Flooding and Slips – Know your Rights and Responsibilities

With the recent flooding and slip events experienced by Auckland and in various regions of the North Island, landowners need to be aware what their responsibilities are to their neighbours and what rights they might have.

Under the common law there is a natural right of support between owners of land. This imposes a duty to avoid doing anything on your land which could cause neighbouring land to be damaged or subside.

A common example of loss of support is where a landowner removes trees from a slope on their property and this results in a slip to the neighbouring land above after a heavy rainfall event such as the ones experienced during February 2023.

Liability for the damage caused is strict, meaning that negligence does not need to be proven in order to claim compensation. Even if the cause of the damage to the neighbouring land was due to an unknown fault in a drainage system for example, the owner who installed the drainage system is still liable for the damage caused. It is not a defence to liability that Council gave consent to the landowner to undertake the works which caused the loss of support.

There is also a separate common law duty to exercise reasonable care for the protection of neighbouring land and structures whilst carrying out excavation work. Failure to do so could result in liability for negligence. Councils also owe a duty of care to inspect foundation work and buildings during construction, and where there is a failure to fulfil that duty, the Council could be liable for negligence where damage arises as a result of that failure.

If you would like to better understand your rights and obligations please get in touch with the author or another member of our property team.