Watercourses and Ditches: What are the Risks of Building your Home Close to One of Them?

Isabelle Landry, our partner in the area of municipal law, spoke to the team at La Facture, a show on the CBC French Network, about a situation involving a couple for whom she is not the legal representative.

The municipality of Saint-Jude would like to demolish the couple’s brand new house, which it considers to be located too close to a watercourse without respecting the riparian buffer strip.

Is the Municipality Right?

As part of the interview, Isabelle explained that protective measures would apply to a watercourse, but not to a ditch.

“Generally, a house must be located ten to fifteen metres from the watercourse’s protective zone. […] Apart from demolishing the house in whole or in part so as to comply with this protective measure, there aren’t many solutions if it really is a watercourse,” states Isabelle Landry.

But is it really a watercourse? Watch the show in full to find out what happened next – click here. (in French only).