Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Utah

My landscape architect talked about the law of adjacent support. He indicated that the land owner is required to retain their own water runoff if there is a change in the grade of the lot. Can you help me locate the specific language of this law and any other resource to help understand how this works in the State of Utah.


Asked on 5/09/12, 12:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mel Larew

Your rights derive from common law, i.e., not statutory law, so there may be no written "law" that applies. I

Common law is a law of "fairness" taking into account the rights and responsibilities of all parties and generally holds that where there is a wrong there is a corresponding remedy. It is defined and applied by judges in court rulings.

As for your case common law holds that "natural" run-off is not actionable, i.e., there is no remedy for damage caused by "natural" run-off. However, if someone changes a grade so that run-off course is changed to the detriment or damage to a neighboring land owner, there may be a remedy but that would be through a court or threatened court action.

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Answered on 5/09/12, 1:04 pm


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