A builder built a new house on a lot next door to my house and now I notice that when we have heavy rains, water drains off that lot onto my land, and I'm afraid I'm going to start getting water in my basement. What are my rights?

There are cases which hold that that one cannot create an unreasonable drainage of water onto another's property. So the question is whether or not the way the lot next door was developed was unreasonable so as to cause the drainage onto your lot. That of course is a fairly fact intensive inquiry depending upon where the lot is in relationship to you, i.e. is it up the hill from you, on level ground, is there a ledge, physical things of that nature. You may well want to start with speaking to the building inspector because very often there are regulations affecting the construction of homes in a city or town which require that the drainage from the house be channeled properly so as to not cause a problem such as you speak of. The building inspector may require that the builder take additional steps in order to insure that the drainage is not onto your property and require that the drainage to be drained to the street or to provide for a drywell or other on-site drainage improvement. If it was determined that the drainage was unreasonable, you would have a right to sue the builder for the diminution in value of your property. If the house is sold you may also be able to look to the current owner because the drainage is a private nuisance which a property owner is responsible for. Even if the builder is a trust or corporation or other entity you may be able to sue the owner of the company individually because the activity that he engaged in is called a tort for which he can have personal liability even if the owner or contractor was an entity which normally shields personal liability. You could also try to get a mandatory injunction requiring the owner of the lot to take the actions necessary in order correct the drainage problem. So you are not without rights but it may be time consuming and costly to enforce them.