Every spring as the snow starts to melt, Joe Messinaâs backyard in Carleton Heights turns into a pond.
Every spring as the snow starts to melt, Joe Messina’s backyard turns into a pond.
Sometimes, the water gets so deep he can paddle his kids around in a canoe.
This year, the Carleton Heights resident is worried that his basement will flood because of the unusually large snowfall Ottawa received this winter.
“I was afraid of a year like this,” says Messina, looking at the small mountain of snow his neighbours have built up against his backyard fence. “This could be serious for me because when the snow melts, the water’s got nowhere to go.”
The trouble for Messina started five years ago when two new homes were built behind his property. Now he hopes a new city bylaw will help stop the flooding by forcing his rear neighbours to divert water from their properties away from his backyard.
Under the city’s drainage bylaw, introduced last autumn, property owners can be fined up to $10,000 a day if they make alterations to their properties that result in flooding of neighbouring properties. The heavy fines can be avoided if the owner fixes the problem promptly.
However, the bylaw also stipulates that if the owner refuses to address the problem, the city has the power to fix it and charge the owner for the cost, as well as a 15-per-cent administration fee.
Coun. Gord Hunter says the bylaw came about because an increasing number of homeowners are making changes to their properties that run counter to original subdivision designs.
“When people sign a subdivision agreement upon taking possession of a home, they agree not to alter the drainage patterns,” Hunter explains.
“But let’s say they do some landscaping and put in a garden shed or a swimming pool that encroaches into drainages areas. That creates a problem for neighbours upstream from the alteration because water from their properties can’t get to catch-basins in the ground,” said the Knoxdale-Merivale councillor.
The city receives about 4,000 calls every spring about drainage problems, according to the city. No one has been fined under the bylaw yet.
Dave McCartney, the city’s manager of wastewater and drainage services, says the bylaw was designed to address the kind of flooding Messina's property is exposed to every year.
“This bylaw is meant to deal with flooding where it’s really affecting someone else’s property to the extent that they can’t enjoy their property, or it’s causing flooding of their house, damage to city property or is a public safety hazard,” McCartney says.
McCartney admits, however, that the large amount of snow Ottawa received this winter will make it difficult for city inspectors to determine immediately whether any flooding is the result of property alterations or simply the melting snow.
“If water starts to pond, the cause may just be ice and snow, which is beyond the control of anybody,” he says.
“But it will tell us that there might be a potential problem which will show up once the snow’s gone and we get a big rainfall.”
McCartney says he has a backlog of complaints he plans to address now that the city has the power to order property owners to fix drainage problems.
Greg James, vice-president of insurance company Smith Petrie Carr & Scott, says most home insurance plans include liability coverage where actions taken by homeowners that affect their neighbours are covered.
However, James says that in cases where a homeowner is negligent and fails to exercise the degree of care considered reasonable under the circumstance – such as not removing snow – liability coverage would not apply.
In addition, James points out that floods caused by melting snow are not covered by home insurance plans.
“Most insurance companies view flooding as a maintenance issue or a construction flaw,” he says.
James says he expects to see a rise in inquiries concerning moisture in basements as the snow continues melting.
He adds that homeowners can minimize moisture damage by removing snow from basement window wells and shoveling melting snow six to eight feet away from house foundations.