Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond Liability

Our pond backs water up onto the next door neighbors property. Does anyone know if there is any liability associated with having your pond back up to others property?

Has he asked you to remove the water from his property?

He might be liable launch a boat and go fishing from his property.

No as a matter of fact I am trying to buy it from him. I was just wondering like if his cows watered there and I let water out and drained down his part and cows had no water where would I stand legally.

You will have to ask a Texas Lawyer. As a general rule you can't back water up (or cause a flood) on someone else with out liability in common law states. But there are many facts which may come into play.

When I was looking for my pond paradise in Illinois, I came across a couple of situations where water had the potential to back up on a neighbor's property. One savvy realtor shared knowledge of recent litigation of a similar situation favoring a plaintiff. Results: any neighboring property that has any portion of water backing up on their property has legal access to the entire body of water. Was news to me; maybe not to you guys.

Brettski, That makes me more determined to buy this piece of property than ever. That is some good info to know. You probably don't won't to wake up in the morning and find a bunch of people fishing in the pond you just spent a butt load of money stocking.

If you think about it, nothing stops him from stocking bullheads or dumping garbage onto his land.

Quite frankly, Heybud, the property that we ultimately did buy had exactly the same type situation. There were 2 draws (it's always the dang draws ) that ran into our proposed pond basin. Both of these draws ran down from neighboring parcels. One draw was lower than the other, hence it was the draw that dictated how high we could back up the pondsite water. Enter the nicest, most cooperative new neighbor I have; Vernon. Vernon owned the woods that surrounded this draw and 50 more acres of tillable just outside the woods. Ironically, it was all for sale at the time that we bought our main block of property. I reached out to Vernon and told him of my plan with the pond. He was very pleased to see my plans and fully supported my goals. He offered me the option to buy the little 3 ac of woods that contain the draw, and did it at a VERY fair price. We did. Vernon is proof that there are still good folk in this world that aren't after every penny. He was more concerned to see me pursue a neighborhood improvement, welcoming me and ultimately being my strongest proponent.
I hope you find your Vernon, too.

Our high water lake level is built so we don't back any water onto our neighbor's property. There was no question but that he would have sued us in a second if we backed ANY water back onto his property.

Sounds like you have a friendly neighbor, Norm. :rolleyes:

...seeing as we are in the mood, here; another quick story.
I was working with a pretty sharp NRCS guy in NW Illinois while looking at a couple of different potential pond properties. This was one of the more cooperative offices that was prepared to handle all the engineering facets of new pond construction, including location, selection, and coordination with the necessary contractors. Anyway, one of the parcels had the same situation of backing up water. He said that sometimes a neighbor does not mind and it can be worked out between the parties. If I did not want to deal with that, their rule of thumb was to keep the normal pool level at 3 - 4 feet below the level where it would touch the property boundary. Assuming a freeboard of 2 - 3 feet, this would keep it off at all times. He noted that I may consider raising the pool a little if the area of compromise was remote and had little effect on the neighbor's soil, but quickly reminded me that the horizontal saturation from even being 3 feet below could create structural integrity issues if the neighbor's driveway or similar ran along this property line.

Brettski - Our pond sounds a lot like yours in the fact that it also has two draws that feed it. One draw stays on my propety but the other backs way up onto the neighbors. He has not make an issue of it sofar. We just found out yesterday that he had the whole place for sale and we feel it is to our advantage to purchase it, not knowing who might buy it and what they may think of us backing water onto their property. We really wanted that property anyway but I guess we are trying to buy it in self defense also.

Heybud, I would certainly try to buy it. It gives you more control over the runoff area. A neighbor could put a pond just upstream and cut off your water supply. Read some Texas History regarding range wars over water rights.

Neighbors can be critical. A couple of years ago, I saw a nice place that I considered buying as investment property. The location (I thought) was great and the price was very attractive. Then I drove down the dead end road to get an idea of the dimensions regarding road frontage. What I saw ended my interest. The adjoining property was owned by a bunch that looked like a scene out of the movie Deliverance. I called the Realtor and declined. He told me that he didn't think the land would sell at any price.

Dave - I know what you mean about the Deliverance deal. Some people buy a place in the country and see it as a place to start a junk yard. Pride in ownership is a foreign concept to them. Interestingly, an old man up the road said there was a big spring on this property that ran so much one of the original land owners had it plugged. I'm excited to find out the truth. I was thinking to myself I'll bet there is a 60 corvette in the old barn nobody knows about also.

"right on the money" Dave nails it again. IF you can afford the parcel, IF it is, indeed, a noteworthy run-off source, IF the draw contained therein makes or breaks your dream pond, and IF the price = value....you gotta do it.
Now that I have cleared all my timber and am now intimately familiar with the pond surroundings, I cannot believe how lucky I was to get the opportunity to buy that little 3 Ac parcel with the draw. It has largely crappy timber (alot of Black Locust), but owning it takes MY dream pondsite to it's highest potential. The difference is everything to me.

If the black locust has straight boles and is borer free, it is one of the best woods in the world.

alot of dead stuff. It is woodpecker heaven. I had the most unusual opportunity to spend a long conversation with the old timer that grew up on the property since 1932. His dad planted 1000 BL seedlings in this area in 1938 for erosion control, under a government program. They have grown, seeded, died, etc. Nothing has been done with this area since that time. Other than firewood and fence poles, what is the value of prime Black Locust?

Yeah Brettski I agree. The is 25 beautiful acres anyway and provides my pond with a large watershed. Is loaded with wildlife and wildflowers and a water well plus a septic system. I'm gonna do my best to purchase it and the game is on as we speak. We know we will regret it if we don't get it. Worst of all if we don't and the wrong people do, we may be forced to sell ours and and not at top dollar.

heybud- I went on a place with a real estate agent close to you that had a spring coming out of the ground. It had a natural pond about 200' by 30' formed by the spring. The water was so clear you could see every fish in the water. This was 35 years ago. That country does have some nice springs.

You're missing a business opportunity - "Brettski's All-Natural Black Locust Thorn Organic Sewing Needles. (No fossil fuels were burned to make these needles.)"

Been there and not done that. Buy the ground even if the price is too high! Otherwise, it is almost certain that you will regret it.

Ranger - Those were my thought exactly. Prices are rising fast in the area anyway. Down the road from us a couple of miles there is a community of garbage collectors. The Deliverance crowd is already too close but at least not next door. How do they get the money to buy those places?

Buy it. It's only money!!!