Reasonable behaviour?

 Seems you've covered just about everything their Tamara, terrific. Suppose you could use a drainpipe leading to a barrel for watering plants. Perhaps they think they are doing you a favour.

But diplomacy & a big smile & a lean towards friendliness seems to be the order of the day.

Amazing what a big smile can do. My wife does it with me every time!!!!  

 I think asking them round to see the damage, after they have hosed  their roof is the best action. If they are unreasonable, which they already appear to be, the only course of action is an denuncia-smiling and all the diplomacy in the world won't work  if they are denying it.

I have read so many comments about how people want to live in a Spanish village, because they don't want to be contaminated by other expats, but also have read the stories of those who do, and get more grief than they bargained for!

Yes, good reply Tamara.  I'm afraid that with one of my Spanish neighbours I sometimes have to just zip it for the sake of maintaining our very good relations.  It's unassertive, but some things are too tricky.  Our neighbour's husband (I call him that because he's usually working away) likes to throw his cigarette butts down into our garden now and again.  I used to get quite riled thinking he might start a fire, what a cheek it was etc. Now I just pick them up if I find them, because it's something I can live with.  The water you describe, Scooby, I think I couldn't live with.  As a general rule I think it's best to be direct and quick with these sorts of things and not sit someone down as though you're going to be all serious with them.  If you catch them in the act, just a quick 'oh, can you stop doing that?' might be a start, but it's not easy.  All the best.

Dear all

Thanks for your responses. It's helped us just to talk about this! The facts are that it has only rained here 3 times this year; we did invite them round once to see what they had done but they insisted it was condensation (!); guttering wouldn't work as our terrace gets soaked up to a metre away from the wall, and we don't want to put metre-wide guttering up to catch it; doing the roof ourselves probably wouldn't be good enough - they now sometimes do it twice in a night; the big smile approach is our current approach but we feel they are taking the Mick; the roof is ours, but I didn't make it clear that we are on a hill and they are a couple of feet above us.

Eggcup - we feel you have a real understanding of our problem! Damn good suggestion, we'll try and catch them red-handed!

Scooby

I don't envy you this problem Scooby. But I don't understand why they are doing it? It can't get that dirty that it needs 'cleaning' twice a night! Is it that they are cleaning their own terrace and hence the water then goes on your roof? Strange indeed.

Hi Scooby,

I was reading a book about the famous poet Federico Garcia Lorca and another famous person within the book (I would have to search for my book to find the person's name)  had said that "the Spanish vice is envy" and as I live in a village in Granada I have come to believe this quote.  I know you do not want to have bad relations with your neighbours but you have a right to protect your property. We had to go to the police to stop the son of my neighbour climbing onto my roof terrace to get his ball back. It has not happened since. As the credit crisis has hit the country very bad and especially in villages there is literally no work I have also found that the locals want to charge the earth for jobs done and we have found to our cost that we have to pick and choose very carefully, and a lot of them are of the opinion that we are all rich. However there are lots of lovely people here and one village lady who lived and worked in the uk for 35 years helps out with beaurocratic problems we as foreigners may come across. I do hope you solve your problem.

regards kathy

This may a stupid idea (sometimes if one of us has a stupid idea it might lead to another person having a clever one), but if it comes to the crunch, and they will not stop after you've asked them again, another way might be to build a wall along the edge of your roof - even tell the neighbours that you're thinking of doing this, and ask for their advice on the best way to stop their water from coming down and landing on you.  You'd have to have a hole each end of the wall, leading into a drainpipe!  It would be very annoying to have to go to all this expense, but it's your roof and you can do what you like with it and maybe a wall of thin bricks about a metre high might catch most of the water, it depends on the arc of water.  Maybe even mentioning this might get them to stop...  I actually suspect that forking out on a wall is the 'Spanish way.'  We have often had to go to a lot of expense to protect ourselves from neighbours.  We built a fence all along our wall to stop the thieving Spanish neighbour below from helping himself to things from our garden and shed (it was also useful as there was a bit of drop, but I might not have done it if it hadn't been for him).  He'll be risking life and limb if he tries it now.  Asking him to stop thieving wouldn't have worked.

We have also heard the saying about 'envidia.'  A Spanish woman we bought property off many years ago told us that the villagers were very envious of her as she was well-off.  And that links in with our thieving neighbour; he coveted our things so he took them whenever he could.  In the countryside, we've had the 'linderos' (the Spanish word for neighbours in the countryside for the uninitiated) stealing little chunks of our land, or digging a trench across our entrance for their irrigation and if we just let that go, within 12 months apparently they would have gained the permanent right to do this, we would be unable to tarmac if we wanted and so on.  We had to get our lawyer to write a letter to make it clear the man had no right to do this and a Dutch neighbour very kindly filled in the trench for us, without us even asking as he was so livid about other things this neighbour had been doing to him.  

Sometimes it can be a bit like the Wild West and you have to stick up for yourself.  I was once told that the Spanish saw us British as the 'please and thank yous' (I don't know if it's true).  You know you're really integrating and getting on well with the language when you have your first full-blown row.  And I wouldn't worry too much about being liked; if you're decent then the decent people will like you and who cares what anyone else thinks?  In the worst case scenario, if your neighbours won't do the decent thing, they will no longer be your friends and the alternative to the wall will be what someone else mentioned, a denuncia. 

Hi eggcup,

I agree with you wholeheartedly, but if Scooby wants to put up a wall she/he will have to go to the Ayuntamiento to make sure it is legal as she may be playing right into her neighbours' hands, it happened to us but fortunately we got the correct papers.

Just to throw another idea in: what about putting some ugly plastic on the roof with a few bricks or something else heavy and ugly holding the plastic down?  The water will pool, but it may help to stop the water seeping through the roof and it means that the neighbours' view will be spoiled, whereas you won't be able to see it?  You could even arrange the plastic so that it caught a lot of the water, by propping it up at the edge of the roof, much the way that a wall would act, but a lot cheaper and temporary until they see sense?  Again, this is maybe a Plan B,C or D.

 In case anyone is following this post, the situation has taken a really sinister turn. We tried to talk to the neighbours again but they vehemently denied doing anything. It now seems that one of them is apparently putting petrol (among other things) down our chimney. The Spanish dream has gone and the once welcoming community has closed ranks on us.

Fearing for our safety, we feel we have no alternative but to leave. By the time we might have definate proof we may no longer have a house. If we happen to be in it if/when that happens, we may not live to tell the tale.

I am so sorry to hear that this has taken such a bad turn. Eventhough you do not have definite proof have you reported it to the police? Surely they will investigate having petrol poored down your chimney?

 @eos_ian

Our neighbours are highly respected members of the community and on first name terms with the local police. My concern when we had the ground floor full of petrol vapour was to ventilate it as soon as possible. I acted first, thought later but would probably do the same again (it's only happened once with petrol though there has been several instances of what I can only describe as a solvent). We simply don't feel the police would act. Our (other) neighbours have advised us not to make waves ("no hagan olas"), but when we said it makes it difficult for us they told us that we don't have to live here. We don't know if they mean this house, this town or Spain - but it has told us how much support we could expect from the community.

What a horrible nightmare;surely there is some organisation you can turn to for advice? Any ideas Johnx. I wouldn't hesitate to tell the police before there's a tragedy. Never mind the neighbours-what sort of people are they-what will they do if your house is on fire;have they no conscience? I would tell the local newspaper too. These people are giving Spain a bad name.

I hope someone helps you soon

"Terrible" is the word - this puts all neighbour tiffs in perspective. 

It's personal choice, but I would suggest you don't give in too easily - I would see if you can involve a local Spanish councillor to arbitrate and try to get to the cause of the problem.   Perhaps there is a genuine misunderstanding - he thinks you're after his wife or using his parking space or something.

Are you sure it was petrol?  Unless you are categorical it may be best to play this down a bit.  If you are not using the chimney you might have it capped for a few months.  I would ponder a CCTV system - easily and cheaply done and keep a close record and report this higher up the line if the local police don't take action.  Possibly befriend one of the village unemployed and get him to do a few jobs for you and see if you can find out what's going on.  A family chap who lives close and who takes an interest would be ideal.

You might let it slip that you're thinking about renting out the property out as a holiday let to Brits, giving them the message that they may end up be worse off.

Personally I wouldn't involve newspapers, as in my experience these people only think about selling newspapers and you might not get the write-up you expect and it may exacerbate the problem.

But sincere good luck with whatever you do,

 I would certainly consider putting in a cctv system that is very discreet. This may be the only way of catching them red-handed and could put an end to this very very quickly if you do catch them on camara. Nonetheless I would definitely report it to the police so that your complaints are on record. I assume you have spoken to them on various occasions but I would have a serious chat with them again and let them know that you won't make waves but Tsunamis if this behaviour continues, they are clearly bullying you. It is very odd to hear of this in village life, that neighbours are so uncooperative. I would also speak to your insurance company they  have a legal department that can chase them if it is clear that the damage has been provoked by your neighbour. ie if you have it on camara or damp marks always in the same place. I find it very strange that they would put petrol down the chimney as it is a semi detached is it not? They run the risk of burning down their own house too! I don't doubt your word but they must be really ignorant to do that. 

All this said I would sit down with them and state that you both know what the problem is... you are not going anywhere so its best to find a friendly solution to the water problem. Maybe eggcups idea of a wall is the solution.

By the way have you ever invited them for lunch? Sounds stupid given the situation but have you ever had a good relationship with them at any point?

 Thanks to all for the comments, ideas and  support.

Thanks for yours.  Totally guessing of course, but I wonder if their motive is that they want you to leave and sell up so that they can buy your property cheap in this current market?  Just think there has to be a reason.