My shed and backyard as it is right now

[Enfield Guy]

I have a neighbour who renovated a dump next to me a couple of years ago. He filled land and changed the levels to his advantage. This is what he has created. It has never been this high before.
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Luckily I have managed to get everything, well mostly everything, of significance up off the ground and away from the water, such as the sleigh bed I am making.

Bugger!! Tomorrow I have to go and help out a couple of people that are in a worse situation that myself. Therefor all work is postponed until the opportunity arrises to clean and dry my workspace.

The real issue for me is that the rear wall that is on boundary has 2 layers of 16mm fyrecheck gyprock. I dread having to replace it.


Cheers
Bev

[Handyjack]

I would be contacting your local council unless the event was caused by something else.

[snowyskiesau]

I'd be taking a suitable length of that carefully stacked timber and going and having a little chat with the neighbour

[Enfield Guy]

Brisbane CIty Council take the line that this is a Civil action thing and will not get involved. Talk to your solicitor is their answer. Very helpful, not.

Of course, I have an endless bucket of money to throw at a case with the potential of no return, again, NOT.

The hunk of wood option sounds practical but I am fundamentally non violent.

[Handyjack]

I am sorry to see your shed under water. The stock and possible tool losses can be difficult to bear.

It is (sometimes with difficulty) possible to recover from these events and plan for the next "Act of God". I think of you and the many others who have suffered damage by flooding (some chance of recovering items) and those who may have been burnt out and have lost the lot.

[Ilya]

That looks dreadful, all the tools in water . I had my shed flooded last year, but managed to have most of the metal stuff of the floor. Cannot see from your photos why the water is flooding the shed - seems like the whole backyard is under water. In my case I dug a trench around the shed and it is guiding all water around the shed - works beautifully.

[_fly_]

I think you'll find the council can make him cater for HIS water run off.
He's not allowed to let it run off to your property.
Had the same problem when a neighbour cemented his whole backyard with no drains and just let it off into my property.
He put a cover over it to roof drainage.

[chambezio]

I would take the opportunity now to make a detailed study of what the water is doing with a view to dig some drains to shift it away from your place. I would even go the the trouble of talking to neighbours around you because it could effect all of the neighbours. To go down the legal trail will only create bad feelings for those involved and cost a whole lot more than grabbing a shovel and diverting the flow away from where it can harm anyone.

Where we grew up in Sydney our block used to have to carry surface water from the blocks higher up when we had signicant rain. Dad dug 2 channels one on either side of the block to divert the water and get it on to the street.
We had a deluge one time and the neighbour opposite came over hot under the collar and told Dad his water was going down down this fellas driveway. Dad told him to come for a walk to the back of our block to see where the water had come from. Dad told him it wasn't his it was these other neighbours.
The upshot of it was the the council came and layed more material on this fellas footpath to keep the extra water on the road and stopped it from going down his drive

[Enfield Guy]

Yes, the entire back yard is a puddle. Subsided now but I will be speaking to the owner of the property, and council to see what can be done to improve the situation. I do have a couple of trenches around the shed and that helps somewhat. However, the owner is running all of the water off his roof into what amounts to an old greywater pipe that is no longer part of council infrastructure. He could have taken his stormwater to street when he renovated the place, but he took the easy (for him) option.

I shall be on the phone shortly.

Little does he know that I have a record of the levels, shot with a dumpy, of his yard prior to him changing the profiles, and a current set of levels.

Cheers

[Enfield Guy]

Rang council this morning. It seems they will be sending him a letter giving him 21 days to rectify the problem. If he does not then they take it to the next level one would assume.

Problem with that of course is that I will be in Melbourne from the 11th of Feb for about 6 weeks on a project. I have told council this and they reckon someone will ring me.

Hope so!!

Cheers

[cava]

As a suggestion, consider getting in touch with your local Community Law Resource Group. The advice is solid law based, free and generally gets results. Just puting it out there...

[Enfield Guy]

Very interesting.

[bsrlee]

I don't know what they are called in Queensland, but in Sydney the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage & Drainage board would be responsable for forcing him to deal correctly with his stormwater/drainage. Same mob as you pay your water & sewerage rates to. They also like coming around & checking if you are diverting your stormwater into the sewers (big no-no) as it causes the sewers to overflow & spread 'muck' everywhere.

[Enfield Guy]

Further to this issue.

I returned from Melbourne on Tuesday evening for a couple of weeks as the joombies running the site are just holding us up and costing us money, but I digress.

I have had a reply from the local councillor (attached). It seems that it is up to me to sue. Council will do nothing.

The lines I particularly like are: " In this instance, the storm water is piped to the rear of the premises and then across into the private stormwater line." First of all, this is not a "private stormwater line", the actualities are that this is an old greywater line that it is believed to run to local creek. Council had previously informed me that this is now deemed "community infrastructure". My question is how can this w@nker be allowed to confiscate "community infrastructure" for his sole and exclusive use? Answer, Councils have no power to intervene, control or regulate what happens within privately owned property. Sad really isn't it.

The other line I like is. " Unfortunately, Council has no jurisdiction over private certifiers." It seems that even though private certifiers stamp the documents with a council seal the council washes their hands of the matter. Seems awfully odd to me.

My best option now is to do the reno of the interior of my home so as to maximise the potential sale value of the property. Sell it. Buy a commercial property, that I had planned to do anyway, and move on with my life. In other words, bend over and get ready for the pineapple!!

I have neither the funds or the inclination to fight a protracted and expensive legal battle that has no practical outcome. I have been in this house for 15 years. I have worked hard and long to pay it off. To have a piece of crap neighbour do what he has done really does make my blood boil. Such stress I can do without.

Moral of the story. When it comes to councils and your property, do as you please as long as what you do is within code. There really is nothing they can or will do to help out you or any neighbours you affect by your actions.

Cheers
Bev

[_fly_]

What about a good pool pump in a small sump in your backyard and either
A blow the water directly at his back door.
B blow it over his roof so it goes the right way down the stormwater.
C be really really nice and pump it down you stormwater.

Or Push the council harder or the water sewerage company you deal with.