Can neighbour force me to rebuild patio.

[AussieManque]

My neighbour claims that our stone patio, which adjoins a walk of her house, was built too high, above her damp course, thus causing damp in her house.

The patio was there when I bought the house. It was put in by the previous owners.

Does she have any recourse?

Solicitor here. Yes this is true. The neighbour's cause of action would be in the tort of nuisance on the basis that the former owner created the nuisance (whether or not that was also negligent at the time) but the current owner has "adopted the nuisance" and is failing to abate the nuisance once on notice of it.

An action against the former owner in negligence is more flimsy unless it can be proved they were negligent at the time (probably not if they entrusted a contractor to do the works). And in nuisance the former owner no longer has control over abatement action.

However, your neighbour will first have to establish that (a) her house is affected by damp and (b) that the proximate/main cause of the damp is the position of your patio. Does she have a surveyor's report supporting what she says? Sometimes neighbour's get an idea in their heads and it isn't actually right. We had a neighbour who claimed our roof gutter was leaking into his house. We were having some roof works done anyway and our builder found it was actually neighbour's own gutter leaking into his house AND our loft too!

Another thing to mention is that the simplest solution may be other than removing and replacing your patio. Possibly it may be easier to raise the level of her DPC and you contribute to the costs (if it looks like there is a potential liability your side).

For any works that are done, check if a Party Wall Agreement is necessary and get that in place before any work starts. Applies to most work on a boundary structure or excavations of a certain depth within a certain distance of the boundary. There is some useful guidance on Gov website.

Would be a lot cheaper to get a builder to have a look first.