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Garden Flooding

124

Comments

  • onejontwo
    onejontwo Posts: 1,089 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    edited 2 January 2024 at 2:53PM
    We moved into our house about one year ago and panicked after the first heavy rain meant we had a paddling pool in the rear garden! Several weeks after this we found an unidentified switch in the garage, traced it through and found it connected to a pump submerged in a large box covered in gravel at the lowest corner of the garden. We ran the pump and within 30 mins. the water emptied down the drain via a hose. We mentioned this to neighbours and it seems most of them have one too! Maybe your house is in an area prone to waterlogging and therefore no recourse by law but finding the best practical solution to deal with the excess water.
  • sevenhills
    sevenhills Posts: 5,938 Forumite
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    ParryPal said:
    No, i'm looking for opinions before taking the matter further.

    What are the opinions on here telling you?
    2020 was a high rainfall year, 2021/22 were low years, perhaps the previous owners were not affected in recent times, rainfall varies from area to area, 2023 seems to be a high rainfall year.
  • ProDave
    ProDave Posts: 3,785 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Now this is proper flooding.

    but the ground the far side of the stream is lower and it just goes back into the stream.  The house side, in the foreground is higher and has never flooded.

    Interesting point, if we ever sold should we mention it.  If I did mention it I would show this picture to demonstrate there really is no risk to the house.

    The worst sort of flooding is not this, with a clearly identifiable source and it goes down quickly when the rain stops, but the sort that creeps up slowly with no obvious source and stays for ages when it does flood.
  • TBagpuss
    TBagpuss Posts: 11,236 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    ParryPal said:
    My garden becomes extremely waterlogged whenever we get medium to heavy rain.

    Huge deep puddles form at lowest points and the entire lawn is soaked.

    This occurs to every property on the street.

    The sellers said the property does not suffer from flooding on the property information form.

    I am aware from searching online that this could be considered water logging, but the dictionary definition of flooding is "the covering or submerging of normally dry land with a large amount of water".
     
    My (property) solicitor suggests I need a litigation solicitor, this is expensive.

    Does this count as the seller lying on the form? If so, am I not able to just get 2-3 quotes in from drainage companies and take the sellers to small claims court, which would be minimal fees?

    I am aware that it could be more hassle than it is worth to go to small claims, but if the costs of fixing the issue are likely to be more than £1000, then it is something I would like to consider and i would like to get you opinion on the matter.




    As you yourself have said, it sounds as though this is waterlogging, rather than flooding. Only a property litigation lawyer is going to be able to tell you how a court would be likely to interpret it, but I suspect that it would be a high risk strategy to try to sue the sellers - you may well do better to spend money on improving the drainage .

    Do bear in mind also that we have had an extremely wet autumn and winter. Have you talked to your neighbours about how often this happens and what it was like in the last few years? It's possible that the sellers were truthful and that to their knowledge, there was no flooding (even if there were puddles, in a dryer year they would presumably be smaller so more obviously just puddles / waterlogging rather than actual flooding)

    I think to succeed you would need to be able to show not only that it was bad enough to be flooding not just waterlogging, but also that the sellers had actual knowledge of that - if the neighbours say it's the same every year, are any of them going to be willing to give formal statements to that effect to allow you to (try to)  prove that the sellers knew and lied?

    All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 25,895 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Sixth Anniversary Name Dropper
    ProDave said:
    Now this is proper flooding.

    but the ground the far side of the stream is lower and it just goes back into the stream.  The house side, in the foreground is higher and has never flooded.

    Interesting point, if we ever sold should we mention it.  If I did mention it I would show this picture to demonstrate there really is no risk to the house.

    The worst sort of flooding is not this, with a clearly identifiable source and it goes down quickly when the rain stops, but the sort that creeps up slowly with no obvious source and stays for ages when it does flood.
    You could sell it as an interesting garden feature !
  • BikingBud
    BikingBud Posts: 2,234 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    gwynlas said:
    What would help with water logging is if you built a French drain at the lowest point of the garden to help water soak away. You could either do this yourself or employ a contractor as someone mentionned earlier. Seaonal waterlogging is not the same as flooding and is often due to underlying soil conditions or in new build estates the compaction of rubbish and poor depth of topsoil. Given tha developers squeeze as many plots as they can the rain that does fall needs to be absorbed by diminishing open ground causing problems.
    Hence the large number of ornamental lakes drainage ponds on new build estates.
  • BikingBud
    BikingBud Posts: 2,234 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Bizarrely, given the recent rainfalls, the flood plains are showing evidence of excess water:

    https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/river-and-sea-levels/target-area/052WAFLOWB
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 25,895 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Sixth Anniversary Name Dropper
    I guess you could call this garden flooding rather than just waterlogging.( yesterday from BBC news)


  • TheJP
    TheJP Posts: 1,878 Forumite
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    user1977 said:
    ParryPal said:
    daveyjp said:
    It's surface water flooding, caused when the water can't drain away through the soil because its waterlogged.

    I'd concentrate  at looking at practical solution rather than going legal.  If the garden is just a lawn it will survive, you could fit a sump pump at the lowest point and pump into a surface water drain, or improve drainage and drain to an attenuation tank or soakaway.
    But the solution could be thousands, it would be more cost effective to go to small claims?
    Has anyone advised you that you're entitled to recover those costs?
    Honestly you would lose if you took them to court, you cant predict rainfall and a waterlogged garden isn't flooding. If your garden was under inches of water throughout then maybe. My garden has been waterlogged for the last few weeks but its not flooded. Move on, make the amendments if you don't want a waterlogged garden in the winter but at your cost.
  • It's been a ridiculously wet couple of months, nobody is to blame for gardens and fields having standing water and it'll be the same for mist families in the UK having soggy gardens right now to.swbd the kids out to play in. 
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