The disconnect between the earlier project announcements and what was happening on my property bothered me almost as much as the physical damage. That evening, after the crew finally left, I pulled out the folder from our closing and spread the deed, title documents, and old plat across the kitchen table.
There was a drainage easement shown on the property, but it was not located where the contractor had been digging: the recorded easement ran along a different portion of the parcel and did not appear to cover the damaged fence or the trench beside my garage. I knew old plats could be confusing, so I resisted the temptation to assume that one document had already settled the dispute.
Instead, I photographed the trench from multiple angles and copied the permit number the site supervisor had given me. I saved the HOA notices, backed up the security camera footage before the system could overwrite anything, and created a folder for every document related to the project.
Then I opened an HOA email that I had almost ignored several weeks earlier. Attached to it was a project update showing the proposed drainage corridor, and the route in that attachment looked almost identical to the engineering drawing I had seen on the truck. That route did not cross my backyard either.
For the first time, I stopped wondering whether the contractor had simply made a mistake in the field. If the HOA had been circulating the correct route before construction started, then somebody already knew where the pipe was supposed to go. The question was whether the route had later been changed legally, or whether somebody had decided that my property was simply more convenient.
I saved the email with the rest of the evidence and waited to see what Vanessa would put in writing next.
By the following morning, she gave me exactly what I needed when the HOA began documenting its claimed authority. The contractor returned before 8:00 the next morning and resumed work as though nothing unusual had happened: another section of fence was removed; the trench was extended toward the rear corner of my lot; and fresh tire tracks crossed the grass where the excavator had entered. One ornamental tree near the fence had already been pulled loose at the roots.
I asked the site supervisor for the approved plan and the permit documents that supposedly authorized the construction. He gave me a permit number, but would not provide a complete plan set. He indicated that the HOA was managing the approvals and continued preparing the crew for another day of excavation.
Less than an hour later, Vanessa sent me a formal notice accusing me of interfering with authorized association work. The notice described the drainage project as necessary community infrastructure and warned that any delay caused by my actions could result in costs being charged back to my account.