This is what our lawyer said initially when we asked him about culvert draining the development over us’ water onto our land. We have for almost 9 years thought this culvert is illegal and have been trying to work amiably with their homeowners association to remove it. Well, it came to a head last week when Tom drove up there to look at it while it was yet again flooding our fields. The association president saw Tom up there and a shouting match ensued. No threat of violence or violence occurred, but the pres. tried to throw a rock at Tom’s truck as he drove away. The pres. said he was going to call the sheriff and get a restraining order. The sheriff was called but thankfully he did not waste his time or taxpayer dollars by visiting us. So now we are visiting the land use lawyer again (second time in one year).
Since the culvert is well onto our land, failing and eroding our land, bringing down marketable trees, flooding our land and threatening our livestock, he feels we have a case. He will be sending a letter to the pres., and if we do not get a response we will be going to court.
Isn’t it fun being a land owner!?!
Good luck. It’s always a challenge to get along with people who’s priorities are different from our own.
Thanks Teresa. I do understand why they do not want to remove the culvert but my priority is my land and critters.
I would be ticked off. Time may be your enemy here, as (I’m not a lawyer) if you let something go on long enough, I think you lose the right to object after awhile.
But it’s hard to see how they can justify this. A letter from your lawyer may be enough to put a stop to it without anything further, I hope so. The association pres does not sound too rational.
Thanks Karen. The lawyer thought with all the damage it is causing we could go to court. We are hoping they will come to their senses and realize it is cheaper to remove the culvert than to hire lawyer and experts for a court case.
Maybe you can get the HOA to build/dig you a pond to hold their run-off? Would you be interested in having your lawyer propose that to them because they may have no solution for their run-off problems. A pond could improve your property value and allow for the stocking of fish and provide a wetland for geese and ducks.
Thanks. We already put in a pond but when it rains hard or long it is too much for the pond. Plus we recently discovered that they are putting rocks over more of their ditches and drainages to put even more of the developments waters into our property. Which explains why it is flood even more this year than previous years.
I know what I would do if that drain pipe was on MY property…
Oh yeah ~ you want to stay within the law.
We do want to stay within the law. We have had some other ideas about what to do though 😉
I’m sorry you are having to deal with rotten neighbor issues. It isn’t right what they are doing to your property. Probably a letter from your lawyer will cause them to take corrective action to solve the problem. this fall, we had a neighbor problem too. they only come up to their property a few times a year. they suddenly decided that we couldn’t use the easement road that goes through their property anymore. We had been using it for 12 years!, and it IS the legal easement. We got a lawyer, and it only took 1 letter for them to knock it off. I hope your problem can be solved without a long drawn out thing.
Jackie
That is crummy you had neighbor problems too. Glad to hear the lawyer letter took care if it. Hopefully ours will too!
I wonder how much land they have – could they put in swales, a rain garden(s), other stuff to deal with water? If they do it right, it would make their property more attractive.
The thing is that this development has designed ditches to drain their water that they are not using.