Being a good neighbor often means finding compromises, but sometimes that can come with a hefty price tag.

What would you do if your neighbor blamed you for his property flooding and expected you to foot the bill?

Would you take on the financial burden?

Or would you refuse because he’s unwilling to help himself?

In the following story, one homeowner grapples with this very situation.

Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for not wanting to spend several thousand dollars to fix my neighbor’s flooding issue?

Our houses sit on a hill right next to each other, where our backyards are the high point, and the land slopes down to our front yards.

My house also sits much higher than his, even though they are only about 25 feet apart.

The water from my roof goes directly to his property.

His house also sits in a bit of a bowl.

His land rises toward the front of his house before dropping off again, effectively trapping all the rainwater right around his house.

Last year, his basement flooded completely.

He already tried to fix the problem once, but it didn’t work.

In an effort to help, I had new gutters installed on my house.

The leader goes into what I thought was an existing dry well.

Apparently, it is only a small catch basin that does not hold much water.

In major storms, the catch basin overflows, and we are back to the water going directly to his house.

Now, his basement has flooded again, and he wants me to rectify the problem.

There is another fix, but he doesn’t feel it’s his responsibility to cover the costs.

He does not have French drains in his basement and said he does not want to break up his floor to install them.

His property really needs to be regraded, but it would be incredibly difficult and expensive.

It would be difficult to get machinery there, and he would likely have to destroy his driveway.

I could have a new dry well installed in my backyard to handle the overflow from bad storms, but doing it correctly would be a real financial hardship. It just seems a bit unfair.

Why should I have to bear all this cost when he is unwilling to do anything to improve his own situation?

Even if I install the dry well, there is no guarantee that it will solve the problem.

AITA?

It’s easy to see both sides, but the neighbor hasn’t done anything to help his problem.

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit suggested.

According to this person, it’s the neighbor’s problem.

This person suggests that universities use these scenarios for learning.

As this person points out, it may be dependent on where he lives.

Another person who suggests it may depend on his location.

It’s time to speak with an attorney.

From the sound of it, this may be a legal issue, so a lawyer can recommend a solution rather than going back and forth with the neighbor.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.