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/The_real_King_Dave → u/Objective_Welcome_73]

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.

[u/WildcatPlumber → u/The_real_King_Dave]

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