Ok, seems the neighboor to the rear of my house is going to try and take me to small claims court over damage to his lawn from drainage issues.

Basicially, I moved in on July 2003. He came to me late that month and informed me of his concern, and said he is working with the builder to have the situation addressed. My house does indeed sit higher on land then his, so drainage will try and enter his yard, due to the simple fact of gravity.

They looked at it, stated everything seems to be fine with the angle of my back yard and such. They put up a silt fence.

Two months later, he came to my door again, acting as if he was going to sue me then for the issues. I basicially discussed it with him, and he backed off, and said something to the extent that he had talked the builders into redoing his lawn. Mind you, this was the same day I remember hearing him argue with the builder while they were onsite inspecting the problem. Aparently this was the agreement they came to, but I found it suprising that he started out the discussion with "Legal action may be taken". I stated at that point once they completed the work, I would have a fence built with logs at the bottom to prevent any further issues. He at that time agreed to pay for half the fence along our property lines.

I didn't hear from him after that. Winter came, spring came, and now this summer, and not a word between us. I got home tonight to hear he came up and threw out the small claims court threat for damage to his lawn and to have my drainage fixed. Mind you, this is now conviently after the warranty on my home has expired. His lawn has never been replaced by the builder. So either they paid him and he did nothing, or they did nothing. I intend to call up my builder tomorrow and find out more. I aslo intend to start collecting documentation from them about this issue.

So, what would be the best way to address this? Mind you, this last time I did not talk directly to him, but aparently he is going to persist every night this weekend until he does. That also means I will not talk to him this weekend since he has 1. never left his number, and 2. goes to bed before I get home from my 12 hour shift on the weekend.

If his lawn isn't draining properly then that's probably his problem. Gravity can be a bitch sometimes. The only way that I can see that you have any liability is if you have visible runoff from your lawn - ie your lawn isn't draining downward as much as it should.

Even if it is your problem, he has to have given you a _reasonable_ chance to fix it before suing you. Telling you that he's going to get the builder to do something isn't doing that. Nor is threatening you by proxy when you are at work.

First step should probably be to get your city inspector out to look at the problem. They should be able to advise you on this.

So it's your fault because you are up hill from him, that is ridiculous. What does he even expect you to be able to do about it anyway ? build a dam ?

Maybe you could dig a trench around your house and have a moat

It sounds like he has personal problems much deeper than lawn care.

Is it mostly water run-off from your roof? I'm suprised that simple run-off from your lawn could damage his. And if the builders had replaced his lawn, that wouldn't have really addressed the issue anyway, right? It would have just been damaged again. If you have a lot of down-spouts that empty into your backyard, I'd suggest putting in a dry well.

Problem is, I don't have a lawn yet. My back yard is still dirt, so the damage to his lawn comes from the dirt running off my yard into his during massive rain storms. I specificially avoided building a fence and blocking off drainage there due to waiting for the bulder to first replace his lawn. I'm getting the fence up now, as fence post holes are already dug.

He from what I have seen has done nothing on his side to address this. A large pile of dirt is sitting on top of a small (foot squared) area and he hasn't even attempted to move it, instead letting it kill the grass.

Perhaps this person could be of service?

Well, digging this back up, as this issue is persisting.

The fence was properly installed last august as planned, but no further work occurred then. The first court date happened in late November. We showed up, the small claims court judge did his speech about how solving this on your own is probably better. So we went to a private room to discuss the issue. He started complaining that my landscaping had not been done, and that his yard was being damaged. Fine, lets go for the easy way out, grass is cheep after all. So we said that we would replace whatever sod he wanted at my cost. We asked to know how much was damaged so we could get a ballpark figure. At that point he ended the conversation with "go file your official response, we are going to trial".

We filed the response that without admitting fault, we offered to replace some of his sod and he refused. We also put in the response that contractors who designed the grade of my house had come back on site and certified that my grade is exactly the way it should be. After paying the lady the necessary filing fees, we went back upstairs and handed the clerk the paperwork. We then sat through some other cases, and 15 minutes before the end of the session the last case was wrapped up. The judge called our names, announced he had an important lunch date with a state supreme court judge, and could not hear our case that day. He explained it might be in our best interests to resolve this ourselves, and also pointed out that even if damage had occurred, per the covenants, I was not responsible for the first year, and my neighbor would have to prove to what extent damage occurred after the first year. The judge continued that the proper people to go against was the builder for any damage. My neighbor replied with "I tried talking with them, they denied any wrongdoing and told me to go after Tom." The judges response was classic. "Of course they told you that, they don't want to have to spend money to fix a problem." At that point, the judge rescheduled our hearing for January.

I contacted my neighbor about a week before the date in January to see what he wanted to do. He once again seemed unwilling to talk and thought that we had to go to court. It was very clear on my paperwork we could reach an agreement and submit it in writing to have it placed on record without the need for a hearing. I tried to explain this, but he refused to talk. I went to the court again, sat down, got to hear the same speech, then saw my neighbor finally show some will to work with me. We talked in the side room again, and he seemed to be more accepting of a deal. I stated that I would landscape my yard this spring, and offered to replace some sod once again. He didn't like the idea of working on my timetable, so we came up with paying him $100 to cover whatever sod he wanted replaced, along with that going towards some of his court fees. He tried to get more, but finally settled. We went back into the court room, and told the judge we had reached an agreement. And officially, it was "I will pay $100 in two weeks, and also have my yard landscaped by the middle of May weather permitting".

Fast forward to April. I had planned to get started, but the area got blasted with multiple snow storms and very cold days. Not the time to landscape. So, things got delayed. During the first week of May, work did start though. The very first thing to be done was the installation of a backstop of sorts along our mutual property line. This was complete, and will prove to ensure no direct flow of water can enter his yard from mine. Plans were set into motion to get the supplies needed to finish the project.

I went on vacation in the middle of the month, and came back to find no work had been done thus far, and was informed my landscaper was running a bit behind. May 26th, I got a notice in the mail stating I have to show up in court once again in June for not meeting the agreement. Now the very next day was when sod showed up, and at this point 65% of my back yard is complete, with the rest coming in on monday or tuesday.

Anyhow, at this point, I'm just getting so tired of wasting time, I'm tempted to counter his claims. Anyone have any experience with this? I can think of two claims I can counter with at this point. The first being that he never shared the cost of the fence as he agreed to, and also that he is simply wasting my time. I believe the second one falls under harassment, but I'm not sure. He at this point has no valid claims anymore, since it is not his job to enforce the covenants. If it were, I can look out my windows and see plenty of houses in violation of the landscaping requirement of it being completed a year after moving in. He was paid as agreed, and I have both the certified mailing receipt and also the scanned in version of the cashed check. And engineers have confirmed my grade was maintained properly, and also that less water is flowing onto his yard now, due to one of my downspouts putting water in another neighbors yard. So I think I have a good basis for countering this, since he has nothing to stand on at this point. Whine right now I don't work on the day scheduled for the court case, I may have a new job by then and would have to take time off to go.

For this answer, I will briefly channel my inner asshole (a.k.a., my father).

You don't owe this guy squat. You've already bent over backward to accomodate him and paid for things where the two of you agreed to share the cost! Your real goal seems to be to make this guy get out of your hair, once and for good. Tell him that he can either do what you want (pay your half of the fence, etc.), or you'll help the judge to laugh him out of court. You may find it entertaining to discuss this with the most level-headed tone you can manage while your neighbor presumably blows his top in responding to you. (Score yourself a point for staying calm while he loses his.) Most likely, you reach no agreement. Go to court with photographs, receipts, documentation, and everything else. Tell the court that you've more than held up your side of the bargain, despite his not keeping up his end. However, your primary interest is not to collect but simply to get this guy out of your hair. Most likely, you get a judgement to dismiss the case, and the judge tells off your neighbor for you.

If you want to really channel your inner asshole and teach your neighbor a lesson, you play the counterclaim game and try to get a judgement to that effect. The upside is you get the smug satisfaction of seeing him get slammed. The downside is more effort on your part. I wouldn't worry too much about lingering animosity between you. If anything, hitting back hard will make your neighbor back off on the next perceived transgression, as you've shown yourself to be one who is not easily pushed around. He's picking on you because you're an easier target than the builder.

(Had my dad been your neighbor, he'd have filed suit against the builder and gotten them to not only fix the drainage problem but probably build him a toolshed or something gratis for his aggrivation. It amazes me how my dad can squeeze things like this out of people. Needless to say, he doesn't care too much for leaving hard feelings.)

So pretty much all this trouble was for 100 dollars in damages ? I think your neighbor is just lonely.

It would be nice to see some justice served and make this guy pay something for wasting all of your time but I would want to just end this mess ASAP.

So how new is this development anyway ? I have been looking at a ton of houses and from what I have found it takes about two years after the development is full to get the landscaping done.

Boy, sounds like the guy is a real jerk and I see no liablility on your part whatsoever... of course here in GA you would have never gotten a certificate of occupancy without landscaping. But as I see it the builder built the house per the local codes, the inspection authority obviously passed it and the only problem you *might* have is with your homeowners association. You've abosolutely bent over backwards for this guy so any problem he's got should be with the builder or the homeowner's association or the local inspection authority; not you. That's what's supposed to be nice about a homeowner's association; it prevents neighbors from going after each other like that. I would at least ask the judge to have your neighbor pay for your time and any court costs that you may have.

I'd bring everything that Dan said and any other documentation you can get from the builder and local inspection authority and maybe even a copy of the covenants where it states that you have a year to put in your landscaping.

On the flip side... I'm not sure what the laws are where you're at but lots here are definately required to maintain their silt within the property lines with a silt fence that is capable of doing the job (usually a silt fence reinforced with chicken wire). If that landowner doesn't maintain the silt on the property then the inspection authority should be called and handle it from there on out. So, if your neighbor has legitimate complaints with the local authority having jurisdiction and you were told by the local authority to do something in particular and you failed to do so and were cited for it then the other homeowner could bring that information to court and you could have problems at that point. If he hasn't done that then I wouldn't think that he would have a legal leg to stand on.

Just my 2cents.

If the homeowners association around here was active, they would have plenty more targets then me to go after for things like landscaping. One being his neighbor to the south, who just is now completing their landscaping as well, and they have been in their house a good 9 months more then I have.

I do have eprtty much all the paperwork assembled from digging it up last year. My neighbor found some Colorado supreme court case that I got a copy of to invalidate his point. He tried to accuse me of a continual tresspass for the water based on a case where a housing division routed sewer water onto farm land. That one was easy to counter, since in the actual text of the case, it states natural water flow cannot be seen as a tresspass, only activities that alter the drainage plan to an extent to greatly increase the water. I have signed paperwork showing less water is going onto his land then under normal circumstances.

As far as dealing with the silt, the builders did install a silt fence that I ensured was kept up as best it could. When the engineers came out to examine the grade, they noticed no abnormal movement of any of my dirt. This even after one of the wettest summers in recent history. It was also stated that when the silt fence was put it, it was both our responsibilities to check it. He did approach me with concerns, but only before the new silt fence was built and the builders addressed his issues shortly after I moved in.