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snarkyinla

fence water damage who pays?

8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

Curious for opinions. I have a fence separating me and my neighbor. We both have dogs, and he also grows "special" plants, so the fence is important to both of us. On half the yard the "nice" side faces toward me, on half it faces toward them, so I don't know which house originally installed it (it predates both of us as owners). Its a 6' tall wood fence. A little over a year ago he decided to landscape by dumping a crap-ton of dirt in his backyard to make "beds". However in doing so, he covered over a sprinkler on his end, and how whenever his sprinkler goes off, it PUMPS water thru the base of the fence into my yard. I don't mind getting the extra water (my plants are thriving!) but eventually the fence will rot, and is already beginning to do so. This would be a really fast fix -- he just needs to dig down to it and turn the water off from that sprinkler head. I have asked him about this in very friendly ways multiple times over the last year. I've sent him a video of the pumping water. He said he fixed it but i can see thru fence he didn't do anything (no signs of digging down, and the water is still coming thru). He has offered to have "my guys" go in and repair it, but we can't fix it from my side, its on his side and I'm sure he wouldn't let me hire people to dig up his yard (especially given his garden habits. Basically he is saying it isn't his problem. I tried approaching the wife but she said "he handles all that". So eventually the fence will rot and need to be replaced, but i feel like it shouldn't be my expense since he's known about the leak for over a year and won't address it. I figure it will be about 1 year before the fence is rotted thru and falling down at this rate and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop it.

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