Neighbour’s automatic garden watering system

[Joubert]

I am the director of a freehold company which has a number of flats in a purpose built mansion block.

One of the lower ground flats has a serious damp issue which has been addressed several times over the years at considerable cost by the building. The damp is coming through the floor and brickwork, rising and rotting the bricks.

The main wall of this flat adjoins the garden wall of a neighbour”s house. We are fairly confident that the main source of the damp is the automatic garden watering system in the neighbouring property which is on for considerable periods of time, far more than is required for a relatively small garden.

We now have to address this damp issue again and have had three quotes in the region of £80k.

Is there anything which we can do to to prevent the neighbour from leaving their watering system on for long periods of time? Any other comments would be gratefully received.

[scot22]

Have you tried discussing the problem and possible solutions with neighbours ?

Consider a good quality damp seal like Sovereign ?

[NaomiB]

The water shouldn't affect the wall of the flat. It's like rain but just a bit more of it.

[Joubert]

The water from the watering system is seeping into the soil under the dividing wall, saturating the earth and rising back up.

We spent £16k five years ago trying to rectify the issue which worked for a while then the issue came back. We are faced with a bill of £80k to have another go at it.

Other neighbours in the same street had a similar issue between their two properties. The cost to rectify the position was in the region of £90k and took six weeks.

My question is how do we request our neighbours to turn down down their watering system? We have tried before (and they are fully aware of the issue as last time we had to dig up their prized herbaceous border to access the walls) but still the cause remains.

[Gordon999]

Is the soil level around your house higher than the damp course level of brick walls. ?

[Landyman]

Other neighbours in the same street had a similar issue between their two properties. The cost to rectify the position was in the region of £90k and took six weeks.

Are you saying that the other neighbours in the street coincidentally had exactly the same problem with a neighbour allowing an excessive amount of ground water to be produced by their automatic watering system?

Or are you perhaps wrongly blaming the neighbour?

Is the ground water level naturally very high in the area?

Was the wall incorrectly constructed perhaps?

It just feels unlikely that a watering system would do what you have described.

[Section20z]

Seriously ??? If it's really the neighbours water then just dig a couple of meter deep trench along the boundary and put a French drain it.
£80k ? Someone's having a laugh with you