drainage issue on easement of neighbor's property -- what to do?

[evme]

I am having an issue with my home and the neighbor's property. My house is a patio home and apparently has a zero lot line on the south side (currently waiting to be confirmed by a surveyor). The south wall of the home has stucco that is buried about a foot under the grade. I have been told by various general contractors that the stucco should not have any material touching it and needs to be remedied. So I want to dig it up, lower the grade, and put in a drainage channel. The problem is the area to be dug up is possibly an easement on my neighbor's property. So a couple questions. Do I need to get my neighbor's permission to dig a drainage channel on the easement? (I believe the answer is yes if it's part of his property). However, I am also confused on who is responsible for maintaining the easement.

From the HOA's DECLARATIONS OF RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS:

3.04 Easements
 Easements on lots for utilities, drainage or other purposes shall not be obstructed in a manner which interferes with such purpose, but the area of each lot embraced by such easements shall be maintained by the Owner of the lot.

I asked ChatGPT to translate and it says: "The second part of the statement means:
"The area of each lot that contains easements must be taken care of by the owner of that lot."

So would that mean the neighbor is responsible for digging the drainage channel?

[roomtempmayo]

So I want to dig it up, lower the grade, and put in a drainage channel. The problem is the area to be dug up is possibly an easement on my neighbor's property.

Not a lawyer, but I think you need to find out the nature of the easement.

Most easements give a local authority (utility, HOA, city) access for specific purposes, and the land is otherwise private.

I have never heard of an easement that would give a neighbor the right to privately dig/install drainage across the property line.

[reeshau]

So I want to dig it up, lower the grade, and put in a drainage channel. The problem is the area to be dug up is possibly an easement on my neighbor's property.

Not a lawyer, but I think you need to find out the nature of the easement.

Most easements give a local authority (utility, HOA, city) access for specific purposes, and the land is otherwise private.

I have never heard of an easement that would give a neighbor the right to privately dig/install drainage across the property line.

It's pretty common for driveways (for long, narrow country lots, or shared driveways) and lake access.

OP, how is your relationship with your neighbor?  Required or not, it certainly would be neighborly to let him know you have a problem that needs to be addressed, and it may inconvenience him.  I would hope that the first he hears about it is not when official paperwork comes in the mail.  They may even have some background on why / what has been done before to try and address it.

[GuitarStv]

Required or not, it certainly would be neighborly to let him know you have a problem that needs to be addressed, and it may inconvenience him.  I would hope that the first he hears about it is not when official paperwork comes in the mail.  They may even have some background on why / what has been done before to try and address it.

This was my first thought as well.  It's going to impact your neighbour, so the right thing to do is to go over and explain what's going on and why in a friendly manner.

[Boll weevil]

Also not a lawyer, but I would interpret the 2nd part as saying your neighbor would be responsible for maintaining whatever was installed.

For instance, if the selected solution is a drainage ditch, they would be responsible for keeping it unclogged. However, I don’t think they have the responsibility to dig the ditch in the first place.

[yachi]

So I want to dig it up, lower the grade, and put in a drainage channel. The problem is the area to be dug up is possibly an easement on my neighbor's property.

Not a lawyer, but I think you need to find out the nature of the easement.

Most easements give a local authority (utility, HOA, city) access for specific purposes, and the land is otherwise private.

I have never heard of an easement that would give a neighbor the right to privately dig/install drainage across the property line.

It's pretty common for driveways (for long, narrow country lots, or shared driveways) and lake access.

OP, how is your relationship with your neighbor?  Required or not, it certainly would be neighborly to let him know you have a problem that needs to be addressed, and it may inconvenience him.  I would hope that the first he hears about it is not when official paperwork comes in the mail.  They may even have some background on why / what has been done before to try and address it.

Sure, but that's more like an access easement.  Roomtempmayo makes a good point, most easements have a particular purpose, all have a particular easement owner.  I worked with a public utility, and if they had an easement that read "Water utility" but they wanted to repurpose it for a sewer installation, they had to go back and sign additional paperwork with the landowner.

OP needs to figure out what type of easement exists, and who owns it.  Being OP has a zero lot line, it wouldn't surprise me to find an easement that covers only "house maintenance use" things like access for pressure washing walls, painting walls, replacing siding.  If there is a drainage easement, it likely belongs to the HOA for purposes of moving water from one place to another.  In that case, OP would need the HOA to do the drainage design, permitting, and installation.

To answer OP's confusion about "maintaining the easement" this refers to normal stuff like mowing grass and preventing shrubs from growing up in the easement area.  One cannot interfere with the purpose of an easement, by digging a pool overtop of a water line, dumping a load of soil into a drainage ditch, filling a stormwater line with concrete like a crazy homeowner did in Florida.

[GilesMM]

It depends on what is behind the stucco.  If it is cinderblock, you probably do not need to remediate.

[evme]

OP, how is your relationship with your neighbor?  Required or not, it certainly would be neighborly to let him know you have a problem that needs to be addressed, and it may inconvenience him.  I would hope that the first he hears about it is not when official paperwork comes in the mail.  They may even have some background on why / what has been done before to try and address it.

I have not met them yet, but hope to this weekend. It took me over a month to get in touch with them. It is a second home for them and they said they are only at the property 20-30 days per year. I am not going to hit them with paperwork at the first meeting but there is a time crunch as my home is scheduled by the HOA to be painted and have the stucco repaired the beginning of July.

[evme]

It depends on what is behind the stucco.  If it is cinderblock, you probably do not need to remediate.

Can you identify the material that's behind the stucco from this photo? ChatGPT thinks it's "cement backer board or concrete" or "another possibility is that this is a coated or painted concrete foundation wall".

[classicrando]

I can't tell from your photo, but you can approach this from a different angle.  Do you know what material your house is made of (frame, block, metal)?  If you are not sure, you can check your county website for records of construction or you can crawl up into your attic and look at where your exterior walls meet the roof rafters.  Do you know if the foundation is slab-on-grade, crawlspace, or basement?  Stucco is usually done over concrete or cinder block.

[GilesMM]

It depends on what is behind the stucco.  If it is cinderblock, you probably do not need to remediate.

Can you identify the material that's behind the stucco from this photo? ChatGPT thinks it's "cement backer board or concrete" or "another possibility is that this is a coated or painted concrete foundation wall".

No but that wood trim should not be in contact with the ground.   Can you see under the wood at any point? Do you have a concrete foundation?

[sonofsven]

It depends on what is behind the stucco.  If it is cinderblock, you probably do not need to remediate.

Can you identify the material that's behind the stucco from this photo? ChatGPT thinks it's "cement backer board or concrete" or "another possibility is that this is a coated or painted concrete foundation wall".

Looks like backer board to me

[evme]

No but that wood trim should not be in contact with the ground.   Can you see under the wood at any point? Do you have a concrete foundation?

That's not wood trim, those are railroad ties. I think probably installed at some point to prevent erosion. Yes pretty sure we have a concrete foundation.

[yachi]

my home is scheduled by the HOA to be painted and have the stucco repaired the beginning of July.

See, this makes it sounds like the exterior of your house is your HOA's responsibility, and not yours.  If so, what you need to do is ask the HOA what they're going to do about the Stucco being below grade.  Here are some wall details for Stucco at foundations : https://www.builder-academy.com/stucco-construction-details/

[evme]

my home is scheduled by the HOA to be painted and have the stucco repaired the beginning of July.

See, this makes it sounds like the exterior of your house is your HOA's responsibility, and not yours.  If so, what you need to do is ask the HOA what they're going to do about the Stucco being below grade.  Here are some wall details for Stucco at foundations : https://www.builder-academy.com/stucco-construction-details/

You might be right, although the HOA has limited responsibilities. I think initially the HOA has been hesitant to get involved however if they pay to have the stucco repaired this year and it immediately gets damaged because it's below ground, they aren't going to like that. The neighborhood HOA maintenance responsibility sheet says the HOA covers "stucco maintenance and scheduled painting" but says it excludes "damage caused by water from roof and any modifications made to unit by unit owners". I'm not sure which one applies.

[GilesMM]

my home is scheduled by the HOA to be painted and have the stucco repaired the beginning of July.

See, this makes it sounds like the exterior of your house is your HOA's responsibility, and not yours.  If so, what you need to do is ask the HOA what they're going to do about the Stucco being below grade.  Here are some wall details for Stucco at foundations : https://www.builder-academy.com/stucco-construction-details/

You might be right, although the HOA has limited responsibilities. I think initially the HOA has been hesitant to get involved however if they pay to have the stucco repaired this year and it immediately gets damaged because it's below ground, they aren't going to like that. The neighborhood HOA maintenance responsibility sheet says the HOA covers "stucco maintenance and scheduled painting" but says it excludes "damage caused by water from roof and any modifications made to unit by unit owners". I'm not sure which one applies.

Contact the HOA is get their view.  Are other units affected similarly?  Tell them you expect them to maintain the stucco which includes keeping it out of contact with soil.

[evme]

my home is scheduled by the HOA to be painted and have the stucco repaired the beginning of July.

See, this makes it sounds like the exterior of your house is your HOA's responsibility, and not yours.  If so, what you need to do is ask the HOA what they're going to do about the Stucco being below grade.  Here are some wall details for Stucco at foundations : https://www.builder-academy.com/stucco-construction-details/

You might be right, although the HOA has limited responsibilities. I think initially the HOA has been hesitant to get involved however if they pay to have the stucco repaired this year and it immediately gets damaged because it's below ground, they aren't going to like that. The neighborhood HOA maintenance responsibility sheet says the HOA covers "stucco maintenance and scheduled painting" but says it excludes "damage caused by water from roof and any modifications made to unit by unit owners". I'm not sure which one applies.

Contact the HOA is get their view.  Are other units affected similarly?  Tell them you expect them to maintain the stucco which includes keeping it out of contact with soil.

I did but nobody seems to know what the hell the rules are. It's a mickey mouse operation.

[GilesMM]

my home is scheduled by the HOA to be painted and have the stucco repaired the beginning of July.

See, this makes it sounds like the exterior of your house is your HOA's responsibility, and not yours.  If so, what you need to do is ask the HOA what they're going to do about the Stucco being below grade.  Here are some wall details for Stucco at foundations : https://www.builder-academy.com/stucco-construction-details/

You might be right, although the HOA has limited responsibilities. I think initially the HOA has been hesitant to get involved however if they pay to have the stucco repaired this year and it immediately gets damaged because it's below ground, they aren't going to like that. The neighborhood HOA maintenance responsibility sheet says the HOA covers "stucco maintenance and scheduled painting" but says it excludes "damage caused by water from roof and any modifications made to unit by unit owners". I'm not sure which one applies.

Contact the HOA is get their view.  Are other units affected similarly?  Tell them you expect them to maintain the stucco which includes keeping it out of contact with soil.

I did but nobody seems to know what the hell the rules are. It's a mickey mouse operation.

If the rules are not clearly  spelled out in the HOA governing docs, you have a problem.