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Before I start, I'm sure the answer is "discuss with the neighbours and reach a compromise" but I am wondering whether there is any legal precedent or advice that I should know?
Our 150yr old house is a freehold situated off a private road in the middle of a farm (road belonging to the farm, so does the entrance and culvert on our drive).
Opposite are several separately privately owned fields, sloping up the hill, that are used as paddocks.
Geologically, the area is weald clay, meaning the ground saturates very quickly and does not drain easily.
The paddocks have inadequate drainage meaning the run-off creates a small stream on the road when it rains heavily.
Recently, the farm owner decided to divert some of the the water off the road and into the culvert at the front of our house, overloading our antiquated drainage system and almost flooding our home. Supposedly, our surface water drainage is supposed to drain into the nearby brook which would cross his land, but this is obviously blocked or broken. We also suspect that our drainage is connected the next door house which he owns, but we won't be able to find this out until the summer when an old cess-pit / back-drop drains.
What we do not want to happen is for our poor old drains to suddenly be taking all the water from the road and the neighbouring paddocks, and we do not think it should be our responsibility to deal with this drainage either. As renovating the drains, which is on the list of to-dos suddenly becomes a much bigger and urgent job. We were also considering applying for a combined sewer, which would be rejected if the capacity requirement was dramatically increased.
As a side note, both the TR6 and drainage survey said we had mains drainage when we were buying - which we don't. But we are on mains foul water.
We are not really sure where to go from here, any advice would really appreciated.
Our 150yr old house is a freehold situated off a private road in the middle of a farm (road belonging to the farm, so does the entrance and culvert on our drive).
Opposite are several separately privately owned fields, sloping up the hill, that are used as paddocks.
Geologically, the area is weald clay, meaning the ground saturates very quickly and does not drain easily.
The paddocks have inadequate drainage meaning the run-off creates a small stream on the road when it rains heavily.
Recently, the farm owner decided to divert some of the the water off the road and into the culvert at the front of our house, overloading our antiquated drainage system and almost flooding our home. Supposedly, our surface water drainage is supposed to drain into the nearby brook which would cross his land, but this is obviously blocked or broken. We also suspect that our drainage is connected the next door house which he owns, but we won't be able to find this out until the summer when an old cess-pit / back-drop drains.
What we do not want to happen is for our poor old drains to suddenly be taking all the water from the road and the neighbouring paddocks, and we do not think it should be our responsibility to deal with this drainage either. As renovating the drains, which is on the list of to-dos suddenly becomes a much bigger and urgent job. We were also considering applying for a combined sewer, which would be rejected if the capacity requirement was dramatically increased.
As a side note, both the TR6 and drainage survey said we had mains drainage when we were buying - which we don't. But we are on mains foul water.
We are not really sure where to go from here, any advice would really appreciated.
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