Good morning,
Thank you very much for the opportunity to put this issue to your attention.
Our new neighbours are blocking the natural flow of stormwater coming from our property at the border between our properties
and are redirecting at back, threatening to wash away our road base driveway, electric gate and to damage the crossover.
My question is: what can we do about it.
History:
2008 we bought 5 acres which are gently sloping towards the neighbouring property downhill. The neighbours had been there for 7 years
already and they told us that they had developed their property do deal with the natural flow of the storm water sufficiently.
Hubby and I developed our property accordingly to deal with the runoff coming through from other properties uphill.
Eventually most of the water enters the neighbours property along the North-East fenceline towards our crossover.
Our driveway runs along that fenceline with a shallow spoon drain on both sides of the fence.
Because the main bulk of the water enters the neighbours property a bit higher up the fenceline due to massive rootsystems,
we always coped with water coming off our driveway and running toward the spoon drains.
No problems until the receiving property was sold in June 2017.
The new neighbours told us that mum & dad were going to live in a grannyflat to be build on the property.
We got worried when the dad told me that their favorite spot would be along the fenceline in that very very wet North/East corner.
I walked the people along the fenceline, showed where the water was coming unto their property and emphasized they would be in the middle of it.
Not much response and at the end of 2017 the dad told me they were going to put in a application.
The granny flat was going to be 57 mtrs from the main building so the council had to consult the direct neighbours.
We wrote te letter, we provided a lot of photos of storm events, showing massive amounts of water coming through at the preferred building site
and invited the council officer and "water" engineer to my property for an assesment. The latter was refused.
Result:
The council accepted the Dad's claim that there was no other suitable building site on the 5 acres property other then in the middle of stormwater run off
anf the application was approved.
The council told us that the approval came with a watermanagement plan to deal with the natural flow.
We were shown the plan but could not get a copy. From the granny flat a driveway would run towards the main house and underneath that driveway were
3 storm drain pipes located to let the stormwater through.
In August 2018 the grannyflat was placed in the preferred spot and since then:
- they put in an illegal crossover to the road,
- put up 50cm high earth walls along the fenceline of the North/East corner effectively preventing any runoff to come through to their property and
- directing it back to our property.
We have no options to divert the water as it was all developed in 2008.
We are upset with the council as they did not listen to our concerns and approved a building without checking if the watermanagement plan
had been carried out.
We complained, demanding the illegal crossover to be removed and the plan to be executed properly.
In response the building/plumbing officer came, inspecting the blockade at the border. He is going to have a look at the plan,
also we can expect to hear from somebody about the crossover.
That was 3 weeks ago and we are worried, in this La Nina time, that we are on our own in this.
Love to hear what you think.
Lise
Thank you very much for the opportunity to put this issue to your attention.
Our new neighbours are blocking the natural flow of stormwater coming from our property at the border between our properties
and are redirecting at back, threatening to wash away our road base driveway, electric gate and to damage the crossover.
My question is: what can we do about it.
History:
2008 we bought 5 acres which are gently sloping towards the neighbouring property downhill. The neighbours had been there for 7 years
already and they told us that they had developed their property do deal with the natural flow of the storm water sufficiently.
Hubby and I developed our property accordingly to deal with the runoff coming through from other properties uphill.
Eventually most of the water enters the neighbours property along the North-East fenceline towards our crossover.
Our driveway runs along that fenceline with a shallow spoon drain on both sides of the fence.
Because the main bulk of the water enters the neighbours property a bit higher up the fenceline due to massive rootsystems,
we always coped with water coming off our driveway and running toward the spoon drains.
No problems until the receiving property was sold in June 2017.
The new neighbours told us that mum & dad were going to live in a grannyflat to be build on the property.
We got worried when the dad told me that their favorite spot would be along the fenceline in that very very wet North/East corner.
I walked the people along the fenceline, showed where the water was coming unto their property and emphasized they would be in the middle of it.
Not much response and at the end of 2017 the dad told me they were going to put in a application.
The granny flat was going to be 57 mtrs from the main building so the council had to consult the direct neighbours.
We wrote te letter, we provided a lot of photos of storm events, showing massive amounts of water coming through at the preferred building site
and invited the council officer and "water" engineer to my property for an assesment. The latter was refused.
Result:
The council accepted the Dad's claim that there was no other suitable building site on the 5 acres property other then in the middle of stormwater run off
anf the application was approved.
The council told us that the approval came with a watermanagement plan to deal with the natural flow.
We were shown the plan but could not get a copy. From the granny flat a driveway would run towards the main house and underneath that driveway were
3 storm drain pipes located to let the stormwater through.
In August 2018 the grannyflat was placed in the preferred spot and since then:
- they put in an illegal crossover to the road,
- put up 50cm high earth walls along the fenceline of the North/East corner effectively preventing any runoff to come through to their property and
- directing it back to our property.
We have no options to divert the water as it was all developed in 2008.
We are upset with the council as they did not listen to our concerns and approved a building without checking if the watermanagement plan
had been carried out.
We complained, demanding the illegal crossover to be removed and the plan to be executed properly.
In response the building/plumbing officer came, inspecting the blockade at the border. He is going to have a look at the plan,
also we can expect to hear from somebody about the crossover.
That was 3 weeks ago and we are worried, in this La Nina time, that we are on our own in this.
Love to hear what you think.
Lise