Neighbor's Leaky Gutter
Hello all Background- Over the winter, the ice storm created a leak in our neighbor’s gutter and downspout. The junction of the gutter and downspout rests firmly against our building (our building goes back further, the downspout runs down the inside corner created where the two buildings merge). This caused a huge leak during the…
Hello all
Background-
Over the winter, the ice storm created a leak in our neighbor’s gutter and downspout. The junction of the gutter and downspout rests firmly against our building (our building goes back further, the downspout runs down the inside corner created where the two buildings merge). This caused a huge leak during the winter into our building, and massive water damage to our entire building, all 5 stories. We notified the owner in the winter of the problem, showed his super the issue, showed his contractor the issue, and did so again last month. He has still not fixed it and every-time we have a big rain we are getting small leaks. Whenever I call him and tell him we have a leak and if there is damage he will be liable he calls me and assures me it will be fixed right away. He is extremely slow to react to things (its a rent controlled building and he’s not at all motivated to address any issue of ownership that costs him money).
Now the question(s)-
Are there any building codes that would require the downspout to not be touching the side of our building?
Can we do anything to protect our exterior wall from this leak?
If we do put something on our wall to protect it, his downspout would have to come off our building. Can we do this work without his permission (as in just inform him that we are doing repairs and will be removing the pipe from our building)?
Are there any avenues we should pursue to apply pressure on him to fix the issue?
Thank you.
“He is extremely slow to react to things (its a rent controlled building and he’s not at all motivated to address any issue of ownership that costs him money).”
This sentence speaks for itself on the subject of rent control.
On point, you need to address your brick pointing issues yourself. That’ll require removing the downspout and you can then discuss with him the possible moving of it. It should not be resting against your building.
I’d bet unless he’s a wack job on top of being cheap, he’ll allow you to make the repairs and modifications. But, this is NYC, the land of wack jobs.
Sorry, but it’s hard to see how your neighbor is liable for your water damage. If water is penetrating your building from top to bottom then you have a serious problem with your wall. The broken downspout is simply highlighting the issue.
Have someone find the hole in your wall and/or re-tuck point that entire section. Either way, his downspout will have to come off and when the masonry is done you can re-attach the (new) leader so it’s not touching your building. You could ask him to cover the cost of the downspout, but that’s not exactly a big expense and certainly won’t help the relationship. Since you are going to need his cooperation, you need to be pragmatic.
The sooner you take ownership of the solution and get it fixed, the better. Every rainfall increases the damage to your building and raises your ultimate cost.
Assuming that the fix would cost less than $2,000, and your assessment that he is unlikely to fix it any time soon, I would speak to a real estate lawyer about liability risk to you if you fix the downspout yourself and how to best do that in order to minimize risk to yourself. You would probably need to fix it correctly, not just divert the water back over to his property, which if it caused damage, could lead to him suing you. Given how much damage this could continue causing to your property, I’d just fix it myself even if there was a low chance of his paying you back.