(un) Neighbourly Issue

[johninbkk]

Without a doubt, it's illegal.

Water entering your property from his building is not accepted. Approach the local council and they will instruct him to add guttering. From viewing the photo, I believe the building to too close to the boundry fence.

I assume the owner is Thai! Good luck for future relationships, and of course, property re-sale opportunities and sales value.

Good luck.

[jacko45k]

It looks like any guttering he fitted would overhang your land!

it also looks like you would have to raise your wall quite high to deflect any water back.

It is obvious that he has constructed within 0.5m of your boundary, and also there are windows overlooking your property, I believe both these actions contravene the rules.

Time for lawyers?

Or start building a new higher wall....... or perhaps since the wall is on your property, make a hole in it and lay some concrete so the water floods back onto his side.

(I have seen this type of issue many times, even where a boundary wall gets used as a support structure for a neighbour's extensions or sheltered outside areas. Mine put metal sheeting sloping onto my side so they could have a sheltered area between their building wall and the boundary wall. )

[fittobethaied]

From the looks of the way to two of you maintain your side yards, it appears to me that you both deserve each other. I really doubt that you're concerned about the water coming into your side yard since you don't seem to mind the trash and cut grass laying around your home. Looks like your yard is totally concreted on the side and you probably have adequate runoff provisions. However, I can understand your being upset because the neighbor is disrespecting you.

If I were you I would make the biblical application in Matthew 18 to your secular problem:

15 “If your brother or sister[b] sins,[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’[d] 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

In the example above in verse 17, instead of taking the problem to the church you would take it to the local amphur and ask them to get involved and solve the problem for you. Also take them a video of the rain running off the roof onto your property. The neighbor then has no right to be upset with you since you gave him every opportunity to correct the problem just between the two of you. I use this principal any time I have a conflict and it has never failed to work.

Edited June 14, 2014 by fittobethaied

[LawrenceN]

Fit gutters and a down pipe.

. . . and offer to split the cost if necessary.

[scorpio1945]

In my Ban you are required to have a 2 meter offset from your wall. That is the First thing to know before anything. Your house maybe too close also. The friendly thing is to offer to pay half or all the cost for guttering. The value of his house is enhanced and your problem is solved. Win win.

[Rickster]

Guttering 101 simples

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Thaiready]

Buy him some gutters.(he'll be a friend for life)...small money 3 or 4 thousand bhat thats cunk change...Cost much more to extend height of wall.....if you counter with a roof to direct water back onto his properity your not solving anything.....he then will counter your solution.

Edited June 14, 2014 by Thaiready

[alfieconn]

Missed the second pic.

Is that wall 2mtr from the property line? what Somsak says with door/windows.

Yep should be 2 meters if it has openings I.E. doors and opening windows.

[kartman]

From the looks of the way to two of you maintain your side yards, it appears to me that you both deserve each other. I really doubt that you're concerned about the water coming into your side yard since you don't seem to mind the trash and cut grass laying around your home. Looks like your yard is totally concreted on the side and you probably have adequate runoff provisions. However, I can understand your being upset because the neighbor is disrespecting you.

If I were you I would make the biblical application in Matthew 18 to your secular problem:

15 “If your brother or sister[b] sins,[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’[d] 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

In the example above in verse 17, instead of taking the problem to the church you would take it to the local amphur and ask them to get involved and solve the problem for you. Also take them a video of the rain running off the roof onto your property. The neighbor then has no right to be upset with you since you gave him every opportunity to correct the problem just between the two of you. I use this principal any time I have a conflict and it has never failed to work.

Or call in Moses he's good with water.

[KonaRain]

My dictionary says chump change..past my bedtime.. gotta light a candle..

good luck..

[Rotweiler]

Lunghans - Sorry - gutters and downspouts are not mandatory in our Amphur.

fittobethaied Junk? Sorry, we don't have any "junk" in the yard. We do have a long piece of leftover evestroughing we dragged over from our other house - our house which you can see in the background which has eavestroughing (this house was built last year for and is occupied by my father-in-law and sister-in-law - and my father-in-law categorically did not want evestroughs, so we decided to wait one rainy season to see if he would change his mind.

Yes, the local regulations require the closest part of a house be at least 50 cm from the property line. As I mentioned before, I really don't wish to undertake any legal action. I am sure most of you will understand that Farang - including those in this area - are barely tolerated as it is.

My wife is heading over there this afternoon to discuss options.

[ajarnsiam]

The simplest, least cost and least hassle solution imho would be to extend the height of the wall (on your side of it). This need not necessarily be a brick / concrete structure, but anything which prevents the splash, eg an aluminium or perspex sheet. The downside is that one (or possibly both) of you may lose some sunlight at certain times of day.

Even if he puts in gutters there will still be considerable splashover in the rainy season (starting now).

If splashover from his house affects or damages your house, then you can claim damages, but to be binding this would need to be in a court of law, not at the village headman level.

A couple of other observations (not aimed at anyone in particular).

1. Farangs in villages who live as part of the village (as the OP seems to) are welcomed, those who don't may be treated with suspicion.

2. On 2nd thoughts the second observation may be too contentious for this forum.

Edited June 14, 2014 by ajarnsiam

[Richmah]

If his roof overhangs over your land, it is by right you can cut the overhanging part.

Another choice is to put up a high thin wall so the water will run off down under the neighbors house and not yours

I have a neighbor at the back of my house, ie our houses do not connect but "meet" back to back.

My kitchen had glass bricks (2 rows) to bring some light into my kitchen.

After 6 years, neighbor has decided that those bricks look like toilet and she does not want to see it from her backyard.

She went ahead and put cement over it and legally while it is part of my house, apparently it is over her air space.

So cut the story short, i have a dark kitchen.

I re adjusted my kitchen ventilation to direct all the "nice" smells, including smoke from cooking in her direction, which so happened to be on height with her bedroom.

Ventilation system is totally in my air space, so nothing illegal, no commercial cooking or anything really.

Cut the story short, she has offered to remove the cement from my glass bricks if i could adjust the ventilation?

To which i agreed, providing she pays for NEW ventilation system and all the changes.

Morale of the story is, when neighbors want to be unreasonable, the only way to deal with that is to also be unreasonable and return favor in kind

I agree to you pralaad, to do it this way. I always says those thais are barbarians and uneducated barbarians. They always think foreigners live in Thailand and they cant do much to thais. They always think this is my country, you stay here, don't be too much.

As for me, if they do it too much, I will give them back in a way like how pralaad doing, converting the cooking hose directly to their hse, but is in our own compound. Or some other way, but the smells goes to their hse. That's why, my hse is full of cctv, front and back, even inside as a proof in acse it goes to the police or court. Always protect yourself becos we knows thais well enough.

[glcdc]

You have many options.

1. no worries, just forget it

2. file so legal action if you think worth it

3. put up a gaurd to block it

4. tear it down

5. burn house down

6. move

7. stop crying

[Joe Mamma]

I would devise a rain gutter and water storage system and utilize the water for your garden or a car wash or,,,,

[HughJass]

g/f has the same problem with the guy next door who has angled the run off from his house to sit against the wall where because of the added height of his land enables the water to seep down to the lowest point which makes the water come into and under my g/f property..I have told her to go to the village office and get them to act but she is a little scared of the neighbour and just puts up with it every rainy season

I would think looking at the pics that u will have water encroachment because of the added height of your neighbours land and the closeness of your house

Edited June 14, 2014 by HughJass

[ajarnsiam]

That's a very good point, a heightened wall will cure the splashback, but a gutter is needed to cure the ground level seepage.

[joshstiles]

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Thanks both. His house is well within the property line - just the roof over-hang is somewhat greater than expected. We spoke to the headman. but he doesn't wish to get involved. He suggested talking to the Amphur.

I will NOT go to court; will NOT damage his house - looking for a possible solution that doesn't involve either of those.

It's pretty simple then......build your own "water deflecting system" that catches and deflects the water as well as returns it to your neighbors property.....keep the entire system on your property. I believe this is the logic that is being used by your neighbor....so obviously it is an acceptable practice by the village.

OR

Suck it up.

[AussieJess]

Shouldnt cost an arm and a leg to Raise the fence wall to prevent the water from entering, Then on your side a nice bamboo covering over the brickwork. Should be a lot more peaceful and a nice relaxing view from your window etc. Better than looking at what is there now . Good luck with it all

[shrimpythailand]

555 he sure did a good job of building up his house ... with no gutter... I can see the water will our right over to your side.... tell him he needs to put a gutter and drainpipe in - either that - or you need a nice 5+ ft high cement wall reno.... but a gutter would br cheap and easy... but he did a nice job of having all his rain water run over to your side 5 5 5 beautiful....

[howerde]

I hope it's not the case that he knows exactly what he is doing,! Let your wife speak to his and take it from there, things can get out of control quickly, and as you seem aware, Farangs will come off worse in the Long term.

[siriweith]

Use the rain water from his house to collect water for your use...or plant fruit trees or a garden...that will benefit from the free watering...when someone gives you an overripe fruit...plant the seed...make it a positive...instead of negative...you will be so glad you handled it in this manner...

you are lucky

don't have any problem about karaoke and pigs factory around

the village you show is nice but may be

not enalfh people rich around

for live in peace

and if is like this

sell and go to live in another place

or stop to think about immediatly

because you will waste your time.

I fell like

you are involved in this story from your wife

thai girls are number one for make loose time to the people

expecially us them patner

for samething no bring at home soo much money and most of the time nothing...

and sorry if i talk like this

but sametimes must to say also the true

Edited June 14, 2014 by siriweith

[kovaltech]

Missed the second pic.

Is that wall 2mtr from the property line? what Somsak says with door/windows.

Yep, the 2 meter distance should be uphold...

50 cm for any structure ( including the roof overhang ?) if no doors or windows...

if its an commercial building then it can be build on the property line...

OP, you can kindly announce your neighbor that your having a problem with his water and that you are looking for an solution... be it any solution as long he keeps his water on his property...

invite him to go together to the amphur to ask their opinion...

[villagefarang]

It sounds like all viable options have been put forth and I am really glad to hear your wife has plans to go talk with your neighbor’s wife. Your family needs to find a solution that works for them. Not always, but usually the right approach is all that is needed to settle this kind of problem. I am not a fan of reprisal and escalation, because I have never seen that kind of behavior end well.

On a personal note, I can’t help but cringe when I hear people make remarks about Thais being hateful or barely tolerant of foreigners. That has simple not been my experience in Thailand, far from it.

Edited June 14, 2014 by villagefarang

[dotpoom]

As Pomthai has already posted, Rain Gutters and down pipe.

Otherwise, utilize techniques to channel water around sensitive areas by some combination of grading, swales (shallow ditches), culverts, and French Drains.

Not all Thais have such an attitude as your neighbor. My family have repeatedly cautioned me about doing anything that would allow rain run-off onto the neighbors yard.

When there is major flooding in the village, nobody cares where the water comes from nor where it goes. But a little rain water, and you best keep it on your own property.

I suppose it's obvious but make sure that if he does agree to you supplying gutters ......make sure they are big ones. I say that from observing my own gutters. I used to have a barrel at the bottom of my drainpipe to collect the rain water but then moved it in the dry season to do something and haven't put it back yet. While it was down pouring the other day I said to myself I must put that barrel back, the water was so strong coming from the down pipe I was concerned it might wear a hole in the ground eventually ( unlightly as it is tiled). Then I noticed that it wouldn't make a lot of difference as the whole gutter along the side of the house was like a waterfall. The gutters are too small to cater for the volume of water.

[jeffandgop]

Without a doubt, it's illegal.

Water entering your property from his building is not accepted. Approach the local council and they will instruct him to add guttering. From viewing the photo, I believe the building to too close to the boundry fence.

I assume the owner is Thai! Good luck for future relationships, and of course, property re-sale opportunities and sales value.

Good luck.

johninbkk is correct...the residential structure is required by law to be minimum 2M from the property boundary line if it has windows. Either the owner did not receive permits to build or received the permit(s) based on inaccurate/false drawings. I'd go to the land office to have a discussion on what the neighbor has done.

My carport that I'm building has a roofline that would also spill water on the neighboring house- which is why I am installing gutters to prevent damage to another's property.

[johnmarhall]

It sounds like all viable options have been put forth and I am really glad to hear your wife has plans to go talk with your neighbor’s wife. Your family needs to find a solution that works for them. Not always, but usually the right approach is all that is needed to settle this kind of problem. I am not a fan of reprisal and escalation, because I have never seen that kind of behavior end well.

On a personal note, I can’t help but cringe when I hear people make remarks about Thais being hateful or barely tolerant of foreigners. That has simple not been my experience in Thailand, far from it.

yeah right

on personal note i cringe when i hear and see foreigners looking down on other foreigners

[Rotweiler]

Report on wife's meetings:

Neighbour doesn't want to admit it but it appears he has run out of cash. There will be a delay until further construction is undertaken.

On the question of run-off water - yes, they acknowledge there is an issue currently. It is their intention to put in evestroughing (rain gutters) but can't right now.

The currently refused any loan; gift, assistance whatsoever in purchasing the evestroughing. They will try to get at it soon.

I can live with that. My wife will work on his wife over the next couple of weeks to see if we can assist.

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions and ideas. IMHO, that's what TV is all about.

[villagefarang]

Thanks for the followup and I'm glad to hear things are on the way to being sorted out. This has been an excellent thread for highlighting different methods of problem solving here in Thailand. Thanks for starting it and bringing so many viewer to this forum.

[onthedarkside]

Yes, just get the wives to talk. I always ask my Thai wife to sort out any problems as I cannot communicate so well in Thai and for sure have little comprehension of Thai etiquette. They can sort out issues that the men cannot. Glad to read that it looks like it will end well.