Question:  Our construction company owns a warehouse near Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. Last year the owners of the neighboring warehouse paved their parking lot. Since the paving of the parking lot, our warehouse gets flooded every time there is any rainfall. The owners of the neighboring warehouse say that they will do nothing because all of the other warehouses in the area have paved their parking lots. Can we require the owners of the neighboring warehouse to correct this problem?

Answer:  Yes. The general rule is that a property owner has no obligation to prevent the natural flow of rainfall on his property from flooding a neighboring property. Since the early decision by the British House of Lords (equal to our Supreme Court) in Rylands v. Fletcher (1868), however, a property owner has been held strictly liable for any improvements to the property that cause flooding of a neighboring property.

In Rylands v. Fletcher, the property owner constructed a reservoir on his land. The reservoir burst and flooded a neighboring property. The House of Lords ruled that, even though the property owner did nothing wrong, the neighboring property owner under strict liability could recover flooding damages.

Another example of strict liability is a property owner operating on his property an ultrahazardous activity like a dynamite manufacturing plant. If a neighboring property owner suffers damages due to a dynamite explosion, there is strict liability for those damages and a showing of fault is not required.

Therefore, similar to Rylands v. Fletcher, if the flooding in your warehouse is due to the paving of the parking lot, the fact that all of the other parking lots in the area are also paved is no defense to strict liability for diversion of the natural flow of rainfall. A court could order the owners of the neighboring warehouse to correct this flooding problem — that is, erect a barrier around the parking lot. In addition, a court could order the owners of the neighboring warehouse to pay for any repair costs or other flooding damages you have sustained.