It's all b/c of our neighbors who refuse to get the sewer drain fixed. Started last year with a sinkhole in their backyard, which meets the back corner of our garage. Our houses back up to a parking lot, so the two drains come together at a Y and not into another pipe. Work had been done to it a few years ago, but it was just rigged up and not properly fixed, b/c they didn't want to pay for it. (however they did buy a new car last year....)
Last summer lots of rain went through, neighbor asked if we had water in our basement. We didn't, and have never had a problem. Sinkhole is huge; they've dumped grass clippings, dirt, you name it into there - it's several feet deep. Later in the summer, we had spots of water from big rains and now this morning, inches of water in almost all the rooms. I called DH and he came home to help clean up some, but water keeps coming up through the drain.
DH called the city and someone was going to come out and assess, but I'm thinking they'll tell us we have to work it out w/the neighbor, possibly take them to housing court. I'm at work now, and I'm just scared of what I'll find when I go home at lunch. It just pisses me off so much that they're so cheap and neglectful of caring for the outside of their home. If the hole keeps getting bigger, it will most likely affect our garage too. Not cool.
I told DH he has to talk to them, b/c if I do, I will not be pleasant. WTF!!!! I'm praying the rain ends so the backup stops. I was at a loss of what to do this morning since I had a doctor's appt then had to be at work. So frustrating!
Re: Argh! Water in basement (long)
That sucks, bad. Our yard floods but we are afraid if we raise it (we are the lowest out of all of the yards around us) we might cause their houses/yards to flood and open us up to liability. But a frickin sinkhole?! Geezz negligence at its finest.
That stinks! I hope that you get it resolved. I have never heard of housing court though...you might have to fill me in on that. We are having our property surveyed because we are pretty sure our neighbors put their fence on our property, we already had the city tell us they won't touch issues between neighbors.
I know getting sewer lines fixed isn't cheap, but perhaps they should have held back on the new car so they could get that issue fixed.