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Posted By ElizabethR6 on 01/01/2024 6:35 AM
Let me ask you this.... based on my research it seems pretty common for HOA's to own and maintain the storm drains located within their common areas. In your experience is this correct for the most part? We have someone in our neighborhood making it seem like this is incredibly rare and he's very worried about possible costs to completely REPLACE these storm drains at some point soon. I keep having them inspected and these stormwater maintenance companies basically think I'm nuts. They keep telling me that it would be extremely unlikely we'd see a complete failure for like 100 years on average since in general they're very durable and our neighborhood is relatively new. They have indicated that if we're going to experience a problem at any point a more likely culprit would be a clog of some kind, which is why the neighborhood is/has been saving for unforeseen repairs and why we do regular maintenance/inspections (not just for stormwater drains but for anything that may come about unexpectedly for the neighborhood) This guy is really spreading a lot of fear in the neighborhood and I want to make sure that while I can't guarantee 100% that we won't experience a complete failure, I still feel like we don't have anything that's rare and that we're doing everything we can to make sure things stay in tip/top shape. Any other thoughts?
We have a stormwater council in charge of our stormwater drains and our drainage ponds that is run concurrently with our master HOA. In effect, the HOA owns the stormwater system not only for the HOA, but also for an apartment complex and a commercial area that were platted with our community. It is VERY common here in Florida for the HOA or a CDD (separate tax entity that the developer creates so they don't have to pay the development costs up front) to own the stormwater drainage system.
We have a separate reserve account for our stormwater council. The reserve study shows the expected life of our large drainage pipes and outflows to be nearly 100 years. That being said, we did have to dig up and replace on pipe last year that was cracked and had collected debris that was blocking drainage. It cost about $50,000 for that small section - and we were told it was probably cracked when it was installed by the developer.
You are doing all the right things if you are getting the pipes inspected every year, and as long as you are putting money aside in the reserves, then this is a non-issue. You just need to stay on message and explain to anyone that asks that it's not unusual to own the drainage system, you are making sure it's maintained, and there's nothing to worry about.
We have gone through many hurricanes with huge amounts of water since our community was built and none of that has ever damaged the system. Unless there's an earthquake, what does this guy think is going to happen?
Our county would never accept our stormwater system. Why should they when we are privately paying for something they would have to maintain if they took it over?