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Water, Snow, or Ice Precipitating Onto Adjoining Premises

Adjoining land owners, who own lands that share common boundaries have mutual rights, duties, and liabilities.  The reciprocal rights and obligations of adjoining landowners existed at common law but is modified by various state laws and court decisions.  When objects or substances persistently fall, drop, or are blown onto adjacent land causing property damage, one may be entitled to legal relief.

A neighbor who maintains their property in such a way as to cause harm to an adjoining piece of land may be found responsible for any damage that results.  Examples include:

  • A pile of dirt that slides down to a property below
  • Water, snow, or ice precipitating onto adjoining premises
  • A smokestack that deposits cinders and other substances on a nearby property
  • A portion of a retaining wall falling onto an adjoining property
  • A pile of lumber falling onto a neighbor’s property
  • Dust and weeds blow from a farm onto adjoining land

An owner of land situated over other lands is liable for water which flows onto lower land which he or she has, by artificial means, discharged in a manner that unreasonably damages the lower landowner[i].  A property owner, although not ordinarily required absolutely to prevent the rainwater falling upon his or her building from flowing onto adjacent land, must use at least ordinary care and reasonable means to prevent the use of his or her property from interfering with the use and enjoyment of his or her neighbor’s property.[ii].  However, a property owner may not with impunity direct or negligently permit piped water to flow from his or her premises to those of an adjoining owner to the latter’s damage[iii]. Further, a landowner is liable where water, instead of being precipitated on the adjoining land, is allowed to congeal and freeze and fall thereon in the form of ice[iv].  A claim against the government can also be asserted where the government’s action causes water to be super induced onto private property, and the water destroys the land’s usefulness.

[i] Martin v. Flanagan, 818 So. 2d 1124 (Miss. 2002)

[ii] Dauberman v. Grant, 198 Cal. 586, 246 P. 319, 48 A.L.R. 1244 (1926); Brownsey v. General Printing Ink Corp., 118 N.J.L. 505, 193 A. 824 (N.J. Sup. Ct. 1937); Brown v. Gessler, 191 Or. 503, 230 P.2d 541, 23 A.L.R.2d 815

[iii] Ackerhalt v. National Sav. & Trust Co., 244 F.2d 760 (D.C. Cir. 1956)

[iv] Swartz v. Beach, 229 F. Supp. 2d 1239 (D. Wyo. 2002).


Inside Water, Snow, or Ice Precipitating Onto Adjoining Premises