Water coming into basement at the joint

We own a brick rowhouse and we have water coming into the basement from the joint — where we share a wall with our neighbors. I’m friendly-ish with the neighbor, but they are not necessarily in a financial situation to share the burden with us on repairs. Any options in cases like this? I have no interest in turning it into something acrimonious or litigious; so I’m guessing the only solution is to just pay for both sides of the work if it’s important?

notfromny

in General Discussion 7 years and 11 months ago

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murph | 7 years and 11 months ago

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Call the Department of Buildings and complain. That’s a start. They will ascertain where the leak originates(It may not be from your neighbor from outside or an adjoining neighbor).

Your property, party wall and the floor of your cellar–“rat coat”, are being undermined and this could result in subsidence unless remedied(try explaining the delay to your home insurance claims adjuster). You must move immediately. Leaks do not mend themselves; they only get worse.

Imagine Harvey dumping two feet of rain on you next week. Sandy was a surge problem, not a rain or wind problem.

slopefarm | 7 years and 11 months ago

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Yes, re tree-trimming, you may as well do the whole job. Unless the tree is enormous, it won’t cost that much more to do the whole thing.

If water is seeping from next door into your house, it really needs to be fixed next door. You don’t want to seal it on your end and trap water in the wall.

Why don’t you offer to have (and pay for) someone look at both your and their places to ID the problem. If there is a real problem at their end, better to have a professional deliver the bad news, and then you are in a position to say that they really need to fix it now or have bigger problems down the line if the water causes more serious damage. Leverage the professional advice.

notfromny | 7 years and 11 months ago

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@daveinbedstuy Yes, that’s what I understand re: tree trimming. The tree is on our property, so we are in a position of paying to trim the tree for what’s hanging over our property, but not trimming the part on their property, which feels petty, and not to mention is going to look unsightly. So we’ll probably be doing the full trimming at our own expense.

MsStalwart | 7 years and 11 months ago

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We had a problem with our neighbor who ran the plumbing for a bathroom through our chimney without our knowledge until it started leaking. Once we realized what it was, we showed them the damage and asked them to fix it. They were hostile and threatening, but did make the needed repairs fairly quickly to their plumbing, rerouting the pipes out of the chimney. We took care of their damage to our property (plaster molding and basement) because we knew they would never repair it to our satisfaction. That was about 3 years ago and we are now back on speaking terms.

daveinbedstuy | 7 years and 11 months ago

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As far as the tree, you have the right to trim what hangs over your property at your expense.

notfromny | 7 years and 11 months ago

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We’ve owned the house for less than 2weeks! I will talk to my neighbor ASAP, but I don’t want to charge over and assert something’s going on with their property and cause any issues without having a full picture on what’s happening at our place and what potential things I should anticipate. I am not making assumptions, as I’ve already talked with him about a tree that needs trimming over both our properties and it was friendly, but he made it clear they don’t have the means to contribute to this. I’m trying to worst-case scenario this so I know what the possibilities are. Thanks!

daveinbedstuy | 7 years and 11 months ago

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If it’s a back corner wall it sounds like it’s from the roof gutter drain. It might be as simple as an issue on the exterior where the downspout is not correctly hooked into the drain line.

mozeeatupu | 7 years and 11 months ago

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How long has this leak been happening and you still haven’t talked with the neighbor?

Arkady | 7 years and 11 months ago

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Sounds as if the first thing you should do it check out the neighbors’ house. You make assumptions about their ability to afford repairs but it could be something simple & not costly. Then you’d also know whether you need masonry work or plumbing so you could bring in an expert.

notfromny | 7 years and 11 months ago

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We do not yet know where the water is coming from, as that would require having someone in to look at the neighbor’s place. We originally thought it was our issue — and we’ve just pinpointed that it is not, in fact, a sloping issue with our property, but that water seems to be coming in from the shared wall. We do suspect it has something to do with a sewer line or a rusted out drain pipe… lovely. It’s a back corner wall, interior (party). We will definitely not be doing any work until we know what the source of the leak it, but just trying to anticipate possible avenues if, for instance, the neighbors are not in the position to pay for the repair work which needs to be done on their own home, but which is causing significant damage to ours! (We are concerned one of the joists on our side is being kept permanently wet, and thus is potentially softening/rotting away, causing the floor to slope down in the back of the house…)

resident2 | 7 years and 11 months ago

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The first step is to find out what is causing the leak. There is no point in patching up masonry thinking you are keeping the water out unless you know from where it originates.
A few years ago, I got lots of water from the party wall with my neighbor who was very elderly and never went down to the cellar.
It turned out to be a collapsed sewer line under their cellar floor.
Is it an interior wall (party wall) or exterior wall? Back or front?

Guest User | 7 years and 11 months ago

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Maybe you need to do waterproof or repothing I know Luis and Ricardo do all kinds of outside work 3472862808

Arkady | 7 years and 11 months ago

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    string(34) "$P$BSLpIhH1FLNbV2Qdpb/F67tu7brrgw1"
    ["user_nicename"]=>
    string(6) "Arkady"
    ["user_email"]=>
    string(20) "rkdillon@verizon.net"
    ["user_url"]=>
    string(21) "/forums/users/arkady/"
    ["user_registered"]=>
    string(19) "2008-08-04 21:50:38"
    ["user_activation_key"]=>
    string(20) "HL9P1Plx6tnm1l8GiJvd"
    ["user_status"]=>
    string(1) "0"
    ["display_name"]=>
    string(6) "Arkady"
    ["spam"]=>
    string(1) "0"
    ["deleted"]=>
    string(1) "0"
  }
  ["ID"]=>
  int(14677)
  ["caps"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["subscriber"]=>
    bool(true)
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["cap_key"]=>
  string(15) "wp_capabilities"
  ["roles"]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    string(10) "subscriber"
    [1]=>
    string(15) "bbp_participant"
  }
  ["allcaps"]=>
  array(4) {
    ["read"]=>
    bool(true)
    ["level_0"]=>
    bool(true)
    ["subscriber"]=>
    bool(true)
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["filter"]=>
  NULL
  ["site_id":"WP_User":private]=>
  int(1)
}

Do you know where the water is coming from: i.e. a leak in the structures or plumbing? I’d talk to the neighbors before moving on estimates & work – they may know something that would be helpful.