I told him the truth. I said I had no intention of doing anything reckless. I said I believed in following proper legal process. I said I was still in the information-gathering phase and had made no decisions yet. He nodded slowly. He asked if there was any possibility of working something out, an easement perhaps, a payment arrangement, something that would give the community legal standing going forward.
I told him that was a conversation worth having once the full picture was clear. I told him I would need everything in writing. I told him any arrangement would need to go through my attorney. He thanked me. He left his phone number. He left looking slightly more relieved than when he had arrived.
I called Patricia immediately after he left. I told her about the visit. She listened without interrupting. When I finished, she said two things. First, she said Gary Purcell’s visit confirmed the HOA knew they had no legal ground. Second, she said I should not negotiate anything yet, not because an easement was off the table permanently, but because we were not done building the record.
She said, “Dale, when the other side starts sending informal envoys, it means they are starting to worry. Let them worry a little longer.” I wrote down the date and time of Gary’s visit. I wrote down everything he had said. I added it to the binder.
Patricia scheduled a formal case review meeting in her office at the start of the third month. She wanted everything laid out on a table so we could assess where the gaps were. I arrived with the binder. She had her own file. Her paralegal sat in the corner with a notepad. We went through everything methodically.
The certified survey with Gerald’s boundary markers and wellhead coordinates. The timestamped photographs. The county deed history going back forty years. The groundwater permit showing Elton Marsh had drilled the well eighteen years ago. The plat maps for Maplewood Estates. Carol’s signed and notarized statement about her father’s refusal. Richard Thorne’s two letters. Marcus Webb’s hydrological flow report with seventy-two hours of recorded data. Gary Purcell’s informal visit documented in my handwritten notes.
Patricia reviewed each item carefully. She made notes in the margins of her own copy. When she finished, she leaned back and said we were in strong shape, but not complete shape. She identified three remaining gaps. First, she wanted official county confirmation that no easement existed, not just the absence of one in the deed records, but a formal written response from the county recorder’s office stating that no utility easement, water rights transfer, or recorded agreement of any kind had been filed between the two parcels. She wanted that on official letterhead.
Second, she wanted the HOA’s own governing documents, their CC&Rs, their board meeting minutes going back as far as possible, and any internal communications referencing the well. She said if they had ever discussed the water situation in a board meeting, those minutes were potentially discoverable. She filed a formal written request that same week under the state’s homeowner association records disclosure statute.