Increased Stormwater Runoff From New Construction And Other Development? Your Legal Claims

As building construction and other land development activities increase in Georgia, complaints from adjacent landowners to the effects such construction and land development has on their properties will increase.  Although a certain amount of inconvenience for adjacent landowners is to be expected from nearby construction and development, oftentimes builders and developers go beyond what is reasonable and violate the adjacent landowners legal rights by causing flooding of their properties that is caused by the alteration of the land that is being developed by the builder or developer. If you are in fact a landowner experiencing flooding or other damages from nearby construction or other development, document the flooding with numerous videos and photographs of every incident of flooding. Make sure your videos and photographs show where the excessive stormwater drainage is originating from so that a jury will be able to easily understand the source of the stormwater drainage. Additionally, the videos and photographs should record the date and time of the flooding events. Second, contact the local governing body responsible for issuing any building permits and provide to them a written complaint by letter or email notifying them of the damages you are sustaining and asking that the at fault party remedy the drainage problem immediately. Third, send a written complaint to the at fault party requesting that it take immediate steps to stop the storm water runoff onto your property from occurring in the future. Depending on the circumstances, put a time limit on the amount of time the at fault party has to remedy the drainage problem. Fourth, consult an attorney if you do not receive a reasonable resolution to your stormwater drainage problem. Please contact Rumsey & Ramsey, a Dunwoody, Georgia law firm, at (770) 394-9400 to discuss your property damage claims against a builder or developer.