Illegal water runoff, lawyer up. It might be tough, but how about your insurance company? Can they force the city to do something?

Good lord, that is a lot of water. Way more than I've ever had to deal with. The rain has been exceptional this winter, but you never know when this might happen again.

Well, the water issue is technically not my fight to have right yet. It is the cities issue with the property owner since the drainage is going into city owned property which boarders our land. It is illegal in the City of Atlanta to direct your drainage purposely into someone elses yard. So we will have to wait and see what Watershed wants to do about that. The man we have particularly been referred to by someone who has used him, is seen as being fair. He came here once and wasn't really that great to me. However, that was years ago and people change. We also now have lots of folks on our side who would love to provide him encouragement and support to get things going.
The department that permitted us is going to be the one with issues. I would very much prefer not to be dealing with them so it would be in my favor for them to either decide to leave us alone to do the right thing at our cost, or pony it up and do what they ought to be doing when they allow McUpgrades in a Supreme Fish Delight neighborhood!

GGG

(((Glynis))) A picture is worth a thousand words. Gosh, (that's not the word I was thinking, but let's keep it clean) I had no idea of what you were having to contend with, hopefully something will be done soon and hopefully it won't be coming out of your pocket.

Annette

GGG- Wow, what a mess! I don't blame you for wanting to move on with things and have a backyard again. The city should do something right away, since by default, aren't they illegally directing their drainage into your yard? No matter who is draining the water onto the city property, the city is allowing the runoff into your area. It seems like the city is as much at fault as the other property owner. Don't they have an opportunity to tie a larger drain into the sewer or something to drain their property before it reaches your yard?

Annette - lol. Yes, not the word I'd use either. I would photographically document the flow(S), and if I could afford it, have a laywer doing the same. I am not tremendously familiar with Atlanta, but here, some of the law schools take on projects, pro bono, to help locally, but also, of course, for the edification of the students. This might be a good course for you. Good luck - that is a lot of water!

Nancy.

Send this photo to your local news troubleshooter! Our local tv stations have a way to make things like this be fixed -- quickly! Maybe yours will help you.

Sorry for this mess you've got. We had dig out drains deeper at the top of our meadow garden - lay perforated pipe (in a sock), cover with gravel, and will dress it up with nicer gravel on top of that. We, of course, routed the pipe and gravel trenches to the dry stream/rain garden. We finished it just before the snow, melt and 2" of rain this last week -- it worked!

Why do we have so much runoff? Our neighborhood road is a private road and has no ditches. We're downhill.

Cameron

check with your insurance company. Call someone from your municipality to report the problem so this is on record. Sometimes it's this report that you would need to back up your next move.

I'm not checking with the insurance company. Asking them a single thing down here will jeopardize the fees we already pay. If they see what is going on, our rates will HIKE it up there in fear of future rain events. So mum's the word for now and we're trying to take care of it. The arborist came out today. He is going to start testing for root rot and suspects they will find some. There's another knotch in my belt for getting the city to fix the drainage as now that can go to the city arborist that we need advocacy from him to save trees. Best of all that test is just 45 dollars for ALL my trees combined.
Next I'm going out to do some work (it's very cold but beautiful) and take photos of people's drains going into the common areas, also taking photos of the erosion that the water is causing already again (after installing all the drainage).
The three hours of sleep last night did some good, and my mind is clearer today. Stuff like this keeps me awake. We paid quite a bit for all that work to be done and a lot of it will have to be re-done. I take total responsibility for mismanaging this and I feel badly because my hubby works so hard at his job, and I've failed at mine.

How awful! I wish I had an answer for you.

k

Wow, I feel for you GGG. I know that you all down Atlanta way had some bad flooding this past summer but it appears that yours comes from poor planning/misplanning on drainage of other lots into yours. I know what you mean about being fearful of talking to the insurance company. They will insist you get flood insurance since regular insurance won't take care of water damage caused by flooding. Glad you got some sleep last night. I know I would be kept up by worrying about the situation.

GGG- This is not your fault. You are doing the best you can to fix a situation that you are not responsible for creating. It sounds like other property owners have had a pass for too long. The town needs to enforce its drainage rules and start being responsible for their own property draining onto yours.

I hope your landscape designer friend comes up with some good ideas for your yard. I'm sure this will look much better when the rain eases and there's less flooding. And another thing....we all know how hard you work on your yard and garden and I'm sure your husband does too. This will all work out and we are all here for you anytime you need a friend. I wish you were closer, I'd have you over for a nice pot of tea...or whatever beverage you prefer :)

Please don't be so hard on yourself. These torrential rains, the other properties, the city -- not in your control.

Take care,
Cameron

The rains are not to ease until at least mid Summer my friend said. That is part of my conundrum.

Today I decided to take control of what I could and caulked the "tower" again. I think it is settling a lot from all the rains. Then I went around the circumference of that side of the house and used cement caulk where the walkways and foundations are opening up a bit. My landscape friend had part of his beautiful little house sink 5" last week! I'll see if that helps keep water out. We are in for more tomorrow.
The arborist came today. Root rot tests done very soon will help us determine if the trees are having a problem, and also they are testing the soil. He said the trees are probably pretty happy now but struggling a bit to adapt.
Today the man I want to speak to at the city finally got the message and I can call him tomorrow!!! This man has been out before and some friends had him at their place a few weeks ago and said he seemed genuine. So he's my best first shot and I'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow in the rain I will go out and take photos of the water draining from people's properties into the "common area" - it doesn't matter what area it is, it is supposed to be against the rules if they are consciously doing it (with drainage tubes etc). Most of my immediate neighbors have not done that, but I get water from so far, that immediate neighbors are not the sole concern.
I also have questions for the city arborist and am going to book a chat. When they build a new house here they get permission to rip out all the trees. Homeowners can't do that. It's actually difficult for a homeowner to get a removal permit. However builders can remove healthy trees "in the way" or where they want to lay sod and not have to replace the trees. Average Joe's must replace trees.
The arborist said a tree drinks 100 gallons of water a day. That would surely help. Before the tornado we were forested here. Now folks are afraid of the trees.

Your yard seriously requires a dry well. I am curious as to why that city drain is not draining the water fast enough. Take more photos of the problem. This is probably more of a city problem than it is just your neigbors problem. If & when you get torrential rains, the drains should be effective at channeling away water.

When I moved to my new place, I realized in the following spring that all the spring rains and snow melt pooled into my area. The city drain is located in my neighbor's side but for some reason possible due to the land settling and the property was old, the channel created for the water wasn't draining out properly. So I hired a landscaper to dig down a trench with a perforated pipes. This trench was coverd up with pebbles to resemble a dry river bed. The pipes led to my neighbor's drain so when water drained down to my area, it's immediately released into the drain.

I also created a hill of sorts to block off the water from the neighbors and to help channel their water into the drain in my neighbors side. That 'hill' I planted with my shrubs and perennials that could withstand the moisture.

The rain water that drenched my area came from my neighbor's gutters and their backyards were elevated higher than ours so it was only a natural thing for the water to course through my yard but it wasn't meant to remain there. I had such soggy soil, not to mention pools for mosquitos to lay their eggs.

Well, today was the day for some answers. I finally got in touch with the nice man I was trying to find. He is doing what he can (which isn't much). He's ordered all the drains cleaned out, plus he is running a search to see if the city has an older than 25 year (which is what the Realtor would have run) easement on the property. I mentioned I think that was done but nobody would tell me yes or no. At least now I'll know.
He does not know why site development is not in cahoots with watershed. But he moved me to another man. That man was one I had spoken to before. He is the nicest of them all but still rude and arrogant. I could not get any information from him at all and finally I said "I had a landscape architect look at it" He HOLLERED "now why would you do that (but less politely). I answered, I didn't know who else to call. He said "CIVIL ENGINEER" - so of course I asked him "why on earth did you not say that in the first place?!!!".
He refused to answer and told me to just do it and then MAYBE they would speak to me.
I got some action when I spoke to the other nice man and explained that I was very well aware of my rights as a citizen and if the city was responsible they would be held responsible and if they were not, I just wanted the work done and finished and I would pay for it. He was quite ammeanable then, especially when I also explained the run around and expense I've already paid to meet standards that do not exist on paper but in some persons head.
I asked about drainage from other properties. I pushed him a bit and finally he said if a developer wants to do something in Atlanta they can, and all the code is just pushed to the side and signed off on. If a homeowner does the work they will be require to hold to the letter of the law and even worse -the whims of whomever is giving final approval. My fellows were caught red handed by too many folks now. I think that it will take a lot of green but we'll get there eventually. I hope I can do it myself. It will get done much faster than if I wait on the city!
You've never heard someone so happy to hear the words "civil engineer"!!!!

GGG, I'm just shocked at that picture. I'm glad it sounds like you're starting to make some headway. Good luck with the fix. Take care.