Draining runoff to the neighbor behind me - laws?
I don't know for sure, but since your pipe is actually sending the water to the neighbor's property I would think you are liable for any damage and maybe any cost to remediate the issue on their property...if it was just normal run off from the land, you probably wouldn't be responsible
Our neighbours were less concerned and pointed a runoff straight at our back yard. The town inspector told us that this is illegal and ordered them to fix it. We're keeping an eye on it now...
Interesting - what are the acceptable "fixing" options?
tpb said:
Our neighbours were less concerned and pointed a runoff straight at our back yard. The town inspector told us that this is illegal and ordered them to fix it. We're keeping an eye on it now...
I think that directing runoff directly into the street is illegal as well unless your setup is grandfathered.
lanky said:
Interesting - what are the acceptable "fixing" options?
tpb said:
Our neighbours were less concerned and pointed a runoff straight at our back yard. The town inspector told us that this is illegal and ordered them to fix it. We're keeping an eye on it now...
I would guess a dry well might be required.
It is illegal (common law.) It is a long held legal principle that property owners are responsible for managing the water on their property. A dry well or piping out to the street is the usual fix.
Our neighbor had a water line leak that caused water to soak our yard. We asked him to fix it and he delayed. We complained to NJAWC and they came out and shut his water off (not necessarily what we were wanting but its what the water co. apparently felt was needed.)
lanky said:
Obviously I want to be a good neighbor and plan to suggest that rear neighbor bury / run drainage PVC from our pipe to the street in front of neighbor's house, but I'm curious if there are any local rules governing where these drains end...
Would this be at your neighbor's expense? If the neighbor's water problem is being caused by your run off, I would think they would not be on board. I know you cannot connect to the sewer line, but perhaps there is a way to connect for it to run off to the street.
mary2430 said:
lanky said:
Obviously I want to be a good neighbor and plan to suggest that rear neighbor bury / run drainage PVC from our pipe to the street in front of neighbor's house, but I'm curious if there are any local rules governing where these drains end...
Would this be at your neighbor's expense? If the neighbor's water problem is being caused by your run off, I would think they would not be on board. I know you cannot connect to the sewer line, but perhaps there is a way to connect for it to run off to the street.
In maplewood I'm pretty sure that piping runoff directly into the street is illegal unless you have a grandfathered system(many homes do have downspout to street pipes that were installed when the house was built)
You cannot adversely affect your neighbors property with any work you do to yours. This includes changing the grade or building berms. You cannot improve your lot at the expense of someone else.
In the original post it was stated that essentially he was cleaning and repairing what was already there, so that may add a twist.
I would advise to inquire with the town, they were very helpful whenever we had questions.
So, being tired of my garage flooding on days like this (rainy), I finally excavated and cleared the buried PVC that snakes around my garage from the drainage trench in front of the garage. Said PVC basically dumps all our water into our rear neighbor's back yard (who is downhill from us). Do I have any responsibility with regard to the water from a legal / municipal perspective?
Obviously I want to be a good neighbor and plan to suggest that rear neighbor bury / run drainage PVC from our pipe to the street in front of neighbor's house, but I'm curious if there are any local rules governing where these drains end...