Forum Archive: Posts by: frabjousday

Our neighbors have been complaining that their wet basement is caused by some problem in our house. There was indeed a fair amount of water that flowed in big rainstorms from our side, under the fence to their side, as the land slopes down toward them. We consulted a contractor and had a French drain built at the edge of our property to drain away the water, as well as a stone curb to keep any pooling water from flowing to their side.

Today I get this email from him–which implies we’ve been ignoring his entries and have done nothing:

“We got a fair amount of water in our basement last night through our adjoining wall, enough to cause damage and have the corner of our basement begin to powder.

This is now almost three months of appealing to you to deal with this problem and the fact that a rain like yesterday’s causes damage and leaking like this tells me we have a serious problem that needs to be addressed quickly.

We’ve been through this enough now to know something is not being addressed properly, so I’m suggesting you look, again, at the issue of how the water is draining through your drain and have it done by someone with some kind of expertise in this area.

Is there a crack in a pipe? A slow leak? Is water overwhelming the drain? Is your gutter faulty in some way? I’m not sure. But I am wondering what your plan is because clearly what has been done up to today is not sufficient.”

What is the deal here? (Aside from the fact that I have an annoying neighbor) Is it actually likely that I’m causing his water problems? He’s got a coal hatch in his back yard, near the property line–seems to me this is a likely source of water seepage, more likely than any problem on my property. Am I required to fix his wet basement? What’s the deal?