know the saying about battles and wars.


Given the OP has tuned out there's not much point  saying anything else.  But in case someone in a similar situation reads this thread in the future they should be aware the rest of your post contains information which could be misleading and/or underplays the risks involved.

For example the suggestion "Moneyclaim.org will make them [pay]" doesn't adequately reflect the fact you need to have a valid claim, you still need to go through all the steps such as mitigating your loss, and you mustn't do anything unreasonable which increases your loss.

Building "some form of low parapet" (as suggested in the proposed letter before claim) would be an example of something unreasonable. Moreover, it could result in a valid counter claim if it turns out the neighbour has shared drainage rights and the "low parapet" interferes with those rights.

Moneyclaim.org is not a "no-win, still get a payout" service.

Finally, "small sums" in any legal dispute can quickly develop into much larger sums. So it is "risky" to embark on any legal resolution to a problem.  Especially if the problem is only a little bit of gravel that would take a few seconds for a friendly neighbour to sweep away whilst fixing his gutter pipe.

To me that is the really sad thing about neighbour disputes. And why "force" is not an intelligent strategy in the long game.

Jeepers_Creepers

Legal force is often the only thing that works.

This would not have spiralled out of control - it would have involved the simplest of 'put on notice - sort it'. Not done? Ok, this is the bill (~£100) for having the debris removed and DP redirected. Won't pay? MoneyClaim - cost, what? £45? Most likely outcome - a win. Neighb has to pay £145. Won't cough up? Armed with the legal 'win' - ie knowing I was on safe ground - I'd absolutely pursue this to the Sheriff's Office or similar. These folk need to know the game is up.

It really is that simple when the case is that clear - and I think this one is.

(Ok, the parapet was probably a daft idea - but it was only a suggestion, not a demand. No way would I pursue a demand for them to do this! But, if they allow their roof to remain in that poor state, and this then impacts on my property, that is a pretty clear situation. And I would keep on sending the guy annual bills for cleaning it up. These sorts of mind-numbingly unreasonable folk need putting back in their boxes.)