What is a Riparian owner

A riparian owner is the person, or people, with watercourses on, next to or under their property. Riparian owners have the responsibility for maintenance of these watercourses.

Riparian responsibilities usually lie with the person who owns the land or property. Sometimes it is the tenant depending upon the agreement in place.

Where a watercourse forms a boundary, the riparian ownership responsibilities are shared equally with the owners of the land on the opposite bank. This is unless property deeds or land registry or show other arrangements.

You have the right to protect your property from flooding and erosion, but you must:

• get permissions to build anything in or around the watercourse
• not build anything which could divert water and increase flood risk to other people’s property, or you may have to pay damages

Responsibilities of a riparian owner

Are to:

• Maintain the watercourse and to clear any obstructions (natural or otherwise) so the normal flow of water is not impeded
• Ensure natural flow from your upstream neighbour can transfer downstream without obstruction, pollution or diversion
• Maintain the beds and banks of naturalised watercourse in its natural state on sections of open channel watercourse
• Maintain any structures owned by the riparian owner (or situated within their land) such as culverts, trash screens, weirs
• Ensure that any formal or informal flood defences are not breached by any works undertaken within the land holding
• Maintain reasonable access to allow for ongoing future maintenance.

Further information and advice is available about owning a watercourse on the gov.uk website.