Cynthia, however, sent a very different response, bluntly stating the structure was unsightly, potentially dangerous, and simply too close to the association's newly upgraded entrance. I firmly told her she was free to landscape HOA property, but she was absolutely not free to fill a working water structure on mine.
For a short while, I thought my firm warning had worked—until a contractor showed up at my property line with a concrete pump.
I was busy repairing a pump controller at a greenhouse twenty miles away when my driveway security camera sent a motion alert to my phone. A white contractor truck was parked dangerously close to my property line, and directly behind it sat a small excavator and a concrete mixer. I immediately called my neighbor, who walked down the road and confirmed exactly what the camera showed: workers had completely removed the concrete lid from the well vault, and Cynthia was standing right beside them, directing the show.
I called the contractor's main office before even driving home, reaching the project superintendent, Neil Foster. Neil told me his crew had been explicitly instructed to eliminate an abandoned well feature interfering with the HOA landscaping plan, to which I replied that the structure was strictly on my private parcel and still carried pressurized artesian water.
Neil paused, then said something that would matter heavily later: he had specifically asked the HOA whether a well contractor or environmental health office had approved this work, and he was told the structure was no longer active.
When I finally arrived, water was still visibly pouring into the concrete vault, and the eager crew had already exposed the buried overflow line. I immediately showed Neil the official survey marker just twenty feet away, and told him in no uncertain terms that I did not consent to any work on my well.
He wisely stopped the excavator. But Cynthia loudly objected, producing a glossy HOA site plan and claiming a landscape maintenance strip extended all the way to the well—a claim my legally recorded survey quickly proved false.
I called my attorney, Dana Collins, who had successfully helped me with a messy contractor dispute several years earlier. Dana instructed me to clearly state on video that entry and alteration of the well were legally disputed, photograph absolutely everything, and avoid physically touching any of their heavy equipment. In response, Cynthia furiously called the HOA project manager, and after a long, tense conversation, Neil stated he had been instructed to complete only the work already authorized by his client, despite my repeated, documented objections.