First, you have lived there 54 years and enjoyed a water free back yard. You have established an eminent right of senority to continue in that right. Second, your not the drain pit for every other yard in the neighborhood. Pesticides, lawn fertilizer, everything washes into your yard. It is nusiance and can be considered trespass. It is a damage claim regardless what people tell you. Health issues, vegetation that is killed due to standing water, stagnent water drawing in west nile carrying mosquito's yada yada...not to mention that is just shows a lack of respect for you and your property rights which I am sure is the biggest thorn for you. Why did they (county or city) not notify you when they were reveiving the permit. If the county did not comply with it's own land use codes, and allowed construction to interfere with your use, they have been found accountable in the past. Your supposed to be able to attend the hearing review of that permit application and voice your concerns, ie: drainage. The county then makes it a condition of construction to install drainage methods before they approve the permit. It should have been dumped on the neighbor wishing to create the problem. Talk to your neighbor but be prepared that they may not care. Follow up that conversation with a letter expressing your concerns. Legally, if the county or city approved the work, they have done nothing wrong....on their property but if the construction caused a nuisance or trespass onto your property, then you have a right to expect to be restored the the quality and value of your property that you enjoyed prior to the construction. It is not fair to make your house the "swale" after the fact. Especially since you have lived there 54 years. It's ridiculous. Now, you can make a claim against their homeowner policy. My policy covers damage that I, my kids, my dogs, my horses, MY ACTIONS, may do to another's property. My neighbor stripped 3 acres of vegetation to bare ground and the wind blew soils and killed my trees and other vegetation. Their insurance covered the damage and restoration costs to my property. Talk to the neighbor first to avoid that whole ugly living situation. Talk to the county and check records. Your civil issue falls under nusiance and trespass. Third, good luck. These are the worst things to deal with is neighbor problems. Remember they are trying to exercise their property rights and build on so use that sympathetic point when talking about your desire to do the same. You could not be approved to build a shed in an area of unstable (wet) soils now so you've lost the use and rights you had before. They may agree to have you put in a diversion swale and their insurance pay the claim.

Hello, This sounds like a legal question. I am not a lawyer but I know a little about this because I was in a similar situation and I have worked in real estate a long time. I don't think you will be able to recover any damages regarding the damage to your landscape, here's why: 1. You purchased a property in which this problem already existed for 30 years. I am certain the damage did not just suddenly begin in the last 4 years you have lived there. A home inspector should have pointed this problem out to you and you could have considered costs needed to correct the problem which you should have negotiated in your purchase price. 2. I don't know, maybe you have some recourse with your home inspector for these costs if your home and property was inspected and you were not told. Your home inspection should be in writing. That said, it is 4 years later and this should have been addressed with the home inspector the first year you were there. I don't know what the statute of limitations are in your area for this. 3. Consider yourself fortunate that your neighbor corrected the problem on his side, at no expense to you. Where I live (not far from you) you are allowed to drain water right up to the property line. The grade of the neighbor's property is their responsibility, and if it is lower than your property, then that person would want to install a drain, ditch, or something similar to redirect water flow. All water flows from high to low (obviously) and the person with the lowest property, unfortunately, is going to pay for it. In general, that's usually negotiated in the sales price. Most of the time, neighbors are neighborly and correct the problem, like yours did, however they are not legally obligated to do so. It sounds like your neighbor did the right thing. I'm not sure if going to war with your neighbor will help you, especially when I think you stand a very good chance of loosing. If you win or loose, you still need to live next door to this neighbor. There is also the other neighbors to think about, I don't know what their relationships are like or how big your town is. It's just something practical for you to think about. Regarding your building a berm. This would depend on what your goal is and how much you want to spend. You might find it more cost effective to dig a ditch to the street, removing dirt rather than bringing more in to create the berm. That said, you could build a berm but you said you had 12' (12 foot) of water. I'm not sure if that's 12' deep or wide. It would need to be quite a large berm to redirect the water to the street depending on water volume. You should also think about what you would like to plant on the berm and if it could tolerate standing water if there is any. A berm could help provide you with privacy and could help keep out some noises if you have any. If noise is not an issue, you may be able to dig a good sized deep ditch, at a strong pitch, to the drainage ditch at the street. A berm could be pretty but you could also line the ditch with rocks which could be pretty as well. The rocks are a good option if you don't want to mow or weed whack in there. If you're willing to spend a little, you could do a combination of berms and ditches, or even french drains, with piping to the drainage ditch on the street. You have several options. Now, all of this said, you also must find out what your local building inspector says about all this because your code may call for certain setbacks from your neighbor's property for building a berm or the drainage ditch. In my area, we cannot change the original grade of the land in any way without submitting a plan first. You should know this first so as not to incur extra expenses for yourself. Regrading from the house down is a good idea and will improve on the health and longevity of your home. You should speak with your local building inspector about this and any permits you may need so as not to incur fines. Depending on how extensive your project is, the building inspector may want to see a drainage plan. Keep in mind that sometimes an improvement you may make on your property may change or affect the drainage or water flow to your neighbor's property. This can be a good or bad thing. It all depends on your situation. I hope this is helpful and I wish you the best of luck on your pool! G.

mkesow, no expert here, just another homeowner working on water drainage correction. Proposal one is not preferable to exterior water drainage correction. That leaves #2 and #3. Regarding #2: "Quote 2 Local contractor says he would do an external french drain system. Dig an approx 7' deep trench 2' wide, put drains at the footer, tar/vapor barrier the foundation wall, backfill with gravel, replace window wells. $3,000." If you go this route, a couple of points: tar is just damp proofing-different from water proofing applications. Also it does not expand to fill new cracks, nor does tar which inevitably will occur. It's recommended now to use an expansile wall surface product, with elastomeric properties. Elastomeric membranes are a polymer modified asphalt, formulated to remain pliable. Also, vapor barrier 6 ml, even 2 ply are considered minimum. heavy gauge polyethylene dimpled drainage may be better, and bentonite membrane best.

I bought an old house with an unusable oil-fueled boiler and steam heat radiators that hadn't been used in YEARS (they switched to use wood-burning stoves instead). I had a new gas-fueled boiler installed and, like you, had to drain the rusty/dirty water -- however, I was told that draining made the boiler less efficient (having to replace hot water with cold) so I only drained about a gallon once every month. After a couple/few years I no longer had to drain because the system ran much cleaner! the house smelled better too. :) FWIW, when I drained the hot/rusty water I'd take it outside and dump it in the yard... or more specifically, dump it onto the piles of snow. :)