What is the name of your state?NY
I have a ditch running through my yard that the county has used to run water they collect from the road in side of road ditches and divert to my ditch to be disposed of. They do not maintain my ditch and it is filling up every year with road dirt and then proceeds to flood my yard. April '05 we had severe flooding in the county and were declared a disaster area. The county has not done anything to help with this situation for the past 16 years and have been here to clean the ditch once. Since they are arbitrarily using me and my ditch to dispose of the water they are collecting from the road as well as from neighboring property and I do not want this ditch and haven't for the past 16 years do I have any recousre in suing them for the usage of this ditch? We have simply asked them to join 2 exixting ditches on the opposite side of the road as this would eliminate the problem and are being stonewalled. By the way the river flooded in what was a "100 yr" flood....I live on a hill and had as much damage from the water in the ditch as some who live on the river! The next time it floods the water will be in my basement adn well as eroding away my yard. The only thing on the opposite side of the road is my barn and pasture land.... and there would be no disturbing andy neighboring property as I own 1200' on both sides of this road. I was told by FEMA that sometimes the only way to get anything done is to embarrass the politicians at the local level to try and get as much public awareness as possible to my rpoblem. I know this has been longwinded so thanks for listening...my ?'s are would I be able to sue them in court (small claims at first) for my having to maintain this ditch and dispose of the water they are collecting (by the way the disth is appx 300' long of which the first 25' are on the county ROW the remainder is on me) and can I get an injuction for them to stop them using my ditch? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Ther is no Easement on record as I have an Abstact of Title dating back to 1850 on theis land and the county never obtained the rights to this ditch they just attached a pipe to it and started using it...with NO maintance of it. Thanks!
I have a ditch running through my yard that the county has used to run water they collect from the road in side of road ditches and divert to my ditch to be disposed of. They do not maintain my ditch and it is filling up every year with road dirt and then proceeds to flood my yard. April '05 we had severe flooding in the county and were declared a disaster area. The county has not done anything to help with this situation for the past 16 years and have been here to clean the ditch once. Since they are arbitrarily using me and my ditch to dispose of the water they are collecting from the road as well as from neighboring property and I do not want this ditch and haven't for the past 16 years do I have any recousre in suing them for the usage of this ditch? We have simply asked them to join 2 exixting ditches on the opposite side of the road as this would eliminate the problem and are being stonewalled. By the way the river flooded in what was a "100 yr" flood....I live on a hill and had as much damage from the water in the ditch as some who live on the river! The next time it floods the water will be in my basement adn well as eroding away my yard. The only thing on the opposite side of the road is my barn and pasture land.... and there would be no disturbing andy neighboring property as I own 1200' on both sides of this road. I was told by FEMA that sometimes the only way to get anything done is to embarrass the politicians at the local level to try and get as much public awareness as possible to my rpoblem. I know this has been longwinded so thanks for listening...my ?'s are would I be able to sue them in court (small claims at first) for my having to maintain this ditch and dispose of the water they are collecting (by the way the disth is appx 300' long of which the first 25' are on the county ROW the remainder is on me) and can I get an injuction for them to stop them using my ditch? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Ther is no Easement on record as I have an Abstact of Title dating back to 1850 on theis land and the county never obtained the rights to this ditch they just attached a pipe to it and started using it...with NO maintance of it. Thanks!