Culvert in front of the house is collapsing, who is responsible?

Anonymous
We have a culvert in front of our house near the street and it is collapsing. It appears to have been put in when the house was built 30 years ago. We recently paved over the driveway (that was gravel) and now there is a whole on the driveway where the asphalt has crumbled. The culvert pipe now appears to have collapsed. Driveway guy said that the pipe was fine 3 months ago when he paved, they checked.
Now what?
Turn into homeowners? Try the county? Or are seriously just out of luck and need to pay the 6k to replace it ourselves and repave?
Anonymous
Well you can probaby file a homeowners claim. Is the culvert on your land? It sounds like it is and is therefore unfortunately on you.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Well you can probaby file a homeowners claim. Is the culvert on your land? It sounds like it is and is therefore unfortunately on you.


+1 Unfortunately it does sound like it is your responsibility if it is on your property. You can try calling the county and see what they say but don't waste a lot of time letting a small hole get bigger because they you may really have a problem. Did you get a second opinion? I don't know if your homeowners insurance will cover it if they investigate and then say it is your contractor's fault or your fault.
Anonymous
The culvert like this at my house is maintained by the city.

They just did replacements and improvements late last summer & early fall. They sent detailed notices to each house on my street on what would be done, when, and what days & times we wouldn't have access to our driveway (that goes over the culvert). The notice said that 66 feet from the edge of the road "may need to be used for improvement purposes" but that never really happened. They did repave our portion of the driveway they had to dig up during the improvements.

I always thought that the city/county/state "owned" the first five feet of your land, which is something I was taught growing up, but apparently that's wrong. My neighbor said that what was listed in our notice, 66 ft., is the standard amount that they are allowed before compensation is needed to be given.
Anonymous
This happened to a colleague, it was the homeowners. I think the driveway people are at fault here, they did not properly take the weight into consideration, they should fix it for free and your driveway.
Anonymous
Thanks for responding, OP here-apparently MoCo agrees and says it is our problem.
Now for a phone call to insurance, though I bet it is unlikely covered.
Anonymous
The public right of way is measured from the center of the road or it would just keep encroaching every time they widened the road.

The culvert was probably collapsed by the paving company. Good luck with that. "They checked". Before or after paving?

If the culvert is carrying water to the sewers and everyone along your road has one, this is probably county property.
mjsmith
Member Offline
Anonymous wrote:Thanks for responding, OP here-apparently MoCo agrees and says it is our problem.
Now for a phone call to insurance, though I bet it is unlikely covered.


insurance generally only covers the building. unless you added separate riders. 6000 seems high for a steel pipe and new asphalt at the foot of the drive though
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Thanks for responding, OP here-apparently MoCo agrees and says it is our problem.
Now for a phone call to insurance, though I bet it is unlikely covered.


why isnt the driveway contractor paying for this? it is their fault.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Thanks for responding, OP here-apparently MoCo agrees and says it is our problem.
Now for a phone call to insurance, though I bet it is unlikely covered.


why isnt the driveway contractor paying for this? it is their fault.


point is, the culvert was fine for 30 years until the driveway company came. They broke it.
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