I am really mad at my neighbor who is the constant source of my flood
You can find a building owner’s name on the city’s Dept of Finance website.
jarnow4
in Lawyers and legal service 13 years and 8 months ago
8
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8 replies
moskow_on_gowanus | 13 years and 8 months ago
We had a terrible night today. Our drain system – 3 drains, in front, on the back and one internal – worked like a charm. We did not have a drop of water comin from the yard or from the street. But… we had water literally pouring in the middle of the house on the bottom of the wall from our neighbor. We have finished basement and after the first flood we installed internal french drain close to the backyard door thinking that water still gets somehow from the yard. We had a terrible flood once with 5 inches of water back in 2006 (?) when a lot of people were flooded. We were not home DURING the flood and came just to see the aftermath. At that time we thought that it was probably because our new inside drain was not able to handle a record breaking rainfall. So we decided to wait till the next record breaking event and try to find where water gets inside and where we should fix our exterior wall. We were never able to find this faulty spot till last night. And it was obvious that water was pouring under the common wall in the middle of the house closer to the backyard from our neighbour’s basement. It was a nightmare. Our small pump broke and we were using rugs trying to collect water. Thank fully we did not have problems with sewage backup and no water was coming from outside, just from our neighbor, so we were able to dump water that we collected right into the bathtub. We have some valuable stuff, our basement is fully finished legal living space, we have our office and a bedroom there. It would be easier to control water leaking from the backyard into interior drain just behind the door. But water was pouring to this drain from the side wall and running through our bathroom, laudary room, office and boiler room. We tried to keep it at bay but at one moment we had to shut down our boiler because too much water had accumulated in the boiler room. We obviously do not want this to happen again. But we do not have any control. If it would be a leak from our own wall from the backyard we would just find it and fix it. But now we will have to deal with a lady who has no interest in doing anything to her property. She does not live there, and, according to her tenants bought this house long time ago when Park Slope was still cheap and takes cash out of her equity. She is very generous with her tenants who pay very low rents but they are mostly responsible for all the maintanance. I do not know how this could work with big items like boiler replacement or, in this case an installation of a proper drainage in the backyard. All I know is that she damages our property. Is it possible to sue her? The outcome that we want is that she installs a reasonable drainage system. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive, probably similar to ours. We would still have to break our floor and foundation in several places to install a couple of additional drains from our side. We have no way to contact her. Should be talk to her tenants? The one that is on the first floor doesn not seem like an easy person to approach to. But she has a full usage of a backyard. My plan is to wait till the next flood, have a backup pump and actually record the whole process how water is pouring from our neighbor’s basement and how it floods our rooms. Show both outside drains and how no water is coming from the street only from our neighbor. Static pictures will not work I am afraid. Could it be considered as an evidence? Is there any realistic possibility to get her to install drains?
moskow_on_gowanus | 13 years and 8 months ago
I can not figure out how to edit my question. My paragraphs got disappeared and it looks unreadable…
Goatcrapp | 13 years and 8 months ago
Had a similar problem with my neighbor.I did the neighborly thing and alerted them to the problem, with a polite but firm requirement that they get it fixed. I did not make an issue about my damage or losses – that’s why i have insurance… and i fully expected the neighbor to comply. When he didn’t – and another storm a couple of months later caused the same problem – i wasn’t so nice. You need to do a few things.. First – speask to her about the issue… unless i missed it in your post – you haven’t done so yet. If she isn’t cooperative – you’ll need to contact a city inspector, the DEP and potentially the fire marshall (if it affects or can affect your boiler) In my case – the shared wall was part of the foundation. Foundation erosion in row houses is one of the very few cases where inspection can be compelled… so even if they refuse entry – the inspector can show up with a marshall. I wound up sicking DEP on my neighbor (it was a sewage problem, with potential for grey/black water to mix with after a full year of fighting to fix the problem. In my case – i was even willing to foot the bill – just to get it fixed – but he was an older guy with a chip on his shoulder. Not my problem. about 10k in fines later – he finally fixed it, and now i don’t speak to him unless his garbage is overflowing onto my stoop. Even though it didn’t work out for me – you should attempt to contact the landlord first.
Goatcrapp | 13 years and 8 months ago
Great. All formatting lost in my post as well – resulting in an equally unreadable post. Who’s minding the store here?
guikazoid | 13 years and 8 months ago
If you dont mind me asking, where in the Gowanus? We are closing on a place on Wednesday in the Gowanus (teens between 3/4 ave).
moskow_on_gowanus | 13 years and 8 months ago
Sorry, probably my nick is misleading. I have modeled it after “Moskow on Hudson”. I live in Park Slope. If not for the water pouring from my neighbour’s wall we would be just fine in this hurricane, because we did not have any direct flood or leaks in the front and from the back. We have one drywell under the stoop, and we have 3 inches of cement border under the door, but there were never any standing water when I was checking – everything went to the drywell. We have the same arrangement on the back, at the entrance from the yard, then we have a sort of patio slightly sloping to the patch of the grass from the house, gutter from the roof goes directly to sewage, but we can clean debries. Grass patch is lower then the patio edge, there was a pool of mud during the storm and we emptied our buckets there but it stayed that way ( potentially it could go higher before overflowing, but it is hard to beat 12 inches of rain). We have one additional drywell in the middle of the backyard and one more inside in front of the door to the backyard. We did not have any damage because we were fighting water like crazy. But obviously we want more control over situation. I do not know how to contact her, she lives somewhere else. There are tenants, also I can look at building records online to find her adress but I do not know if this address is correct and if she would respond to me directly. Probably I will have to have a lawyer involved to make he to fix it
BedstuyMaven | 13 years and 8 months ago
The tenants should a means of contacting the owner.
Goatcrapp | 13 years and 8 months ago
as others said – the tenants pay rent, i assume.. and therefore know how to contact her. If that really doesn’t help – then get DEP involved.