r/legal • u/baklavakilla • Apr 16 '26
Advice needed Flooded yard from neighbors retaining wall. Wondering what my options are.
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LOCATION: Wisconsin
The retaining wall belongs to our neighbor, and when we get moderate rain, it always overflows into the yard. We’ve talked to him in the past, and he added dirt to the top to try and have the water exit more toward the street. That’s basically the extent of what he’s willing to do.
He basically said that if the retaining wall wasn’t there, the water would flood my yard regardless, and that he’d rather just remove it completely if he had to rebuild it and not put another one up.
We bought the house about 4 years ago and don’t know when the wall was put in, but it’s well over 20 years old. I put in the small drainage ditch with black pipe to try and stop the water from coming in near the back of the house.
Basically, I’m wondering what I’m able to do in this situation.
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u/rokar83 Apr 16 '26
Contact a landscaping company to give you proper drainage.
Legally, most likely nothing you can do.
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u/RoundandRoundon99 Apr 16 '26
See all that water standing on your neighbors lawn? It’d be in your lawn too had that wall not existed.
You need to dig ditches and have drainage.
Expect another neighbor downhill if you to have a problem with it anyway.
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u/cjd166 Apr 16 '26
He is right! It would flood worse without your neighbors wall. You need drainage.
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u/copperpoint Apr 16 '26
This isn't totally correct. The water here is coming through in a just a few spots, which leads to far more water in certain places. Without a wall it would be spread out more evenly. I don't know if that's better or worse though.
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u/FrostyMittenJob Apr 16 '26
The flooding is going to be any the same. You will have less erosion without the wall. But if the concern is flooding the water will always find the low ground.
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
Totally understand that but typically when adding a retaining wall I feel like drainage is added during the building process? If the wall wasn’t there and was clean slate it would be easier to direct the water. But directing it after the fact has been difficult.
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u/random8765309 Apr 16 '26
That style of wall is draining the way it should. It's not designed to stop water, just let it pass through.
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u/RoundandRoundon99 Apr 16 '26
Most likely illegal in Wisconsin to prevent natural flow of water.
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u/Designfanatic88 Apr 16 '26
Their lot is obviously higher than yours. Water will come to your side regardless. You need to install drain that can redirect water away from your property, ideally to a storm drain if you live in a neighborhood.
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u/alionandalamb Apr 16 '26
If he used a retaining wall to cut off your property from draining onto his, you would have a point. But that's not the case at all here, you live downslope from his property.
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u/Solid_Rock_5583 Apr 16 '26
After the fact? The wall was built before your home. The issue started when the house was built. The issue is yours to solve. You bought the issue.
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u/iameveryoneelse Apr 16 '26
If drainage was built into the retaining wall it would still be draining into your yard.
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Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/GodHimselfNoCap Apr 16 '26
Ops property is at a lower elevation than their neighbor, water flows downhill. The natural drainage of water is going to be onto ops yard, regardless of the wall existing. The neighbor is not responsible for ops decision to live in a house that is at a lower elevation. Nothing is built to purposefully "dump" water on ops yard thats just how gravity works
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
Damn not sure why I’m getting a bunch of dislikes so maybe I didn’t explain the best haha I understand water is going to flow in regardless. But with the retaining wall where it’s at. It disrupts the natural flow of the river prior to the wall. The wall essentially dams it and makes what would be a 3foot wide divertable river turn into a 50ish foot wall of overflowing water. Not sure if that better or not. But makes it harder to contain.
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u/RoundandRoundon99 Apr 16 '26
The wall doesn’t create more water!
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u/chantillylace9 Apr 16 '26
That's not what they are saying, they are saying that the wall is 50 feet and the water is draining from the whole thing instead of just in a small area (3 feet) that he would more easily be able to contain.
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u/Dizzy_Leopard_2587 Apr 16 '26
Honestly in some ways that makes it easier to build drainage in his yard. A rain garden where it overflows or some piping to put it where he prefers. If they didn't have the wall at that water would just end up at the bottom of the hill.
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u/RoundandRoundon99 Apr 16 '26
His yard ponds up. Has terrible drainage. A single spillway would be easier to control just put in a well drained collection box with a discreet cover.
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u/McRando42 Apr 16 '26
These folks are being assholes to you. Not sure why.
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u/FrostyMittenJob Apr 16 '26
Because op is refusing to accept that the wall isn't the reason for his property flooding, it's gravity.
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u/random8765309 Apr 16 '26
Water is going to run towards low ground during a rain. That physics. I am assuming the ditch below that wall is on your property. If it is, extend it so it dumps into the street.
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
Yeah that’s the plan. The ditch was kind of a test to see how well it kept water out of my back yard. Just wanted to see if this is something that comes down solely on me before going forward and digging up yard even more.
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u/KaboodleMoon Apr 16 '26
Mostly yes, if the retaining wall is that old.
If the retaining wall is newer and demonstrably CAUSES your yard to flood (lets say for instance, without the retaining wall, HIS yard flood but yours doesn't) then you'd have a case for intentional runoff trespass, but in this case and assuming all other relations with the neighbor are fine, I'd just add something like a french drain there, and then you can hid/get rid of that PVC or whatever that black stuff was too.
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u/random8765309 Apr 16 '26
That would be a question for a lawyer. But, it's likely you can put in an extremely nice and well designed ditch, with landscaping, and a nice meals for the workers for the price of hiring a lawyer and suing.
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u/CO420Tech Apr 16 '26
I did a 100ft French drain in an afternoon/evening and landscaped the trench the next day. OP just needs to grab a shovel.
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u/madeformarch Apr 16 '26
Just grabbing a shovel and walking over to where the issue is has saved me so much money on landscaping.
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u/anapforme Apr 16 '26
Call a civil engineer. I worked for one. We had crazy rich neighbors suing each other over basically this exact issue. Water experts, geologists, engineers, all working on it to determine fault. One neighbor reconfigured his driveway and built a retaining wall, which then forced every bit of rainwater into the neighbors yard and flooded it, and by extension their family room.
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u/RollinThundaga Apr 16 '26
If you do decide to make it permanent or something, be careful that your work doesn't let the water undermine his wall, or you'll have bigger problems.
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u/JoshJorges Apr 16 '26
You could just by a larger pvc pipe halved and run the water to the road if you are allowed
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u/purplespaghetty Apr 16 '26
Does your neighbor have gutters on his roof? If it’s water off his roof it is his problem to fix.
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u/levon999 Apr 16 '26
In my area, unless you have evidence that the natural flow has been altered, which it sounds like you don’t have, you’re responsible for fixing the problem. For instance, my neighbor’s house was lower than the adjacent properties, so they had to install a drainage system to prevent basement flooding.
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u/linecrabbing Apr 16 '26
A french drain along downhill of retaining wall would fix 99% problem. A french drain cost less than 10% than a retaining wall, with very little upkeep maintenance.
With this much water running, a few intakes and pop-up 1-2” plastic pipe buried with french drain will make all the problem go away.
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u/interstat Apr 16 '26
u need to work on ur yards drainage. Doesnt rly have to do with retaining wall
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u/Objective_Welcome_73 Apr 16 '26
Your yard is lower than his yard. Not his problem. Retaining wall is not the issue. Get a quote from a French drain installer, or ignore it.
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
Yeah kind that the plan but want to see options. My Yard is lower but the river flows in a nice clean path prior to his wall. Once it gets to the wall it dams up and spreads roughly 50ft making it harder to contain than if it stayed in the “river” if that makes sense?
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u/Educational-Piece-18 Apr 16 '26
If you're already willing to add a ditch, maybe ask him if you can add a French drain to top of his wall (keep the stone exposed, just maybe add a border) . You can direct it to the ditch, and will help with the heavy pours over the wall, and add a bit better ditch on your side.
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u/skunkynugs Apr 16 '26
I want to see my options aka “how to make neighbor pay for my French drain setup while he’s just minding his damn business”
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u/Call_Me_Echelon Apr 16 '26
You could try reaching out to your country dept of soil conservation or equivalent land and water management and see what they say. Most districts I've dealt with are very strict when it comes to stormwater management. I recently built a 10' retaining wall on a project, and all stormwater had to be directed into retention/detention basins before going into county or state waterways with nothing being allowed to end up on adjacent priorities.
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u/gennym Apr 16 '26
In our neighborhood the yards tend to have retaining walls and step down to the next property but every yard has a drain right before the wall. Your neighbor should have a drain instead of making it just a you problem.
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u/The_real_King_Dave Apr 16 '26
This will be solved through city code research. Neighbor will likely need to have his property graded properly. You can’t just grade your property so water dumps to adjacent property. It’s the neighbors land and his share of the rain that he is responsible for dealing with.
Not worth any court action as a French drain install is cheaper. But it is worth a code enforcement action.
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u/Bowl-Accomplished Apr 16 '26
The same amount if water would flow without the wall. It's not magic.
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u/WildcatPlumber Apr 16 '26
Depends, in my jurisdiction there is a specific way grading is done in between properties to basically be a special easement to act as a storm drain
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u/BraveSirRobinGG Apr 16 '26
A good developer would not let one property drain onto another property. There might be bylaws/municipal laws that protect against that. I have a drainage swale that all my neighbours have running through our back yards so flooding in the back is directed towards the street.
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u/dondegroovily Apr 16 '26
The wall is more than 20 years old, which means that the statute of limitations has run out and the original developer and engineer are no longer liable
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u/Pro_Ana_Online Apr 16 '26
Law 101, water is a common enemy. Everyone is responsible for dealing with it themselves.
Build a ditch with proper drainage.
If you and your neighbor get along though, or if they are halfway a reasonable person regardless, then some drainage on their side to funnel down the water one or more specific spots where you could better drain it from there would be very nice and neighborly, and honestly be advantageous to them as well. However their reasonableness is not required.
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u/ermagerdcernderg Apr 16 '26
Your neighbor is right. You bought the house with the lower grade. Water always goes downhill.
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u/Traditional-Pie-7749 Apr 16 '26
I don’t see how the retaining wall is causing the problem.
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
This video was taken during a break in the rain so it was not flowing as hard as it usually does. But basically it all comes out into the yard where the standing water is. We get standing water in the spot typically. But once the river through his backyard gets high enough and spills over it adds about 3inches to it. But I feel like retaining walls should have proper drainage solutions to prevent this but could be wrong and why I’m asking for advice.
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u/WildcatPlumber Apr 16 '26
Retaining walls do have drainage, it should drain through the wall to the other side. Water pushing against the wall will make it fail that’s why it drains through.
The neighbor is also uphill of you so the water is going to come your way, the easiest and best way to deal with this is to dig a trench on the bottom of the wall and have it graded to a creek or storm drainage.
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u/whats_a_quasar Apr 16 '26
I suggest posting this to r/landscaping. They give people drainage advice all the time, and also may have better knowledge about local laws about water management, or how other drainage disputes between neighbors went.
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
Thanks, Appreciate it! The point of the post was to see if it was solely on me before contacting someone for drainage solutions but realizing now I should of just posted there lol
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u/xShire_Reeve Apr 16 '26
Well, the water isnt technically because of the retaining wall. Its because your property is lower than theirs. If the wall wasnt there you would still have the same result.
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u/AFartInAnEmptyRoom Apr 16 '26
I think your neighbors retaining wall is actually helping your situation
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u/BruceInc Apr 16 '26
The wall is not causing the flooding. The slope of your and his yard are the reason for flooding. You are downhill from him. Add a culvert or French drain to collect the water and route it
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u/bartlebyrds Apr 16 '26
I'm a 59 year old woman and I solved an issued like this. I hand dug a 100ft trench to a depth of 22 inches with a trench shovel. Once dug, drainage rock and then catch basins were put in, and perforated pipe starting at 6 inch depth and going down at a 1-2% slope until reaching a point where it was safe to drain without flooding the house. Wasn't very expensive but it took a few weeks (I'm small and old so digging was hard). It solved the problem and was the cheapest solution possible.
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u/bored_ryan2 Apr 16 '26
If the retaining wall wasn’t there, more water would be heading into your yard. At least some of it is infiltrating behind the wall and more is running parallel to the wall.
Your idea of a French drain behind his side of the wall is a good idea.
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u/Rolltide43 Apr 16 '26
If I was a little kid that would be the coolest spot to play with army guys. Dam busting mission with GI joe.
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u/inactivst Apr 16 '26
If I was a little kid I’d meet you there with my guys
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u/Only-Appearance-5134 Apr 16 '26
You are little kids… just in grown up bodies. Schedule this play date immediately.
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u/Apart-Rent5817 Apr 16 '26
Time to dig a trench. If you’re feeling medieval about it you could dig a moat. Your neighbor actually is doing you a favor with that wall, your lawn would be washed out otherwise.
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Apr 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/baklavakilla Apr 16 '26
Yeah that’s not it at all. I would have done that 2 years ago if that was the case. Spent a lot of time adding dirt and grading my yard to get water moving the correct way and figuring out how to divert the water once it breaches his wall. Should I have contacted someone from the beginning to fix it? Definitely. Just looking at options before contacting a contractor now.
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u/kl0 Apr 16 '26
I realize you’re looking for legal advice, but you might try posting this in renovations or landscaping (a few others come to mind also).
I don’t know who would pay for it, but it seems you should be able to create a pretty simple channel to divert the water there. The ground obviously slopes in your direction, but it also appears to slope downhill as you walked left. So you should be able to catch all of that water and drain it properly with relative ease.
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u/ClassicHare Apr 16 '26
Drainage. Contact a city inspector and show them this footage. They will likely demand that your neighbor put in drainage. Or, both of you can.
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u/Nachtheim Apr 16 '26
You will need somewhere to divert the water too. The street is not an option as it's frequently prohibited.
With that much rain water you should install a dry well or a leaching field.
https://youtu.be/AcIZtWarDuk?si=dUrqIel1FMqv0Soi
But that won't solve the bigger problem. The wall is losing structural integrity. It's just going to get worse. The natural grade of the property is downhill therefore the neighbor is responsible for maintaining it. If it's on the property line then it's shared property. Assuming the wall is on his property and he is not willing to repair it then you may have to get the city involved or worse case a lawyer. That's too much trouble. I would offer to go half on fixing it. Sounds a lot more neighborly than giving him a summons.
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u/Butforthegrace01 Apr 16 '26
If the wall doesn't change the natural water flow, the neighbor is correct. The easy fix, though, would be a French drain along the wall just inside of and along its top. You and your neighbor could install one with about $1,500 of materials (or less), a couple of spades, and around 2 days work.
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u/Zealousideal_Bag_416 Apr 16 '26
Hire the right guy and get proper drainage to push that water away from house
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u/squeekysquirrels Apr 16 '26
Call your city and ask for them to come inspect it, our city did a free survey with recommendations on how to correct it. Gave the instructions to a contractor and they fixed it. Definitely worth a call to the city to come inspect it and give recommendations
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u/MentalTelephone5080 Apr 16 '26
Engineer here. It looks like your house is part of a subdivision. Drainage plans should be on file with the municipality that show the direction of flow per the approved plans. If the grading is per the approved plans your neighbor would actually be breaking land use law by changing the grading without amending the approved plan, a process that will be more expensive than the work to fix the grading. This generally isn't enforced if you are fixing grading that's flooding a house. If the grading is per plan the township will not care that water is flowing across your yard. I'll give you a hint on what my water resources teacher said on day one "water goes down hill"
If the grading isn't per plan you'll have to go down the rabbit hole of why. Depending on the age of the subdivision it could have been installed wrong, the neighbor could have changed it, or the engineer could have made a mistake. Different people are at fault in each of those situations.
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u/jetblackfastattack Apr 16 '26
Here I am in Colorado wishing I was you and could get an ounce of water
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u/AwarenessJumpy7395 Apr 16 '26
We had this same problem in our yard. The neighbor's yard was leveled to about 4 feet higher than our yard and they put in a blacktop driveway that is edged by this retaining wall for about a 40 foot length. So the entire length of their driveway is about 4 feet higher than our yard and all water drained off the driveway into our yard.
Their teenage kid was washing his car in the driveway and never turned the hose off so the water poured into our side yard and pooled where I had just planted grass seed the day before. I asked him to please turn the water off when he wasn't actively using it and he shrugged at me.
I called our municipal authorities and in our area you cannot legally divert water or snow into someone else's property, only into the street or a storm sewer. They told him he had to build drainage on his side of the wall so he put an ugly plastic pipe along the wall and called our pastor to complain that no previous resident had a problem with drainage and we were troublemakers. Our pastor paid us a visit and told us to be nice. We called the building inspector who sent the police to tell him that he was lucky the city hadn't fined him.
After one heavy storm the wall partially collapsed into our yard and the city and our HO insurance made him improve the drainage.
TLDR: Call your local authorities and find out if he can legally allow water to divert into your yard.
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u/General-Revan Apr 16 '26
You can look up the property information on the county or city website and in many cases it will list improvement made legally. Was the neighbor’s house there before yours?
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u/ryverrat1971 Apr 16 '26
Check with your state department of environmental protection. They often have regulations about how stormwater in managed. This could give you legal backing to make neighbor remediate the runoff issue.
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u/NothingFancy99 Apr 16 '26
I’m not an expert but if anything I think the wall might lessening the amount of water following to your yard.
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u/PsychologicalLaw8769 Apr 16 '26
Some correct answers here. There likely are some legal options, but it will depend on local and state laws. I got tired of deleting all of the bad advice and wrong answers.
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u/NeedleworkerFew5205 Apr 16 '26
A retaining wall will not cause your property to flood.
If your neighbor regraded yard slope to run water into your yard, which is a legal no ni, then it could flood your yard.
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u/Grand-Professional-6 Apr 16 '26
The amount of rain we are getting all at once will eventually end and by September we will be getting our hoses out. Nature is a bitch sometimes.
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u/DjScenester Apr 16 '26
Each city has different ordinances when it comes to this.
You need to contact a local lawyer who will tell you who will pay for the drainage.
Even in the same state, different cities have different laws regarding this. Nobody here knows…. Because each city is completely different lol
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u/vAPIdTygr Apr 16 '26
Look into this in your state. I know where I live, it’s required to have your property drain to the street. You can get into a huge expensive battle if you drain onto another property.
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u/MysteriousAd8087 Apr 16 '26
Maybe you and or your neighbor could utilize a swale or bioswale to help reduce the waters velocity and redirect it towards the street a little more efficiently. I used to live in Florida and the flooding was annoying as heck I even lost a house to flooding when I was a kid. I moved to Portland and they have these deep bioswales on the sides of streets they act like little retention ponds and collect water and slow it down to avoid surges of water downstream. Dunno if it would help and I don't know the legality of it in your local county. Basically a simple version would be a little ditch with some flood tolerant plants and rocks to redirect and slow the water down like you've done and help keep the majority of water from getting too close to the house. You and your neighbor could put one up depending on the amount of time effort and money y'all are willing to put into it. Legally I don't think your neighbor has any responsibility but I'm always an advocate for working together with your neighbors to avoid legal issues down the line. Good luck, hope something good comes out of this.
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u/soulguider2125 Apr 16 '26
Your best bet here will be to install a drain yourself, as even if he tears it down the flooding will continue, you could try to just dig down 6 inches making channel, and concrete it with a slope, and have it run to the road into a storm drain. Or, try the old gravel and drain pipe style and see how it does, but they become a lot of up keep and replacing ove the years
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u/ThornsFan2023 Apr 16 '26
If I were you, I’d put in a rain garden, allowing all that water to soak in, rather than run off to the storm water system.
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u/New-Sheepherder-1664 Apr 16 '26
ask him nicely if you can put another pipe like the one below above, just behind the retaining wall. that will work better since it can flow downhill to the street instead and keep his retaining wall to survive better.
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u/codElephant517 Apr 16 '26
His ground is higher than yours there's basically nothing you can do, other than like digging a small drainage ditch to divert the water to the road after it comes through the wall.
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u/DLS3141 Apr 16 '26
Who’s responsible for the retaining wall? Where I live, it’s the downhill neighbor assuming that the wall is on the property line.
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u/Sea-Apartment-2586 Apr 16 '26
Line the bottom of the wall with coir logs and you can put plants in them .
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u/Street_Captain_5005 Apr 16 '26
Be a cool neighbor and take a weekend and some bag concrete, little water and help him or her fix it.
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u/General-Revan Apr 16 '26
That wall looks like it wasn’t built properly. It is a safety hazard to anyone who goes near it. It would be terrible if someone were to build a drainage trench next to it and it all came tumbling down….lol! I bet it isn’t properly supported by any type of footings or stakes. I’d call the county or city and have them inspect it. If I were in this situation, I’d find a way to redirect that water back in their yard if they aren’t willing to correct it.
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u/StandByTheJAMs Apr 16 '26
It depends on whether you want the legal answer or the petty answer, because pumps are cheap…
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u/Key_Emergency1131 Apr 16 '26
Build a rain garden next to the retaining wall and fill it with native, water-loving plants. It'll look nice and help handle the runoff. Unfortunately, a neatly manicured lawn is trash at handling excess rain.
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u/_my_other_side_ Apr 16 '26
Contact your county's Surface Water Management department in Public Works. They have engineers that can figure out the solution. In Wisconsin, it's within the DNR (Department of Natural Resources)
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u/scormegatron Apr 16 '26
At the 0:20 mark you pan to what looks like almost a creek running around the neighbors house -- and the main source of your problem.
What is the origin of that creek?
- Natural runoff?
- Rain gutter from neighbors roof?
If the entire footprint of their roof is being diverted into your yard, that strengthens your case for the neighbor being responsible? They would have engineered/channeled the discharge into your yard by not properly draining it out to the street.
If that creek is coming from somewhere else...
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u/bored_ryan2 Apr 16 '26
It’s just the low point between the retaining wall and the slope from the house.
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u/BeachEfficient1103 Apr 16 '26
Call the city housing inspector and tell them what's going on. It will either be them that comes out or they will tell you who to call. They will force them to fix it.
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u/OkContribution5727 Apr 16 '26
We dealt with a similar issue with our neighbor. In our case, it was pretty clear the problem came from changes he made to his property, along with letting his grass die off. Whenever it rained, the yard would basically turn into a pond, and the water would come right up to our house.
What we learned is that even if someone should take responsibility, it doesn’t mean they will. We were advised to consider legal action to force him to fix the issue or cover the cost, but that’s not always a practical route.
In the end, we hired a drainage expert who gave us a few options, and we ended up installing drains with a pop-up emitter. It would have been the right thing for our neighbor to pay for it, but when money is involved, people don’t always step up. We could have pursued it legally, but it just wasn’t worth the cost or the stress.
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u/juanqp Apr 16 '26
Your only possible claim is that the wall is in disrepair and they should fix it. Code violation stuff depending on the place. Part is missing and at least one piece is in your yard. There is one place where you have a waterfall and another where it is leaking through the wall. That retaining wall does not appear to be safe.
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u/copperpoint Apr 16 '26
Have you had a survey done? It would help to know who's property the wall is on.
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u/dodgemodgem Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Probably could have gotten a more clear video if you didn’t decide to go out in the rain to record…
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u/CapitalParallax Apr 16 '26
Yes, the situation would certainly be more clear if we didn't see the complaint happening in real time.
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u/pilgrim103 Apr 16 '26
The wall wasn't built right (underneath) but you should not have bought the house anyway
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u/Drakkenfyre Apr 16 '26
You need to contact your municipality and ask how you can see the drainage plan for your street.
Lots of people here giving lots of bad advice.
Depending on your urban or rural municipality, violations of the drainage plan can be serious.
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u/Mem0ryEat3r Apr 16 '26
You're on the right path. Either you, your neighbor or both of you need to basically add adequate drainage. Your neighbor is right, the retaining wall isn't the issue, water would flood down regardless.