You should probably try to either work with your neighbor or suck it up.
The downside of starting a war - either through spiteful actions or by involving the authorities - is the possible retaliation. Your cats end up dead. Your garage mysteriously catches fire. Your children get "free" tattoos. Your outdoor grill generates a fire truck call.
If my neighbor sicced the authorities on me for some piddly drainage issue, I'd hit the sonofabitch so hard his mother would die.
I image the codes vary a bit from state to state depending on ground conditions and other factors. Here in our newer developments it is a part of plat approval that homeowners will not alter the natural path of water after the landscape engineering plan is approved by the planning commission.
To wit: water runs down hill to a proper catch basin and is slowly released to the natural streams. Building a berm of some sort that blocks the natural / structured flow of the water would be a code violation.
I personally think your neighbor is a butt to do this but the old saying that about flies and honey is true. I would discuss it with him first.
I do doubt that it will hurt your shed unless it is creating a bog which would mean you other problems on the down hill side of your shed.
You simply sue him for any damage (erosion, over saturation, structural destabilization etc.) you might incur.
BTW there is a big push to get surface waters to recharge the ground instead of sending them by man-made conveyance to the nearest ditch, gulley, stream etc. You might be able to sue under the environmental provisions of your state laws. Bigger dollars and possibly you attorneys fees can also be reimbursed.
But I shouldn't have to put on rubber boots just to go out to the shed.
I am not interested in suing the guy. But the last time he did this little trick I had to ask him twice to move the drain. I am tempted to go to the city so the butthead gets the message this time.
This is the missing piece of information. It would have been helpful if you had shared that the first time around.
Report him to the city or sue him. He obviously is not a good neighbor. Others have mentioned the potential repercussions. But sometimes we just have to stand and fight. I always prefer to avoid them but am not afraid to do it if necessary.
I had lower blepharoplasty done last week. But I want to tell you about the surgeon's office.
His waiting room had a 25' round ceiling, painted sky blue with cherubs and angles flitting about. The ceiling was ringed with TWENTY 4-foot crystal chandeliers. His consulting room was about 15x20 foot, one side completely mirrored, there were were two life-size semi-nude statutes, brocade on the opposite wall and on the ceiling, another chandelier. He sat at a gold-filigreed table with curved legs while I sat in a chair of French revolution heritage. The whole thing looked like the anteroom to Marie Antonette's boudoir.
The rest of the office was filled with crystal, giant tapestries, ostentatiously framed oil paintings, marble floors, gold doorknobs, the works.
When I left, I immediately went to the only tree in the parking lot and peed on it - I just had to do something manly.
I did ask the surgeon, in passing, what it was like to work in an office of beautiful women, or women who would shortly be beautiful. His response: "You ever hear a woman go on about her hairdresser? Same thing. They are seldom completely pleased."
I responded: "It's not just that. I was married once. Same thing."
Sorry for the digression, but I just had to get this off my chest (I've already pulled out all the hair!).
Heh! In my days as a cop, I made a follow-up call at the hospital emergency room to the victim of a chain-saw attack. The conversation went like this:
Me: "We got the dude that cut you and put him in jail for being drunk. I need you to go with me to file charges of aggravated assault."
Vicitim: "Hell, no! I ain't filin' no charges!"
Me: (?) "Why not?"
Victim: (pointing to weird-shaped bandages) "Shit, man, look what he did and he didn't even know me. Whadda you think he'd do if he was mad at me?"
I took to heart that the FIRST lesson given to a miscreant has to be overwhelming, immediate, and medieval.
I have the nicest neighbors anyone could ever want. My property is higher than his and my gutters drain onto his property. It was that way when I moved in 16 years ago. He ignored it because he was working on other things. He asked me if he could help me put in a French Drain to move the runoff further away.
The plastic piping comes in whatever length you want it and it's inexpensive.
Yeah, but this wasn't that way for 16 years. It was just created by the neighbor redirecting a point source of water directed right at this guy's legally placed shed near the property boundary. I'd certainly go talk to him, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna kiss his ass, say thank you Sir and offer to help pay for and offer labor for a remedy. If he won't cooperate, and change what he just implemented, then I'd go to code enforcement.
I see this situation as totally different than say a row house situation, where rain water may have gone one way or another for decades, but now a neighbor wants to implement a better solution. In that case, I would cooperate, help, etc.
That's what I'd do. Since he did this intentionally without consulting you, I'd get a few scoops of rock and sand mix and just make a swale there so no water could enter the property, and it would just send it back on his side..
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