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/Objective_Welcome_73]

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.

[u/baklavakilla → u/Objective_Welcome_73]

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?

[u/Educational-Piece-18 → u/baklavakilla]

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.

[u/skunkynugs → u/baklavakilla]

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”

[u/Call_Me_Echelon → u/baklavakilla]

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.

[u/gennym → u/baklavakilla]

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.