A Bedford woman is suing neighbors who she claims flooded her property and then abandoned their place.
Candice Lalicata accused Dream Farm LLC and owners Julie and William Harding of trespass and creating a public nuisance, in a June 12 complaint filed in Westchester Supreme Court.
“Excess stormwater runoff has done significant damage to plaintiff’s property, including plaintiff’s family home and farm buildings,” the complaint states.
Lalicato bought a 5,100-square-foot country colonial and 4.4 acres at 168 Indian Hill Road for $2.2 million in June 2021, according to a county property record. The estate includes a stable where she cares for a horse and two donkeys she rescued.
Dream Farm bought a 6.1-acre vacant property on 156 Indian Hill Road for $1.75 million in October 2023. The business is based at an address on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that is associated with the Hardings.
Shortly after Dream Farm bought the property, the Hardings allegedly brought in heavy equipment to dig two trenches, without first submitting plans or obtaining permits.
The trenches are about three feet deep and hundreds of feet long. One spans the front of the Hardings’ property, parallel with Indian Hill Road, and slopes toward Lalicato’s property. The other trench runs perpendicular to the street and down a steep hill at the back of the property.
After excavation was completed last October, water inundated her front yard, infiltrated her house, flooded a stable and barn and overflowed a pond, according to the complaint.
Lalicato claims she has not seen such severe flooding in the three years she has lived there.
She says Julie Harding acknowledged the problem on March 24 and promised to take care of it, but did nothing.
On April 3, her attorney demanded that the Hardings take emergency action to redirect stormwater away from her property, the complaint states.
Instead, the Hardings allegedly denied having dug the trenches and have refused to redirect the runoff. Their lawyer purportedly insisted that the couple had done nothing than more pick up sticks and leaves to clean up their yard.
“This statement is astonishing,” the complaint states. “Any observer could see that the defendants made use of a backhoe and … neighbors have reported that they saw the heavy equipment at work.”
Flooding has continued, according to the complaint, and the Hardings appear to have abandoned their property, leaving remnants of demolished structures and overgrown grass.
Lalicata wants the court to order the Hardings to pay for unspecified damages and restore their property to the condition before the trenches were dug.
Efforts to find contact information for Dream Farm and the Hardings, to ask for their side of the story, failed.
Lalicata is represented by White Plains attorney James R. Anderson.
