NSW Surface Water Runoff penetrating our unit block - who is liable

[Bingk6]

Hi All,

I live in a block of units and am a member of the strata committee. The property next door is a single story property and is leased. The gap between our unit block and the neighbour's house is only 900mm. The neighbours side footpath abuts right up to our external brickwork as the gap between the two properties are so close together.

The ground floor unit of our unit block is a shop front and has been experiencing moisture penetration into his unit and is significantly impacting his business. As our Unit block is built right up to our boundary it is clear that moisture into our unit is emanating from our neighbours property, most likely from water surface runoff from our neighbour's footpath. Furthermore, the internal floor height of our ground floor unit is 400mm below the height of the neighbour's footpath, which means that some of the moisture might also have come from moisture buildup beneath the neighbour's footpath especially after periods of heavy rain.

Given that our unit block is built right up to our boundary, is it our neighbour's responsibility to ensure that water do not flow from his land into our unit block? or it is our responsibility to make a request to our neighbour asking for access to his property so that we can perform the necessary repairs?

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

There is an inherent difficulty in looking at these situations without an actual inspection by someone who is qualified to give an opinion in the area, such as a hydraulic engineer. However, from what you've described I would say it is your building's problem as it sounds like the runoff from. The neighbouring property's water runoff appears to be no more than simple ground runoff without having extra directed in a concentrated manner. That usually means it's your building's problem to deal with.

 

[Bingk6]

The neighbouring property's water runoff appears to be no more than simple ground runoff without having extra directed in a concentrated manner. That usually means it's your building's problem to deal with.

Hi Rob,

Thank you for your reply. From our observations, the simple ground runoff is not directed in any manner, so the water flow is completely random. So in your opinion, there is almost no grounds for asking our neighbour to correct the situation from his end? and we have to take the approach of making a submission to him, asking for permission to access his property and making the repairs at our expense?

 

[Rod]

Natural run off is legal.

What is not allowed is where water is redirected by changing the slope of the land.

I'd be looking at whether builders warranties cover the problem.

Unfortunately there are a lot of poorly constructed units and homes these days and some will be lucky to last 10 years due to water ingress and damage.

 

[Bingk6]

Thank you both so much for your advice

 

[Bingk6]

Just one more question...

If our neighbour's footpath has deteriorated significantly due to old age and normal wear and tear, and as a result of the cracks are now allowing rain water seep beneath the footpath and ultimately into our unit, would your advice be any different?

So no longer a case of just natural runoff anymore, but about a defective footpath letting in copious amounts of water during heavy raining periods. Do the neighbours bear any responsibility in keeping their footpath in good working condition so as to protect our property, given that the footpath in question is completely within their boundary?

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

For my mind it's more about re-direction of runoff. If the amount of water is following the lay of the land (e.g. the neighbour isn't diverting it in any particular concentration) then there's no difference to the answer.