CHARLOTTE — A homeowner living in the same house for about 50 years says she never had a problem with her yard flooding until recently.
Madge Givens lives in the Coulwood area of northwest Charlotte. She says she’s been there since the ‘70s and didn’t have many neighbors, but then houses popped up next door. Now, there’s runoff.
“I feel terrible about it because I’ve been here all these years and never had this problem,” she told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke.
When it rains, muddy water flows across her driveway and gravel washes away. She calls it “nasty.”
She told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke it causes holes in her front yard, so much so that she put stakes in the ground to mark the spots so no one gets hurt.
“If you step in it, you’re in trouble,” she said.
Saul Estrada’s grandfather lives in the next house down from Givens. “It overflows, goes through our fence, and we have a gravel driveway, so since it’s so much water, it rushes through, drags all the gravel out to the street,” he said. “We even installed pipes ourselves to try to make it easier so it won’t drag our gravel away anymore.”
Givens says she complained to the developer and that they told her, “‘We’re working on it. We’ll fix everything.’”
She says they did put rocks in and improved the drain, but that’s not doing enough to divert the runoff.
Action 9 tried to contact the company to see if it has any other plans to address the problem. It didn’t respond in time for this report.
Here’s what you should know about your rights and runoff:
- If the runoff is from the road, it’s a question for the state or city -- whichever maintains the road.
- If it’s from houses still under construction, ask your city or county if the developer is following the erosion control rules.
- If the issue is with houses already built, it’s a private issue between citizens. Homeowner versus homeowner.
- Start by asking the homeowner responsible for the runoff to address the situation.
- As Action 9 always recommends, do that in writing.
- Maybe you even want to offer to pay for some of the measures to address the problem.
- If that doesn’t work, you can always talk to a lawyer to see if you have a winning case. Just know these cases are hard to win.
In North Carolina, your neighbor isn’t usually liable unless he/she acted unreasonably.
The law in South Carolina is similar, except that it looks at whether your neighbor “artificially” diverted water onto your property and other factors.
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