I don't know what the laws are where you are, but where I live you are not allowed to channel water to someone else's property. It must exit your own property to the street. I agree with Yardvaark. It sounds like you need to research where the city planners designed the water to go and find out why its not going there. Its not hard to find that info. The city should be able to give you the development plan for your subdivision. Our city worked with us to help us solve the problem we had. I was told that just after the subdivision was built some neighbors further up the hill from us had similar issues to you. The city had to come in and build a storm drain through at least 2 of the lots to solve the issue for them. If you were not having these issues before your neighbor built his pool and garage then it sounds like you need to bring the issue up and demand it be solved. If it had happened to us and the city and homeowner weren't helpful in solving the problem we'd be suing both of them for not addressing the issue of drainage and recouping the cost of having to pump all that water out. In my son's old neighborhood the one house on the corner that was the lowest and kept getting flooded year after year was finally purchased by the city, torn down and a small park sits there now. But it took a long time for that to happen. I don't know for a fact, but I suspect law suits were involved. - In the link below I show how we solved our problem. But we really didn't have much issue with neighbors' lots draining into ours it was that our lot wasn't graded correctly in the first place and the water had no outlet to exit our property. Good Luck and please report back what happens. Here is a link that might be useful: Back yard drainage

remodelingchick- Generally speaking, when a locality talks about not interfering with the "natural flow of water" they mainly mean natural watercourses (e.g., they don't want you to get a bulldozer and redirect the flow of a trout stream). I would further argue that much of what you are experiencing is not the natural flow of water. It's an unnatural flow of water caused by the way the land has been terraced and by the water that comes off your neighbor's house. My limited understanding of water law is that, while you can not require your neighbor to redirect this flow, you are also not required to accept it and may divert it and redirect it as necessary to prevent damage to your property. Your locality may have some requirements about where you move this water to, but I doubt they can prevent you from taking measures to prevent damage. I agree that this is a bad situation, but you need to proceed from the premise that it can be fixed by employing some very commonly used measures. Don't get caught in the trap of making the most restrictive assumptions about what you can do. I agree that it's not a bad idea to talk with an attorney, and I hope that on Monday you will be feeling a lot better about what options are available to you. Good luck.

To CF: I started documenting everything from the day he had a fit over the trench I was marking to dig with an edger with the intent of pouring concrete to stop the underground diversion. He wanted me to move it over a foot or two and I stood up to him and told him NO. I didn't have a backbone when I moved here, but his underhanded, illegal diversions and disregard for my property and his theft of my property has given me one. He's the reason I found out he stole 3" of my property. I wouldn't care about 3 stinking inches if he was an honest person that respected my property. He told me that my new drain pipe from my deck was illegal because it went into the sewer system. I called the borough to see if my pipe was as he said. I told him that I will remedy the situation immediately if it's true because I don't do anything illegal. I called the borough and they came out and said it was illegal and I fixed it the next day so that the rain drains on my driveway now. I showed the inspector his illegal pipe and he had to cap it off with a legal cap. He told the man it was illegal to divert his water in any way shape or form onto my property. I had my property survey and that's when I found out that 3" of his driveway and yard is mine. The inspector informed him that I have a right to sue him for the damage to my property and could possibly have him remove those 3" of his driveway. A screaming match ensued on the first inspector visit and I told my neighbor I never want to speak to him. After the inspector came back to approve both of our illegal things, I asked him to document both visits and I'm waiting for that documentation. The day I moved in he didn't introduce himself. He said to me in a nasty voice, " This is not a communal driveway! That is yours and this is mine!" Now I know why there was no property flag on that side of my back yard. I asked the inspector to return those unkind words that he spoke to me eleven years ago. He's elderly now and I told him when I quit shoveling my driveway that he could use it to get traction in the snow going up it and he has used it. I didn't care. I've been spending 8-10 hours a day all summer trying to garden and fix my yard. He told the inspector that my problem was that I needed a hobby. So, I took up photography and have been taking pictures almost daily along with videos during and after it rains. I also took a picture in Feb. when he shoveled a path through my snow and into my yard. Thank you for every bit of advice you've given me. I am documenting and I'll call landscapers to get an estimate. I live in PA and have been trying to find the Civil Law of Drainage and am even waiting for the EPA to call me back. I even called the police and filed a report, but they wouldn't take it for theft of property. I've turned the other cheek and have gone above and beyond "Loving and Forgiving your Neighbor" and have helped them in so many ways that I just can't do it anymore. I ended up in an ambulance and stayed overnight in the hospital in Feb. because I finally stood up to him. It'll kill me not to help them anymore, but he has outright taken advantage of my kindness for the last time. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the time you took to write to me and all the advice you given me. I'm feeling better and grateful to you for giving me the tools and pointing me in the right direction for this disgusting situation. I wish peace for you in your life. Thanks a million times over!

I'm no expert, but that sure looks like water damage to me. My thought exactly. If she's got drainage problems, that seems to be the more likely cause. Root cracks to foundations tend to be subgrade-that crack is pretty high up to be caused by roots. Plus it looks like it's bowing outward-I wonder if there is water damage inside the garage? Before I saw the photo I thought you should probably hire an engineer to look into this-to rule out some other issues, but looking at the photo and that she agrees to pay toward cutting it down, I'd do that instead. I can't imagine that it'd cost you $500 for sod, much less grass seed and a few shrubs to replace the tree. I think that the tree is too close to her structure, but I don't think it's the cause of the crack. My next door neighbor has (had) a lot of large trees on his property-one giant maple was at least 4 feet diameter and hung out over our deck. He also had some 80 foot poplars-some were dead, that fell and had to be removed. We had some 60 foot cherry trees cut down on our property line-they were all planted before the properties had been subdivided, but grew up along the property lines. This past winter his giant maple broke down the center and part fell and just missed the neighbor behind us house. It literally grazed the side of their house. I told him that the remainder of the tree needed to come out because it would fall and hit our house but he refused to do anything about it. I called our local government, no tree ordinances, not even hazard trees! I called the fire marshall, I called our insurance company and was advised to write him a certified letter notifying him of our intention to file suit to have the tree removed if he didn't act within 30 days. Our insurance would not pay out on a claim if he knowingly left the remainder of the tree uncut. He evenutally had that huge branch that hung out over our house cut down (it was at least 40 feet long) and the remainder of the snags from the other limb that had broken off, but he left the stump-about 10 feet tall, with one limb that hangs out over his garage. The tree is rotten-all his trees are over 70 years old and at the end of their lives, but he refuses to cut them out. We cut down an old maple from our front yard that was rotting in the center-just two weeks before a windstorm that broke a large limb off a sweet gum tree in our front yard. We have planted new, replacement trees, in more appropriate spots and more appropriate for the size of our lot.