Can rainwater downpipe just run off onto driveway

[britishboy7]

Our neighbours (not attached, they are slight higher up as houses on a hill) have just had a porch finished and the downpipe finishes on their driveway so all rainwater from their porch roof will naturally run straight onto our property. Is this correct?

Only asking as I’m currently planning a porch too, and 2 builders have said will need to dig out/or route downpipe into an existing drain.

Can a downpipe just terminate onto a block paved driveway?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Where did the rainwater that's draining off the new roof go before?

 

[Mottie]

Will you really get that much run-off from a porch roof?

 

[britishboy7]

Where did the rainwater that's draining off the new roof go before?

Nowhere, the downpipe was fitted when the new porch was built

 

[britishboy7]

Will you really get that much run-off from a porch roof?

I wouldnt imagine so, was just asking as we are planning similar and builders had said we’d need to run our downpipe into an actual drain.
If we can run off onto our driveway (facing down towards next doors flower beds) then it saves us some hassle

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Nowhere, the downpipe was fitted when the new porch was built

It must have gone somewhere.

As an aside the builders should technically be draining into a small soakaway or french drain or a flower bed as you allude to, not into the existing drains, though if there's a handy rwp nearby ....

 

[wessex101]

I might be wrong but I seem to remember something like a roof under 6m2 is not required to have rainwater drainage. Possibly in the Building Regulations or The Building Act?
Although if the porch is exempt from Building Regulations you can do what you want anyway.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Sure, but you're still not allowed to tap into the mains.

 

[^woody^]

You can't just discharge straight into the ground next to a building as that could affect the foundations. Well you could for a new porch that is not built under building regulations, but you should not.

You can discharge onto the surface if that is then dispersing over a wide area before soaking into the ground.

A landowner can't discharge water from a gutter or drain over the boundary. Normal surface run off is OK.

 

[Dontblamethetools]

Where did the rainwater that's draining off the new roof go before?

I'm no expert but I think the answer to this is the same place it's going now!

 

[clifford1]

There are thousands of acres of empty land where the rain just lands and then soaks or runs away somewhere. Then someone builds a shed and there becomes a need to have gutters, downpipes, and somewhere special for the rain to go.
Unless it has a thatched roof, and then it just goes where the rain happily went before there was a building at all.