Neighbor's Water Running Into Your Yard? What You Can Do in Chattanooga

Nothing changed on your lot, but the back corner stays soggy now. Then you notice that next door has a new patio, a longer driveway, a shed pad or a regraded slope. In Chattanooga, where so many lots are on hillsides and run downhill into the next one, this is a common complaint. Water goes where the ground sends it, and when someone changes the ground it can end up on you.

First, confirm where the water comes from

Do not assume. Walk the yard during or just after a hard rain, with a phone in hand. Watch for these things:

• Does the water cross the property line as a sheet, or does it come out of a pipe, a downspout extension or a swale?
• Does it follow the same path every storm?
• Is some of it your own roof water, a downspout dumping too close to the house, or a low spot in your own grade?

It is common to find that part of the problem belongs to each lot. Our page on why a yard stays wet lists the usual causes, and some of them have nothing to do with the neighbor.

Document before you talk

Take dated photos and short videos from the same spots in a few different storms. Note the date, how hard it rained and how long the water stayed. If you have photos from before the work next door started, keep them. This is not about picking a fight. It is so that the conversation starts from what happened rather than from memory.

Talking to the neighbor

Most neighbors do not realize they changed where water goes. A friendly conversation, with the photos in hand, solves more of these than anything else. If the neighbor hired a contractor, ask who it was. Sometimes the fix is small, such as extending a downspout, adding a catch basin or pitching a pad differently. We cannot give legal advice about what a neighbor owes you, and rules about runoff vary, so if the talk goes nowhere and you want to know your rights, a real estate attorney is the right person. What we can do is tell you what is physically happening and what would fix it.

What we can fix on your side of the line

Whatever the reason, water on your lot is something you can often handle on your lot. Typical solutions include:

• A swale, a shallow shaped channel along the boundary that catches surface flow and carries it to where it can leave your yard safely.
• A French drain to collect water that soaks in along the edge and move it through buried pipe.
• Regrading low spots so water moves away from the house.
• Piping your own downspouts away from the problem area so you are not adding to it. See downspout and gutter drainage.

The right answer depends on slope, soil and where the water has somewhere legal and safe to go. Pushing water onto a third lot just moves the problem, and we would not design it that way.

When it is more than a wet corner

If the water reaches the foundation, the crawl space or the basement, the problem is more urgent. Read our guide on water in the crawl space and consider acting before the next heavy rain rather than after. If you are buying or selling, the issue is likely to come up in an inspection either way, so see buying a house with a wet yard.

Call for an assessment

Call (423) 497-3591, tell us what changed next door and when the water shows up, and we will schedule a look at the lot. We will explain what is happening, what is yours to fix and what a fix would involve. More about our work is on the yard drainage systems page.