My neighbour flooded my flat but says I have to pay: DEAN DUNHAM replies

My neighbour's drains backed up and flooded my house. He says I should claim on my insurance but I think it's his responsibility to pay. Who is right? 

A.H., via email.

Dean Dunham replies: Your ability to hold your neighbour to account will depend on who is legally responsible for the drains blockage and whether a court could be convinced that it is fair, just and reasonable for your neighbour to be held responsible for the harm that you have sustained.

Your first port of call is to ascertain where the root cause of the drain issue lies and this may involve hiring a drains company or calling out your local water authority. If the blocked drain only serves your neighbour’s property and is within their property boundary, they will be responsible for maintaining and repairing these drains to prevent blockages and potential flooding.

If the drain is shared between multiple properties, the responsibility is typically determined by a shared agreement between the property owners.

In some cases, the responsibility might fall on the water authority if the shared drain also connects to the public sewer system or if the cause of the blockage stems from drains located outside any property boundary, such as lateral drains, and the main sewers that collect wastewater from multiple properties.

If it transpires that the blocked drains are your neighbour’s sole responsibility, in these circumstances your neighbour should be footing the bill for the damage caused to your house. If he continues to refuse to do so, you could make a claim on his insurance policy. However, if the drains blocked up due to your neighbour’s failure to keep them maintained and clear, his policy is unlikely to provide cover. If this is the case, you could consider mediation.

Details on mediation services are on the Government website: gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/use-a-mediation-service.

If mediation does not work, or if your neighbour refuses to engage with this, you could try to claim on your insurance policy. If all else fails and as a last resort, you could take your neighbour to court and claim compensation for the damage. Here you will have to prove that your neighbour failed to take reasonable care to prevent the drains from blocking.

If the drain is shared between multiple properties, the responsibility is typically determined by a shared agreement between the property owners

I can't stand the jingle from the ice-cream van that parks outside my house

An ice-cream van parks outside my house and I can’t stand its jingle playing and engine running, sometimes for 20 minutes. Is there anything I can do? 

Debbie D., Epping.

Dean replies: There is something you can do under Section 62 of a law called the Control of Pollution Act 1974. Action may be taken if ice-cream van chimes sound after 7pm, or before midday, or if they are sounded at any time as to cause an annoyance.

The Department for Food and Rural Affairs also introduced a code of practice in 2013 on noise from ice-cream van chimes in England. This code of practice says no chimes should be operated that produce a noise level in any direction of more than 80 decibels. Also, the passage of music played should not last more than 12 seconds. The chimes should be played once only on the approach to each stopping place or ‘selling point’, only once when the van is stationary, and never at intervals of less than two minutes. The chimes should not be played more often than once every two hours in a particular length of street.

The code of practice also says that the chimes should not be played within 50 meters of areas where people may be especially sensitive to their sound, such as hospitals, places of worship on a Sunday and schools, during school hours.

You should first try to recruit some of your neighbours in making a complaint. Before making your complaint, gather evidence of the annoyance, preferably several video or sound recordings along with a diary on when they have occurred in recent times. Alongside those who join you, explain your issue to the ice-cream van owner and ask them to avoid the annoyance. If this is ignored, you will be able to make a complaint to your local authority.