Flood in my townhouse for the 3rd time

[WestLABrian]

Two years ago, while raining heavily there was a flood overnight while I was gone, downstairs of my townhouse was ruined (association says it was due to clogged pipes within the unit). The water ran into the neighbors place, my homeowners insurance only covered about 20% of the repairs. It was a mess.

October 2006 I again complained of slow drainage, they had "their" plumber come out, he pulled a significant number of tree roots from the main clean out sewer pipe (yes I have pictures), the drainage improved only slightly, yet once again they say it’s the clogged pipes in my unit.

April of 2007 drainage was so slow to the point where if you flushed both toilets they would back up creating a flood. I informed them of this and they send out "their" plumber who states that I need to replace both toilets and clean out the pipes in my unit again. They also charge me a $170.00 plumbers fee which they never informed me I would be responsible for.

Dec 07 2007, I had another major flood due to the washing machine not having sufficient drainage (once again when raining). At this point I know the problem must lie within the sewer pipes located in the common area. I have lived here for 8 years and have not seen them once clean the drainage piping.
Immediately the next morning they install a clean out drain outside my unit and do a full clean out of the sewer drain (yes I have pictures of the tree roots, once again) They even leave a message on my answering machine saying they are "probably" responsible for clogged sewer.

Now my new hardwood floors are ruined due to the flood. They say the only responsibility they have is to bring the property back to the “original” construction when built in 1968. Of course this is pathetic.

They stalled for over a month in giving me a copy of my CC & R's I had to get the CC & R's from a neighbor who just sold, and they are photocopies of photocopies and almost impossible to read.

With both floods combined, I had about 23,000 in out of pocket expenses.

My question is, do I have a case ?

I had a similar problem in my townhome, but without the tree roots. My problem turned out to be twofold - both items in violation of the building code when the townhomes were constructed.

(1) Of course sewage flows downhill. {-: I understand that when inspecting a new sewer line, an inspector uses the "ball test". He drops a ball into the high end of the pipe and makes sure it rolls downhill at a certain rate of speed. Well, my sewer line had a "kink" in it. Evidently they started off with the proper slope, then hit rock and were too lazy to cut through it. So the line then goes uphill, and then downhill again. Definitely not a good thing when you expect fast and efficient drainage. This problem was discovered by "scoping" my sewer line with a camera.

(2) Code says that every townhome has its own private sewer line. But my builder tied every two units in to one line only. So problems occurred when both my neighbor and me were using a lot of water. I remember one time I flooded just before Christmas. I was preparing for company - washing clothes, mopping floors, running the dishwasher, etc. My neighbor had company staying there - additional showers, toilets flushing, etc.

Good luck with your own sewer problem!