Crazy Neighbours are flooding our foundations

What the Society Cannot Do
  • Interfere with court proceedings to have a decision of a court overturned;
  • Deal with complaints about Gardai, Barristers, Court Officials, Judges etc;
  • Deal with complaints, particularly complaints of negligence, where legal action is a more appropriate remedy;
  • Except in exceptional circumstances deal with complaints about a solicitor where the complainant is not the client of that solicitor. If you are complaining about the behaviour of a solicitor who is acting for someone on the other side of a case or transaction the Society will require your solicitor to endorse the complaint;
  • Deal with a complaint which does not relate to the professional services provided by a solicitor;
  • Deal with a complaint of excessive fees arising out of a bill which issued more than five years ago;
  • Deal with complaints of inadequate professional services which were provided more than five years ago;
  • Deal with a complaint which is based on how your solicitor presented your case in court.
Law society will not interfere in private matters.

Perhaps the Rule in Rylands and Fletcher may be of use, this deals with the escape of water onto a neighbours lands.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_v._Fletcher
 
Maybe when you are switching off your water at the mains (for your building work) you could accidently switch their water off instead.
They'll turn it back on, but you can inadvertantly switch it off again. Smear paste on the handle as well.
 
is the house semi detached.... because im thinking kick ass subwhoofers turned to face their bedroom party wall with some mind numbing techno crap on repeat.......
 
Have you called into them and asked them to remove the hose from the ground? I would try that approach at the least and tell them you are force flooding my property. Tell her you will go to a national paper. No solicitor will want to be seen doing such childish things. worth a shot.
 
If i were you i would infrom your neighbour asap that she is "accindently" flooding your foundations when she is leaving the water tap on and if she persists on leaving it on that you are recording everything that she is doing and you will be going to your solicitor and the small claims court for damages. I think from a legal point of view, it has to be hightlighted to the offender what she is doing and if she fails to act on what you have told her she then would be causing malicious damage if she continues to leave her tap on knowing the effects its having on your side of the fence..i think the time for being polite and trying not to fall out with your neighbours is well and truely gone..best of luck
 
johnnyg said:
If i were you i would infrom your neighbour asap that she is "accindently" flooding your foundations when she is leaving the water tap on and if she persists on leaving it on that you are recording everything that she is doing
Click to expand...

I think this is a very good point.

If the offender isn't given notice of this it could come back to haunt you.
As it stands, the door is always open to pleading ignorance/accident etc.
 
But what is she doing wrong, in a legal sense?
I think this is been blown out of proportion, it is extremly childish but its not the worse thing the builder will come accross. The water can just be pumped away
 
Best thing to is dig a large soak hole and use it to let the water drain off that will solve the problem for the moment and you can use it for run off water from the roof, so it has two uses one to allow you to continue the build and two use it as a soak hole.
 
I think that you should take a 2 pronged approach namely:

1. Have your solicitor contact your neighbour. They may know each other from professional dealings and there may well be an embarassment factor for her to be seen to act in such a childish manner. Even if this is not the case, a "friendly" call may be appropriate.This appears to be sneaky and somebody who acts in this manner may not want their behaviour held up to scrutiny. If this does not work then it is still atrespass to your property and your solicitor will know how to deal with it.

2. Try to find an engineering solution (pumps etc.)

Even if you decide not to sue, you need to take on your neighbour head on - you need to let them know that they cannot walk all over you or this may only be the start.

Cork Boy
 
I agree with the earlier post. Go over to their house accompanied and simply say that there's large quantities of water coming from their garden into yours.
 
God you're great - thanks for the advice.

The builders are being quite sensible about all this - they're planning the 'engineering solution' of a trench, soak holes etc, but say that this will only work up to a point and if the neighbours just leave the tap on for 3 years, that nothing'll accommodate this. They've also got the Council to meter the water going in to the neighbours' so hopefully they'll be able to monitr excessive usage - and maybe cut it off? It's expensive, treated water, and we're all paying for this waste.

Is there any criminal act here, do you know, as I feel a civil legal route will be costly, stressful and futile? Yet, that Gardai didn't seem that interested when we visited them last night.
 
The local government sanitaries act 1962 may help:
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1962/en/act/pub/0026/index.html
Under section 8 the council should be able to require them to use the sewer for their effluent water (I know it is tap water, but once you take it out of the pipe, it is waste):
8.—(1) Where—

(a) a sanitary authority have provided a public sewerage system, and

(b) in the opinion of the authority, any premises in the district of the authority are—

(i) not drained in a satisfactory manner, and

(ii) capable of being served by the sewerage system by means of a connection not exceeding one hundred feet in length,

the authority may serve on the owner of the premises a notice requiring the execution within a specified period of specified works for the purpose of securing the service of the premises by the public sewerage system.
 
TBH it's great the council are taking an interest. Ones first thought would be that they wouldn't want to be bothered.
 
Don't do anything illegal. I think you need to get the garda to do more than refer you to the council, which is just passing the buck. Make an official complaint about the malicious damage the neighbours are doing and the gardai have to respond surely. The very least the gardai can do is come out and have a look.
 
Before you go to anybody, go and make your neighbour aware what they are doing. Explain what is happening. If they dont seem bothered ask one of them to come over and see it and ask for an explanation of why the hose is stuck in the ground. Take it from there then.
 
You MUST get evidence of this. Get video and photo evidence. This is malicious damage with intent. You are entitled collect evidence to this type of behaviour. Make sure you do NOT record anything going on INSIDE her house.

Your neighbour is a solicitor. She CANNOT plead ignorance, not that is a legal defence anyway. BTW, she has already gone the legal route and lost on both occasions - planning objection and appeal to an Bord Planala, so she is trying to circumvent the process.

Once you have the video/photo evidence, notify the Council water dept. that this is happening and ask for an inspector to visit BOTH properties, yours first.

Get your builder to bill for everything arising from the flooding, damage to materials, rework, lost time etc. Send her a copy of the bill, seeking recompence. If the bill isn't too high, you might be able to take a small claims court case - not sure if it will take on a case against a third party(?? Anyone).

Get your builder to dig a soak hole and pump out from it - this will go a long way towards alleviating the flooding problem - AND bill 'yer woman' for the pump hire and extra work.

Do NOT get involved in 'tit-for-tat' nuisance games, e.g. noise etc - drags YOU down to her level and WILL go against you if you have to go down the legal route - and you may have to do that, in spite of everything.

This is Bullying. And I hate bullying...stand up to her.

FWIW, given that she objected to the planning and appealed - and lost both, armed with video/photo evidence, a statement from your builder, a written compaint to the council and complaint to the Gardai, I think that YOUR solicitor would have a field day with her. She has NOT got a leg to stand on - so kick them out from under her! TODAY!

btw, write EVERYTHING down!
 
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Small claims court only deals with disputes between consumers and businesses.

Is there a residents association? Are there other neighbours on the road? I would be tempted to write to the next two houses on either side of you (including the problem neighbour and their other neighbour) notifying them that
- you have significant "unexplained flooding" in your garden
- the council have already been out to inspect
- you are wondering if anyone else is experiencing same
- you are concerned about it undermining the foundations of separating walls, possibly making them unsafe
- you are also concerned about environmental impact of water loss

Treating this as a collective neighbourhood problem might pressurise your problem neighbour to back off. However, don't accuse her of anything in your letter!
 
Hmmmm what would Victor Meldrew do?

Probably wait until late at night (if they leave the hose running overnight) - take the business end of the hose and feed it through the neighbours letterbox/car window/downstairs window etc.

This would definitely be against the law so do not do this
(without gloves and a mask)

;)
Seriously – engage a good solicitor and put this bully back in her box.

Good luck with it

Dicey
 
I think marathon man above has given the most comprehensive advice so far. I would certainly make a point of politely confronting the neighbour first though, officially bringing your concerns to her attention.
 
She's a solicitor, what does her husband do?, are they out of the house during the day - If she leaves the hose on during the day when she's at work why not ring her in work and tell her that she appears to have left her hose on and you have not option but to turn the water off at the mains. - make a record of each and every call that you make to her!. Keep a diary of all the times that the hose is left on - this will match up with the councils records of high usage. Bill her for all damage caused including damage to shrubs, plants etc

Alternatively long pole with nail in the end - keep making little holes in the hose when they are not there - make their own garden nice and soggy without trespassing.

Record Everything
 
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