pipes

Sherry - Could you provide more info? You state that this pipe is located below your townhouse – what kind of pipe is it – water line, sewer line, something else? Does the pipe serve only your unit and none of other town home(s) in your building? How is it known to be sagging? By Master policy are you referring to the insurance purchased by the HOA for the buildings and such? Thanks-Bonnie

Hi Sherry,

If you can locate a section of drain pipe somewhere in your home, under the sinks, behind the cabinets, wherever, check it out. Is it a black plastic pipe?

If so, it may be made of Acrylonitrile Butadine Styrene, ABS for short. There was a lawsuit against the manufacturer of this polymer that was used by various pipe manufacturers to make black plastic ABS drain pipes. Some of the pipe manufacturers were Polaris, Apache, Gable and Phoenix. If you can find some piping, write down whatever words, numbers and letters you see on it.

In the lawsuit, it was shown that the polymer wasn't blended property and at locations where two sections of pipe were glued together, the pipe would crack. That caused leakage of waste water which would undermine the pipe if it was underground or leak into the walls if the pipe was inside the home.

My HOA has the Polaris drain pipes in our homes. Unfortunately, we paid for two repairs ourselves before I learned about the lawsuit by searching the Internet. Since then, we have registered with the company in Portland, Oregon that handles the settlement payments from the lawsuit. It's a lot of forms and paperwork, but well worth it.

Now if we suspect an ABS pipe leak, our plumbing contractor, who also had to register with the people in Oregon, sends a video camera down the drain line to videotape the leak. If it's right where all the other ones were, at a junction of two pipes, the folks in Portland approve and pay for the repair. The bills go directly from the contractor to the settlement people and our HOA and homeowner pay nothing.

You can Google search for information about ABS pipe lawsuit to find out more. It may or may not pertain to your situation, but it's worth checking out before doing all the repairs. Once you do the repairs yourself, they won't reimburse you for the costs.

In regards to who is responsible for your underground drain pipes, you'd need to check your governing documents. In my HOA, which is also townhouses, the owner is responsible for any water lines or drain pipes that are inside the airspace of their unit. The water lines and drain lines that are under the ground or inside common walls are the responsibilty of the HOA.

Good luck.