FL - Prior BOA made repairs on homeowner land; is successor BOD liable to continue maintenance?

I am in FL. 2 years ago, prior BOD approved installing underground drainage system in a homeowner's backyard (homeowner owned property) to alleviate flooding problem. No professional assessed the cause of flooding; BOD member who is an engineer made some drawings from which a contractor installed an underground drain and added 3 drain covers (1 in each of 3 adjoining homeowner properties).

Does this mean that even though the HOA did not have the responsibility for the work in the first place and "tried to help" a homeowner that now the HOA "owns" the problem. . .which, of course, now has recurred because the "drains" are full of mud and cannot be roto cleaned because of size? Estimates to replace are $4-5,000. Any ideas???

PS - The current BOD believes the problem to be caused by the homeowner completely covering her backyard area with concrete and building a garden retaining wall with very little open ground so there is basically nowhere for the water to go in rainy season.

Thanks, Brad. Our documents are silent as to the backyard improvements, however, my concern is the action of the prior board not only establishing a precedent but also putting an underground structure in place that we now own.

Hello, well all these weeks have gone by and we have basically gotten a "lawyer's letter" from our attorney. The letter only cites the issues we pointed out when we wrote him in the first place - it was not the HOA responsibility to address flooding in a unit owner's backyard, but the board did and built and installed it and we may have a responsibility now to maintain it.

Some of our board members have taken the position that the homeowner doesn't have the money to sue us so we should just say no, that the prior board was wrong and we are not going to pay anything. I don't agree because we did install it; but we certainly don't want responsibility going forward. Any suggestions about negotiating a settlement with the homeowner? Or offering to pay the cost of removing the drain and putting the homeowner back in original position?

Thanks, Roger, for your prompt reply! The only thing in writing are the minutes where the board made the decision in 2004 to make the "improvements', but the minutes do not even indicate how much the work cost. The homeowner has written to us stating that she was not consulted by the board regarding the work that was done - the board hired the contractor and supervised the work. I forgot to mention that although the main flooding issue is in one backyard (which by the way is entirely paved in concrete), but the board extended the underground drain pipes to 2 additional backyards and in doing so, crossed part of the common area. The so-called drain is really a nightmare - some sort of 55 gallon container was buried and various pipes attached to it. Of course, because the grates at the ground level of the pipes are quite wide, the drum and drain lines have filled up with dirt and debris. We initially thought all that was needed was roto-rooter, but another contractor has said that will just tear up the lines and he pitched a $5000 drainage job. I do not agree with that quote. I think if the homeowner took out the slab and concrete walls around the edges, and replaces with grass or other permeable surface, the water could be absorbed.

The owner apparently did request assistance from the prior board in 2004 and the prior board approved taking on the responsibility because they feared that the accumulated water would damage the building. One of the board members is an engineer and he made drawings and designed the project. The drain has literally filled up to the top with dirt and debris and is not working so the homeowner approached the current board with a request to fix it. The additional cement slab was apparently not reviewed/approved by any Architectural Committee nor does it appear to have been done with a building permit. It does not show on the tax records as an improvement. The current owner says that she purchased the unit from the original owner and that the original owner said it was part of the original unit. We don't have a copy of the original plans and because the development is over 20 years old, there are apparently none on file or microfiche in the public records either, so it is all hearsay as to when the slab was installed. Neighbors in adjoining units do not have flooding issues, nor do they have extended cement slabs surrounded by decorative cement walls. The water floods the unit's screen enclosure (a unit owner addition) because when it was built it was not elevated or built up on the slab so water that accumulates in the outside part of the concrete seeps under the door and under the walls of the screen enclosure. The board voted last night to have the property manager send the owner a letter stating that we have determined that the HOA is not responsible for repairs on a client's private property. I will keep you posted.