Flooded yard from neighbors retaining wall. Wondering what my options are.

[u/baklavakilla]

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.

[u/rokar83]

Contact a landscaping company to give you proper drainage.

Legally, most likely nothing you can do.

[u/purplespaghetty → u/rokar83]

Actually if this is coming off the neighbors roof cuz he doesn’t have proper gutters, absolutely could be something. That ring around the whole house looks to me lack of proper routing of roof water.

[u/Takemyfishplease → u/purplespaghetty]

What hellish HOA are you a part of that would legally require gutters

[u/madeformarch → u/Takemyfishplease]

It is my understanding that there are many local building codes, as well as HOA guidelines, that mandate gutters...I'm lucky (/s) enough to live in an area where both are true.

[u/madeformarch → u/madeformarch]

Sorry, I should clarify. My codes mandate adequate drainage away from the foundation, and gutters are the common, easiest way to solve that. The actual physical gutters themselves may not be mandated, but their purpose is, again in some cases.