Homeowners near Huntersville deal with water runoff

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — A group of homeowners near Huntersville dread days like Thursday.

They live on New Haven Drive near Historic Pottstown just outside Huntersville.

Residents say it used to be very rural.

“This was the wild frontier,” a homeowner, Bee Jay Caldwell, said. “This was just wide open space.”

But the last few years, new houses keep popping up.

Neighbors told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke that, until something changes, heavy rain means a lot of runoff right onto their properties.

“We’re just going to be inundated with water and we need help,” said Caldwell.

“I tried the French drain, but that didn’t work. The water just came right on running,” said Caldwell.

So she built a trench to divert the water.

“But some days when it’s a lot of those fast-moving showers, it still runs and I just don’t go look in the basement,” said Caldwell.

Neighbors would like something done about it. But the question is who?

They’re in an unincorporated part of the County, but they’re part of Huntersville’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.

If the runoff was from the road or ditch maintenance, it would be a question for NCDOT.

If it was from houses under construction, Caldwell and her neighbors could turn to Mecklenburg County which would look at Huntersville’s town rules for erosion control to see if the developer was following them.

But in this case the issue is with houses that are already built.

So it’s a private issue between citizens. Homeowner versus homeowner.

Since it’s a private issue, Stoogenke says:

- Start by asking the homeowner responsible for the runoff to address the situation.

- As always, do that in writing.

- Maybe you even want to offer to pay for some of the measures to address the problem.

- If that doesn’t work, you can always talk to a lawyer to see if you have a winning case. Just remember, in North Carolina, your neighbor isn’t usually liable unless he/she acted unreasonably. The law in South Carolina is similar, except that it looks at whether your neighbor “artificially” diverted water onto your property and other factors.

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