Hello, we privately rent a house that is on quite a steep hill. At the upper end of the property is our back garden, which for the majority of the year is a no go zone. At the top border of the property is a 15 ft retaining wall (other side is residents car park that is owned by the local council). This wall has 2 drainage pipes where whenever it rains the water from the car park goes down the drainpipes into my garden, making it waterlogged and sodden. We cant step on it due to the gradient, as it is probable we will slip. We thought there was just one drainage pipe, but found a second behind the shed which is now rotten as a result of the water. The Tenancy agreement states we have to keep the garden, including the shed, in a presentable state, which we are clearly failing. Do we have a course of action against the Council? I can see that, as they are above us we have to let them drain their water away, but it is making our garden unusable, and damaging the property. Also, who would have the course of action, me or the landlord? Cheers!

Hi, really hope someone can help me out here, a little back-ground on my story. Late Jan 2010 and it was a very cold winter, my house was flooded severely from the flat above, the actual cause of the flooding to the best of my knowledge was this: A mains water supply pipe to a header tank in the loft space had become frozen and uncoupled, when the ice started to thaw this mains water pipe started flooding the loft space, brought down the ceilings in the flat above mine, flooded that property and then brought my ceilings down, every room in my house was water damaged except one bedroom which was at the other end of the property. This flat was owned by a local housing association and had lay vacant for approx 6 years. My claim was all settled by my insurance however I had to pay £200 buildings and £200 contents excesses. As far as i know my insurance has still not recovered the cost of my claim from this housing association, in the last two weeks I've had an independent architect sent to my property to try to establish the cause or basically who was to blame. We gained access to the loft space and the independent architect was of the opinion that my flat (prior to me moving in) had joint use of this header tank in the loft with the flat above until my flat got a combi boiler installed (again prior to me moving in). He basically said that as far as the insurance recovering their money there was no-one to blame and that my insurance would need to cover their costs as would the housing association. He however suggested I may have a case to recover my excesses for several reasons, 1 - The property had lay vacant for such a long time and no maintenance had been carried out (neglegent) 2 - I had no access to the loft space as the only access was through the flat above. 3 - This architect discovered this mains water supply pipe can only be isolated from a stop-cock across the street from our flats, there is no way to shut off the water to the flat above on its own. The stop cock across the street shuts the four flats off in our block. ave spoken to a legal I have spoken to a legal advice line I get through my union and they have advised I would need to go through the small claims courts (Scotland) and I am unsure of this process or what I am required to do. Really hope this is enough info however if not please ask and thanks in advance for any help