Drainpipe found flooding our home

This past year we found a drainpipe within one foot of our property coming from our next door neighbor. The pipe was installed before our home was built and purchased. It is also noteworthy that this 4'' black pipe was installed under our neighbors driveway and not noticed until the pipe cap blew off from to much pressure. Our neighbor upon this discovery stated he had permission from the developer, who also presided on the HOA board. Well, there are two problems. One our property has sustained terrible flooding and our neighbors have name the flooding after our last name. Second the developer is friends with our neighbor and has attributed the flooding to our built in pool. Which is in our backyard and nowhere near the drainpipe? Do we have any recourse, has our HOA by ignored this problem giving special treatment to my neighbor? We have the architectual review board within our HOA but our neighbor was the chief officer and seems he thinks where overeacting, he stated if I plug the pipe coming from my home that our yard will still recieve his water due to slight downhill sloping. We disagree, diverting water on our property could be a civil matter. Can anyone help us.

stevef4

Steve,

This is going to boil down to what the State law is. There may be something saying that the rain water can not be directed off of the property. If there is and a county inspector agrees with you, then it won't matter if the Association approved the pipe or not. The neighbor will have to move it. However, you will need to make a complaint to the county to have it inspected.

If the county says it's fine and you suffer damage from flooding the Association will not get involved as it is a neighbor/neighbor dispute. Since your neighbor is pointing to your swimming pool as the issue, you know where he stands. Therefore, the issue would probably have to settled in court. You would be bringing your neighbor to court, not the Association.

As Janet pointed out. Start with the County.

Tim

Hi Steve:

Who was the reply letter from?

Depending on state statutes and situations sometimes the HOA is the party responsible to take certain actions. However, if they fail to take appropriate actions in the best interest of the HOA and the homeowners, when certain situations come to light … then the HOA incurs liability. Failure to take action to protect the HOA would then possibly be a violation of fiduciary duty or other violation. In situations like this the homeowner(s) then would be able to take action against the HOA.

Did you check with you local planning department yet? You might be able to file a complaint there and avoid further complications if is a local violation.