Section 1338.- Restrictions imposed by law on the rights of an owner of immovable property need not be registered.

Such restrictions cannot be removed or modified by a juristic act unless such act be made in writing and registered by the competent official.

Restrictions imposed in the public interest can neither be removed nor modified.

 

Section 1339.- The owner of a piece of land is bound to take the water that flows naturally on to it from higher land.

Water that flows naturally on to lower land and is necessary to such land may be retained by the owner of the higher land only to such extent as is indispensable to his land.

 

Section 1340.- The owner of a piece of land is bound to take water coming to it from the higher land in consequence of the artificial drainage of the higher land, if before the drainage the water flowed naturally on to his land.

If any damage is suffered by reason of such artificial drainage, the owners of the lower lands may, without prejudice to any claim for compensation, require the owner of the higher land, at the latter’s expense, to carry the drainage right through the lower lands to a public waterway or drain.

 

Section 1341.- The owner of an immovable property must not construct roofs or other structures which cause rain water to fall upon the adjoining property.

 

Section 1342.- No well, pond, cesspool or receptacle for manure or refuse may be dug within two metres of the boundary line.

No ditch or excavation for laying underground water pipes or similar installations may be made nearer to the boundary line than one half of the depth of such ditch or excavation provided always that it may be made at a distance of one metre or more.

In any case when the works mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs are carried out near the boundary line, due care must be taken to prevent earth or sand falling in, or water or filth from percolating through.

 

Section 1343.- Land may not be excavated or overloaded in such manner as to endanger the stay of the soil of an adjoining piece of land unless adequate measures are provided for preventing any injury.

 

Section 1344.- Fences, walls, hedges or ditches, which serve as a boundary, are presumed to belong to the owners of the adjoining properties in common.

 

Section 1345.- When a hedge, or a ditch, which is not used as a drain, belongs to the owners of two adjoining pieces of land in common, each of the owners is entitled to cut down the hedge or fill up the ditch to the boundary line provided he builds a wall or erects a fence along the boundary line.