Had this happen several times. Didn’t really care because most contractors were gone by the time we got home from work. However, they usually blocked mailboxes. Postman wouldn’t deliver mail. Very annoying. Had to call the police once after numerous conversations.
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Perhaps get the city* to paint / mark the curbs where the mailboxes are so that parking / stopping there other than to deliver mail is forbidden.
*Or county in an unincorporated area, or HOA if the road is private.
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If you’re changing any sort of existing stormwater, be sure to consult someone “in the know” first. Controlling stormwater is one of the major things H does as an engineer and in our area ¶ the authorities can be very picky about it. Very, very picky. Our area drains to the Chesapeake eventually and PA has to do extra to keep it clean.
Your area might differ, but for here - advice from 5-10 years ago might not be the same as what one can do now.
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We had that at our last house; the neighbors had an underground flexible pipe for their downspouts. It came out half way across our back yard. We dug down and cut it off at the property, line since it was clearly just a downspout drain installed by a previous owner, not pipes installed by the county, developer or builder. I knew it went against our HOA CCRs.
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I haven’t encountered one of those. 
Holy cow, I realize that there are landlocked properties out there, somewhere, but I’d run far and fast from one. Generally, here in CA, the governing agency that allows a parcel to be subdivided must account for access to the property for it to be a legal parcel.
I haven’t encountered or seen one yet in my life, but you can attempt to have a court issue an order of “easement by necessity” or similar in the case of a land locked parcel.
Off topic, sorry.
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@ClassicMom98 My neighbor bought it from the previous owner about 1-2 years ago and didn’t do anything to the house. They may not know they drain onto my property. I certainly didn’t.
@sushiritto That’s quite ok to be off topic to me. I am learning a lot about land and boundaries. It looks so innocuous. Had no idea it can get so complicated.
@Tigerwife92 I agree it is very annoying to have cars parked in front of you. It is also very annoying to have to put up with construction. I apologized repeatedly for building. Don’t know what else I could do. When my neighbor bought the house, we are getting ready to build. My neighbor saw detailed drawings of the construction plan. I assumed they knew what they were getting into.
Lol we live on one, but it came with all appropriately recorded easements. I spooked the heck out of the guy building next door when we first met him, but then we were quite nice to him. As long as he did not try to get away with murder. 
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We had something similar. A neighbor decided to put drainage on his lawn and emptied it directly into one of our pony pastures causing the whole area to be muddy more often than not. It was absolutely illegal to do so, but rather than get into a messy fight we opted to put a hidden drain in on the edge redirecting the water to a drainage ditch. I don’t recall the cost, but it only took a day with a mini-excavator and a shipment or two of rocks. I wish H had made the neighbor pay for it at the minimum, but he said it would be more time and energy than it was worth to do so. He just wanted to fix it.
Those neighbors are not my favorite. They eventually sold the place right next to us in that area (subdivided it) and the new neighbors are nice, so that’s a plus. The rest of their place is for sale now, but time will tell if it sells. It’s appraised at 680K and they listed it for 1.5 mil hoping to cash in on HCOL city people wanting to move to the country I suspect. Time will tell if it works or not, and if so, if the new owners realize all that moving to the country entails with animal noises and occasional organic fertilizer smells!
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Property law is arcane and not very intuitive… ask any law student what section of the bar exam they hated the most, and a likely answer will be “real property.” Much easier understood when one already owned a chunk of property.
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Absolutely, sewer, water, gas, etc. too.
There’s a really old joke. A plumber’s training consists of knowing two absolute truths:
- S flows downhill.
- Wash your hands before dinner.
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H doesn’t work with gas lines, but at least weekly he’ll get a new client or two for stormwater or wastewater, either new construction or a failed system. They’re always floored by what needs to be done now vs in the old days - meaning a decade or so ago.
And sometimes he gets his clients because they got on the naughty list with the Powers That Be by trying to do it themselves. Pending how much they did, fines can be involved.
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Is it a roof drain? That is easier to deal with than a pipe carrying surface drainage. Honestly, the best thing to do is call the local stormwater engineering department just tell them what you’ve got going on. And then take that info to the lawyer. If you were here, I’d know exactly who to call - extension and all.
The local jurisdiction storm and sewer pipes may be online. Ours aren’t, but we are weird about such things. In MA, my brother was looking to buy a house with a failing septic tank, and I could look it up and tell him how far/how hard it would be to connect without placing a call.
I would be very surprised if it showed up on their maps, especially if it’s a roof drain. But they would know the applicable codes and the laws in your area. I’m sure they get similar calls all the time. We do. We will even do a little research, come out and assess what you’ve got for free. But I don’t know about your area.
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Here you wouldn’t need a lawyer at all - just a working engineer in the field like H.
A lawyer would only need to be paid if the other party weren’t interested in cooperating to fix whatever was deemed needing to be fixed. In our area, most people are cooperative once the laws are explained to them. It’s very, very rare that someone isn’t.
A local stormwater dept can give names of people in the area they trust who do such things. It’s how many of H’s clients find him. H doesn’t advertise at all and is always super busy. Why pay to advertise if you don’t have to?
Agreed; our neighbor had no idea his downspout was draining on our property. He was cool with whatever we did; we cut the one so it would flow into a natural gully on the property line.
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@ClassicMom98 How do you look it up? I tried storm water management in town and state. It didn’t say anything about credential properties.
For the stormwater portion, maybe not. But the encroaching issues he was also having, yes.
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Trying googling (locality name) GIS or even stormwater GIS.
When you built your house, did you have an erosion and sediment control contact? I would start with them. If not and you can’t find a stormwater engineer contact, try your building inspector contact. They would know.
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OK, I finally got the engineer out to look at the drain. He said it shouldn’t be there. it is also in violation of the code. The HOA didn’t put it there. They said the matter is between me and the neighbor. I tried to talk to the neighbor a few times. They are not budging. They said it is no different from the rain falling on my yard draining downslope to someone else’s yard. I guess I look dumb. I am done talking and proceeding to remove it on my side. Anything I should be aware in proceeding unilaterally?
You mentioned previously that you were going to consult with a lawyer. Did you ever do that? I recommend engaging a lawyer to send the neighbors a letter advising them to put their homeowners insurer on notice of your claim that they are trespassing onto your property with the pipe and potentially causing property damage to your property. While I understand that engaging counsel is an expensive step it doesn’t appear that you will be able to work this out amicably. If you remove the part of the pipe that extends onto your property they may make a claim against you.
I had my own property line dispute with a former neighbor who kept moving markers put in by his surveyor onto my property to make his lot appear bigger. I found out later that a part of his septic drainage field encroached on my property. When I wanted to sell my property he threatened to tell everyone looking at the property that there was a boundary dispute. He also threatened to call the police on my surveyor. I ended up having to file suit to resolve the matter. It ended up costing me $10,000 in attorneys fees and granting him an easement. I suggest nipping this in the bud if you can.
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I’d check with a local lawyer who knows your local laws before taking advice from an open internet site. That way it’s harder to get into trouble yourself.
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