ORLANDO, Fla. — Angry that a stormwater pipe runs through her yard, a Seminole County woman plugged the conduit with concrete. Now residents of the Shadowbay Club community say their flooded roads are nearly impassable after heavy rainstorms. Even more frustrating for homeowners: Seminole officials say there is little they can do to resolve the nightmare because the streets and stormwater ...
No they shouldn’t. It seems she’s mostly in her right. There doesn’t seem to be an easement, which would mean the pipe on her land is hers. It sounds like the problem had been going on for a long time, and she decided to fix it.
And, in typical Florida/conservative style, they didn’t want government involvement until they had a problem that needed fixing. Which I find doubly hilarious.
The community should be angry at themselves and their leadership
Sounds like it is on an easement and she’s just claiming it’s not, either way, doesn’t give her the right to damage other’s homes. Especially since they have nothing to do with infrastructure decisions.
But there’s a manhole cover in her yard, which is what she filled and doesn’t seem to be part of that easement. I doubt she will win in the end, and I hope she doesn’t, but I have a feeling that everyone in the neighborhood and the county officials have all talked to lawyers and if it were easy to say she did this illegally, it would have been said.
She fixed a minor inconvenience for herself by creating a massive problem for the entire neighborhood. Now she has endangered everyone’s property and their safety. It doesn’t really matter if she’s technically “in the right” if every home around her is destroyed in a flood because of her actions.
I think the article fairly clearly states that she appears to be in the wrong, but this is a civil matter and the courts are acting slowly.
An HOA can’t just have the cops sent in without a court order.
They said easement in the article.
She doesn’t even claim the pipe is in her yard. She says that it’s causing erosion on her property.
It doesn’t matter if the pipe is hers. You cannot divert water onto a neighbors property in that manner. This is standard law across the US.
https://www.findlaw.com/realestate/neighbors/water-damage-and-neighbor-disputes.html
I don’t follow. Couldn’t you also claim the opposite as well? That neighbors are diverting water to her property?
Edit: Nevermind. I read the article and yeah, the neighbors may have a case. But I’d like to know the full story.