Guttering Issue

Nicip

Over 30 years ago an extention was built on my house.  The guttering was positioned so the downpipe went into a drain just into the next-doors garden which then flows straight back into my garden.
We moved into our house 20 years ago.
14 years ago we had a conservatory put on the back.  Our neighbour was fine about about everything, confirming yes no problem with the drain, and we agreed that rather than them putting a fence up as was required by a covenant on the house, they would use our conservatory wall as the boundary fence and then attach their remaining fence to a post at the end of the wall.
Suddenly my neighbour has become very awkward - I think that's all I can really say.  She won't talk to me at all.  I have no idea if I've upset her in any way, and I have asked her to come to mediation so we can talk everything through, but she's declined.
A couple of nights ago, at about 10pm, my dogs started to get very agitated, barking, jumping around.  For 20 minutes she was making lots of noise outside.  We couldn't see what she was doing however it was just behind our conservatory.  The next morning when I went outside I found our downpipe thrown into our back garden.  Looking through a crack in the fence I can see that she's disconnected the pipe from our guttering (it doesn't look as though the guttering has been affected), and now there is simply a hole at the top for water to fall about 7 feet to the drain.
Is she allowed to do this, what do I do about it?

Bendy_House

Blimey.

This downpipe 'technically' sits inside the neighb's boundary? If so, there's little you can do about this. I mean, there 'might' be a 'legal' challenge to what they've done, but that's a route you almost certainly do not want to go down.

Sooo, look for solutions that'll allow your gutter (which is still intact?) to drain within your own land, and also look at ways to gently engage with this neighbour, because it looks as tho' something not very nice has happened to/with her.

What could this be? No idea, but it could range from a family member or other 'friend' putting into her mind that this D/P is an unfair encroachment on her property, and you are 'taking the mick' by having it there, and if she doesn't sort it now, then you will claim half her garden... (ok, extreme scenario), or it could be that someone has 'bad-mouthed' you, and she's taken this at face-value, or it could be that she is going through some trauma, or even an emotional crisis (how old is she?).

If you post a photo/make a sketch to show how this gutter currently runs, then perhaps we can suggest practical solutions to solve the technical issue. But clearly there's something bigger going on, and that's a shame.

The water that comes out the gutter with this D/P missing, does that cause any 'issues' to your property?

[Deleted User]

Nicip said:

A couple of nights ago, at about 10pm,

Hi,

does she like a slug of wine?

Maybe after 20 years something is niggling her.

Nicip

Bendy_House said:

Blimey.

This downpipe 'technically' sits inside the neighb's boundary? If so, there's little you can do about this. I mean, there 'might' be a 'legal' challenge to what they've done, but that's a route you almost certainly do not want to go down.

Sooo, look for solutions that'll allow your gutter (which is still intact?) to drain within your own land, and also look at ways to gently engage with this neighbour, because it looks as tho' something not very nice has happened to/with her.

What could this be? No idea, but it could range from a family member or other 'friend' putting into her mind that this D/P is an unfair encroachment on her property, and you are 'taking the mick' by having it there, and if she doesn't sort it now, then you will claim half her garden... (ok, extreme scenario), or it could be that someone has 'bad-mouthed' you, and she's taken this at face-value, or it could be that she is going through some trauma, or even an emotional crisis (how old is she?).

If you post a photo/make a sketch to show how this gutter currently runs, then perhaps we can suggest practical solutions to solve the technical issue. But clearly there's something bigger going on, and that's a shame.

The water that comes out the gutter with this D/P missing, does that cause any 'issues' to your property?

At the moment I don't think it will cause any issues as its a sheltered spot so its not as though any wind will get there to blow the flow back onto my wall.  Its such a shame as we've got on for over 20 years now.  I know its because one of her trees started to go over, I told her, she did nothing about it, its now damaged my shed and she knows its all her responsibility to get it sorted.  Almost like a child hitting out with a tantrum.  With that I've kept away so far from going down the legal route.
From what I can see from bits and pieces of the legal stuff when we bought the house, there is a "easement" that was put in place when the extension was built that they've agreed to us using the drain.  I suppose I could simply block off the drains route to my manhole so water from her drain would have nowhere to go, but I really don't want to be vindictive.
I'm trying to get hold of the Building Control documents from the council - but conveniently the portal comes back with No documents even though they say they have them there for the time period.  I'm hoping they respond quickly to my document request so I can find the legal stuff about it and ask her nicely to put it back

Section62

It would be useful for people to know the background to this - assuming it is the same neighbour

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6358032/issue-with-neighbours-tree-also-damaging-my-property

Section62

Nicip said:

I'm trying to get hold of the Building Control documents from the council - but conveniently the portal comes back with No documents even though they say they have them there for the time period.  I'm hoping they respond quickly to my document request so I can find the legal stuff about it and ask her nicely to put it back

Generally there are far fewer building control documents online than there are planning documents.  BC plans from 20 years ago are unlikely to have been digitised on receipt, so although the LA may still hold them in an archive, it isn't particularly surprising that copies aren't instantly available online.

Nicip

Section62 said:

Nicip said:

I'm trying to get hold of the Building Control documents from the council - but conveniently the portal comes back with No documents even though they say they have them there for the time period.  I'm hoping they respond quickly to my document request so I can find the legal stuff about it and ask her nicely to put it back

Generally there are far fewer building control documents online than there are planning documents.  BC plans from 20 years ago are unlikely to have been digitised on receipt, so although the LA may still hold them in an archive, it isn't particularly surprising that copies aren't instantly available online.

Our council has them online right back to 1991, however conveniently mine aren't there, but it gave me the option to have them sent out or for me to go to their archives, so waiting on them.  But now with a copy of our deeds with restrictive covenants we can see that she has to give us access to the rear drain.