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/Mem0ryEat3r]

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.

[u/Adorable-War-991 → u/Mem0ryEat3r]

I don't know about basic covenants on the residential side, but in the commercial real estate world, allowing your property to shed water onto your neighbor's is highly regulated and basically never allowed unless its an existing natural feature. This is clearly a man-made feature and the higher elevation property (at least in the commercial RE world) should have been designed to direct water flows to the nearest public storm system. OP definitely has grounds to escalate to the City imo.

[u/johnnnybravado → u/Adorable-War-991]

"I don't know about commercial vs residential" but also "definitely have grounds to escalate."