HOAs in our state were required by law to provide certain records upon written request from an affected party. Patricia argued I qualified as an affected party given the documented encroachment. Third, she wanted a professional property appraisal that specifically addressed the impact of the unauthorized water usage on my land’s assessed value and water rights valuation. She had an appraiser she trusted. His name was Howard Finch. She said Howard had testified as an expert witness in water rights cases before.
I left her office with a task list. I drove to the county recorder’s office the following morning and made the formal written request for confirmation of easement status. The clerk told me it would take ten to fifteen business days. I used those days productively. I walked the full western boundary again with my GPS unit, this time mapping every point where the pipe might surface or connect to secondary lines on the HOA side.
I found two additional valve access points just inside the HOA fence line. I photographed them from my side of the boundary. I did not cross. I logged every coordinate. I also began keeping a daily log. Every morning I noted the date, the weather, and any activity I observed near the boundary. Most days there was nothing to note. That was fine. A log with no entries was still a log. It showed consistent observation. It showed I was paying attention from the beginning.
Howard Finch came out in the fourth week of the documentation phase. He spent a full day on the property. He reviewed the survey. He inspected the wellhead. He reviewed Marcus Webb’s flow data. He walked the boundary. He took his own photographs. He said he would have a written appraisal report within three weeks.
I made coffee when we got back to the farmhouse. Howard sat at my kitchen table and looked at the binder. He flipped through it slowly without saying much. Then he closed it and looked at me. He said, “Dale, whoever advised you to document everything from day one saved you a significant amount of trouble.” I told him it was my attorney’s advice. He nodded. He said, “Good attorney.”
The county recorder’s office responded in twelve business days. The letter arrived on official letterhead signed by the county recorder herself. It stated clearly and without qualification that no utility easement, no water rights transfer, no recorded license agreement, and no encumbrance of any kind had been filed between my parcel and the Maplewood Estates development or its HOA at any point in the recorded history of either property.
The letter cited the specific parcel identification numbers for both properties. It cited the date range searched. It was thorough and unambiguous. I read it twice standing at my mailbox. Then I walked inside, photographed it, scanned it, and called Patricia. She asked me to read the key paragraph aloud. I did. She said, “That is exactly what we needed. File it.” I filed it in the binder behind a fresh tab labeled County Confirmation.
The HOA’s response to Patricia’s records request came ten days later. It was incomplete. They provided a copy of their CC&Rs and two years of board meeting minutes. Patricia had requested five years minimum. She sent a follow-up letter citing the specific statute and the required scope of disclosure. She gave them fourteen days to comply fully or face a disclosure violation complaint with the state HOA regulatory office.