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Hi all
I must apologize for this lengthy post, but felt it needed to get the just of things
I have a problem regarding the municipality; my property of 4500 m2 has a river running next to it, 75 meters of lovely river frontage, the main reason for buying the house. According to the municipality there is a 50-year flood line that ends on my main road. In other words to put it in order, the river then my house and then the main road. If this was so then my house along with a few of my neighbors have been illegally built. On question with this regard they mentioned that in that point in time, an indemnity was agreed on by the builder/owner that they would not hold the municipality responsible for any damages that might arise from the river in flood. Since then there have been two owners before me and on my acquisition, nothing was ever mentioned to this effect. For no doubt it would have influenced my decision of purchase.
Now having said that I started to do a lot of landscaping trying to create a better layout to what I already have and also creating a bit of barrier between my house and the river. Non-the wiser of what had transpired previously. Now according to the municipality I am not allowed to do this because of the 50-year flood line. I am not allowed to influence the flow of water with in this mark, which I can understand the reasons behind this. On occasions the river has spilled onto my property and damaged a few of my flowerbeds etc… as I understand it I have no recourse and I feel a
bit dead in the water on this one.
Some background info
Last year the river did come down with force and started to erode my neighbor’s property to the extent of his wall collapsing into the river, with out this wall, the river, when it could not make the curve that it would normally follow, would rise and then start to spill on his property if his wall was still standing he was protected, but without it, would eventually flood sections of his house.
Now this is where the trouble started, for once the water was on his property it would start to dam up and the weight of the water would then push his/our wall between our houses down thus giving the river carte-blanche on my property. Soooo now my garage got hit and substantial damage to items in storage. Cleary appropriate action was required. Between my house and the river I allowed controlled dumping of building rubble to create a bit of height followed by a TLB to level, then with topsoil with a TLB again, ok things are still dusty but once spring has arrived my planted grass would spread and things would normalize. Now having done this my/our new wall would stand no chance of been pushed over again. A few months later the wall proved it’s self but with consequences to my neighbor.
He in return spoke to the municipality, who came, inspected the area, I’m sure calculated how the river would cope with this, a construction team arrived and built a huge retaining wall of 30 meters in length, 6 meters high and 2.5 meters thick, of stone in cages to stop further erosion and damage to his property/house, which in my opinion was the best thing to have happened, not only does this monstrosity protect his property but shields mine in the process, so now I am finishing up what I started, leveling the dimples and planting grass etc….
Following that and needless to say the river struck with vengeance and my neighbor sighed with relief not to mention myself. However the flow was now constricted in this area and the flow rate intensified as you can imagine and for the first time started to lap over to another neighbor property further down and opposite from me. He is not impressed. He is now holding me responsible and has instigated this inquiry with the municipality.
His argument, if the municipality consents to my alterations/landscaping, then he will hold them responsible for damages that might arise from this, (which really got the municipality up in arms). I have had 5 inspections, all reporting things to be in order, but one high official/5 Star General, however convinced by my neighbor (whom has not come to inspect) that I have obstructed the river and is the main cause of this problem.
Through our telephonic conversation, which was difficult, for I could only manage to get a few “but’s†in between each breath she took, to continue this onslaught of how wrong I was, I felt I was getting nowhere with this and allow her to vent until it became evident she was waiting for a response. In which I replied “Please come round and have a look for yourself†and a few possible times were arranged depending on her schedule. So I wait until then.
Now this situation, I have no idea on how to address or what to expect and will most likely deal with each step at a time, but some ideas will be most welcome. I do not want a war but would like to settle things amicably, however, love thy neighbor has gone out the window
Regards
Peter
I must apologize for this lengthy post, but felt it needed to get the just of things
I have a problem regarding the municipality; my property of 4500 m2 has a river running next to it, 75 meters of lovely river frontage, the main reason for buying the house. According to the municipality there is a 50-year flood line that ends on my main road. In other words to put it in order, the river then my house and then the main road. If this was so then my house along with a few of my neighbors have been illegally built. On question with this regard they mentioned that in that point in time, an indemnity was agreed on by the builder/owner that they would not hold the municipality responsible for any damages that might arise from the river in flood. Since then there have been two owners before me and on my acquisition, nothing was ever mentioned to this effect. For no doubt it would have influenced my decision of purchase.
Now having said that I started to do a lot of landscaping trying to create a better layout to what I already have and also creating a bit of barrier between my house and the river. Non-the wiser of what had transpired previously. Now according to the municipality I am not allowed to do this because of the 50-year flood line. I am not allowed to influence the flow of water with in this mark, which I can understand the reasons behind this. On occasions the river has spilled onto my property and damaged a few of my flowerbeds etc… as I understand it I have no recourse and I feel a
bit dead in the water on this one.
Some background info
Last year the river did come down with force and started to erode my neighbor’s property to the extent of his wall collapsing into the river, with out this wall, the river, when it could not make the curve that it would normally follow, would rise and then start to spill on his property if his wall was still standing he was protected, but without it, would eventually flood sections of his house.
Now this is where the trouble started, for once the water was on his property it would start to dam up and the weight of the water would then push his/our wall between our houses down thus giving the river carte-blanche on my property. Soooo now my garage got hit and substantial damage to items in storage. Cleary appropriate action was required. Between my house and the river I allowed controlled dumping of building rubble to create a bit of height followed by a TLB to level, then with topsoil with a TLB again, ok things are still dusty but once spring has arrived my planted grass would spread and things would normalize. Now having done this my/our new wall would stand no chance of been pushed over again. A few months later the wall proved it’s self but with consequences to my neighbor.
He in return spoke to the municipality, who came, inspected the area, I’m sure calculated how the river would cope with this, a construction team arrived and built a huge retaining wall of 30 meters in length, 6 meters high and 2.5 meters thick, of stone in cages to stop further erosion and damage to his property/house, which in my opinion was the best thing to have happened, not only does this monstrosity protect his property but shields mine in the process, so now I am finishing up what I started, leveling the dimples and planting grass etc….
Following that and needless to say the river struck with vengeance and my neighbor sighed with relief not to mention myself. However the flow was now constricted in this area and the flow rate intensified as you can imagine and for the first time started to lap over to another neighbor property further down and opposite from me. He is not impressed. He is now holding me responsible and has instigated this inquiry with the municipality.
His argument, if the municipality consents to my alterations/landscaping, then he will hold them responsible for damages that might arise from this, (which really got the municipality up in arms). I have had 5 inspections, all reporting things to be in order, but one high official/5 Star General, however convinced by my neighbor (whom has not come to inspect) that I have obstructed the river and is the main cause of this problem.
Through our telephonic conversation, which was difficult, for I could only manage to get a few “but’s†in between each breath she took, to continue this onslaught of how wrong I was, I felt I was getting nowhere with this and allow her to vent until it became evident she was waiting for a response. In which I replied “Please come round and have a look for yourself†and a few possible times were arranged depending on her schedule. So I wait until then.
Now this situation, I have no idea on how to address or what to expect and will most likely deal with each step at a time, but some ideas will be most welcome. I do not want a war but would like to settle things amicably, however, love thy neighbor has gone out the window
Regards
Peter
For the rest please refer to POST "Telkom technical joke" by Dave A.
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