Light flooding in garden

tigertrio

Hello,

I purchased a house, and in the property information form, the sellers stated no flooding.

Yet, in the corner of the garden, it floods.

I've spoken to my solicitor who has advised me that it's buyer beware, which I agree with, but surely this is a lie on the property information form and could be easily argued that the sellers should pay to have some drainage put in?

silvercar

How bad is the flooding and how much of the garden does it cover?

welly_59

i think the definition of flooding in a property pack means deluged and underwater, not that a corner of the garden is waterlogged.

Is there a river overflowing its banks into your garden? is there a watercourse nearby? or are we talking about it being waterlogged in heavy rain?

tigertrio

Thanks for your replies, basically it's waterlogged in a 3 x 3m square or so...

Martin_the_Unjust

Hmmm I would class waterlogged as different to flooding.

GDB2222

welly_59 said:

i think the definition of flooding in a property pack means deluged and underwater, not that a corner of the garden is waterlogged.

Is there a river overflowing its banks into your garden? is there a watercourse nearby? or are we talking about it being waterlogged in heavy rain?

You are probably right, but the TA6 does not define what it means by flooding.

sevenhills

GDB2222 said:

welly_59 said:

i think the definition of flooding in a property pack means deluged and underwater, not that a corner of the garden is waterlogged.

Is there a river overflowing its banks into your garden? is there a watercourse nearby? or are we talking about it being waterlogged in heavy rain?

You are probably right, but the TA6 does not define what it means by flooding.

I bet it did not flood last year.

Grumpelstiltskin

Have you put a fork in the ground and moved it around to see if that lets the water seep away?

My garden was waterlogged last autumn for the first time, it was the heavy rain after the ground had been baked in the summer.

RAS

tigertrio said:

Thanks for your replies, basically it's waterlogged in a 3 x 3m square or so...

Where do you hope that any water that is drained will go? As it's got to go somewhere and you might not want a neighbour dispute.

A few possibilities: 

The water is running off your land down to that corner.
The water is running down the slope from adjoining gardens, all the way up hill.
You got something at ground level that is impeding the water flowing further down hill.
Someone "upstream" has added an impervious surface AKA new drive, decking, patio which has increased the run off.

Given the drought last year, more than likely, your own ground will have compacted and is less likely to absorb rain. Ditto for your neighbours.

When it stops raining, you could try spiking you ground to encourage water retention? And add as much humus as possible to your open ground. Even leaving the leaves on your lawn for the worms to take down will improved water retention over time.

If you understand where the excess water is coming from you might be able to mitigate, if the source is within your own curtilage.

tigertrio

Thanks all - the excess water is coming from a neighbour as the houses are all built on a slight incline.

RAS

And the excess water from the neighbour comes from where?

It might be uphill the design of the road, or path diverts water into the gardens?

Or that a street drain uphill is blocked? There is a repeated problem near me where silt fills a sump several feet deep. The water there then flows over the road, and all the drains further upstream also overflow. Eventually some of the excess is picked up by other drains on adjacent roads but its not somewhere for shoes with thin soles in wet weather. 

Check out your upper floor windows, put on your waterproofs and check it out.