Court Says Association is Responsible for Repairing and Maintaining the “Crawl Space” Under Owner’s Condominium Unit.

This case involved a dispute between a property owner (“Owner”) and her homeowners association (“Association”) over: (i) whether Owner or the Association was responsible for maintaining and repairing the “crawl space” under Owner’s condominium that she contended was damaged by water intrusion due to the Association’s failure to properly maintain the water drainage from common area lawns that surrounded her unit; and (ii) whether the Association had fulfilled its responsibility to properly maintain and repair the drainage of water from the common area lawns surrounding Owner’s unit.

Owner purchased the condominium in 2012. The community is governed by a declaration that details the duties and responsibilities of homeowners and Association. Shortly after moving in, Owner reported various water-related issues with her home to the Association. Between 2013 and 2022, the Association spent tens of thousands of dollars to remediate these issues, but Owner believed more work was required. In 2017, she filed a lawsuit against the Association, alleging six counts, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and seeking a permanent injunction. The case was voluntarily dismissed in 2018 and re-filed in 2019.

In her lawsuit, Owner contended that the crawl space was a common area “foundation” that the Association was responsible for maintaining and repairing, and that the Association had not properly addressed the water drainage issues pertaining to the surrounding lawns. The Association contended that it the crawl space was merely a: