Neighbour’s water

[JaneM23]

So I am going crazy here and I don’t know what to do. At some point between 2021-2022 (1 year before I buy my property and about 6-7 months after he bought his) my neighbour decided to built a storage with concrete blocks and he took what was his fences and the boundary posts at the time and he built a concrete wall which is also the one side of his storage building. He put a metal roof and gutters. When we remove a very old wooden shed we realised that he had built the wall on the boundary line and few centimetres in my garden.
every time is raining all the water from his roof is going in to my garden and what now is my outdoor kitchen.(which was very expensive)
I explain to him problem, showing him photos about how bad the damage is . but he was like “why you put the outdoor kitchen there “ and the previous owner was fine with the water”
is not a few drop of water, we are floating about 50cm above the ground.
I don’t want to go to the local authority but I believe that his building is illegal because it’s an actual building not a shed or a pergola , the gutters are half way in my side and the water is creating so much mess.
what can I do, it’s so stressful

Well he clearly doesn't care about the effect it is having on your house, so I would 100% go to the council. It's not fair that you should have to put up with that, and he doesn't seem to want to accommodate any change to help the problem

Isn't it a relatively simply process to add guttering to his wall so that the rain is diverted elsewhere ?

You didn't see this problem until you removed the shed, so how could the water be going on to your kitchen if the shed was there ? did you build the kitchen after the shed was removed ?

You could come up with some sort of drainage strategy, but hard to advise without seeing the area.

Obviously if his building is illegal then you could try and fight him over it. But be prepared for the long haul, lots of expense and probably you won't be the best of friends afterwards (understatement).

Go to the council. You gave him a chance to sort it out and he chose to be an arse.

can you divert the guttering so that it spills into his garden?

or better still, get a surveyor or party wall expert to take a good look & give you a report on it.

I’m confused, did you build the kitchen when you knew this roof was right beside it with no guttering?
And you are saying there is 50cm of standing water in this area of your garden??
Half a meter?

if so then surely your garden is just as big of an issue. Why have you no drainage?

I can’t divert the guttering because the water of the roof due to bad installation of the roof doesn’t go in the gutters but in my side of the property. And yes I builder the outdoor kitchen after I removed the old shed. The wall was already there as he built it a year or so before.

Speak to someone at your local planning office about the issue. They will be able to advise what steps can be taken. They are generally very helpful.

Why cant you / him put guttering on the wall that is on your boundary line?. Then the water will run into the guttering and not your garden. I dont understand your comment about 50cm of water?? ... or why you would build your kitchen underneath what must look like waterfall from your description!

He's built over the boundary. And rainwater runs into your garden with a resulting 50cm puddle. Is that correct?

You need to speak with the council planning dept.

I feel for you OP. My neighbour got PP for a building, then started to build it right against the boundary, instead of further away. I spoke to him, but it was an in one ear and out the other situation so had to inform the planning dept, otherwise I'd have ended up in the same situation as you.

Unfortunately you need to let them know about this.