There is no easement of right for an owner of higher land for water naturally to drain off over neighbouring lower land, and nor was an easement required. The doctrine of lost modern grant need not be applied. Although the higher land owner had no right, the owner of the lower land had no right to complain of such run off. The owner of the higher land had no right to come on to the other land to improve drainage, nor to require the owner of the lower land to maintain drains. The natural flow of water is an incident of the ownership of the land and is inherent in it, and as such is not capable of being the subject-matter of an easement.
Citations:
Gazette 27-Oct-1999, Times 10-Nov-1999, [2000] 1 WLR 842, [2000] 1 All ER 22
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Lambert and Others v Barratt Homes Ltd (Manchester Division) and Another QBD 17-Feb-2009
The claimant sought damages in nuisance and negligence saying that in constructing a new housing estate, they had altered the land in such a way as to lead to the repeated flooding of their home.
Held: Both the developer and the council were . .
Cited – Lambert and Others v Barratt Homes Ltd and Another CA 16-Jun-2010
The claimants had bought houses from the first defendants, who in turn had bought the land from Rochdale, the second defendants. In preparing the land for construction the first defendants were said to have negligently filled in a drainage culvert . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.84539