Does a developer hold any responsibility for a neighborhood that contains a natural spring underneath, creating community wide issues? We're learning that our entire community has groundwater issues and foundation issues.

I'm curious if the builders in our subdivision have any recourse to go after the developer? Or is this a situation where nobody could have reasonably determined there would be issues?

I've yet to have problems but I'm sitting on a time bomb. Every home across the street required french drains after they moved in drain water from their backyards out to the street thru the curb. The homes behind them are higher so the back fence is on a retaining wall.

The homes behind me all required french drains for the same reason (my side of the street is higher than the homes behind).

Essentially - if you're on the northern side of a street (door faces south), you're yard is the drain for your backdoor neighbors groundwater. My back fence sits on the top of a retaining wall. To me the fence goes down to ground level - to the home behind me it starts on a 4foot stone wall.

My my next door neighbor's pool popped up on 1 end and needed to be repaired. The home on the other side of him just started having its foundation repaired. A home at the end of the street had it foundation repaired last summer. I've read online that several others throughout the hood have already had foundations repaired. I sometimes wonder if one day my pool will fall into yard behind me when the retaining wall collapses that'd be a fun ride.

The home 2 doors down was completed only 1 month before mine, and the home at the end of the street only 1 year earlier. We built and moved in the fall of 2019. i.e. - this is a brand new neighborhood.

Fortunately the builders are covering the costs using the 10 year structural warranty. More and more my wife has been on my ass for us to move while we can still print money on the sell. She's concerned we'll either dodge the bullet until after our structural warranty runs out, our homes will eventually plummet in value due to the community wide issues, or both.

Different jurisdictions have different requirements. If you're in a major city, the developer was likely required to get a geotech report that documented the water table at various locations throughout the subdivision. If you're in a rural county, there may be very few requirements.

You'll lose 6% in realtor fees to sell and buy something else, and that's a guaranteed cost if you sell. Maybe 4.5% cost to fix the foundation that you may or may not incur.

I'd keep it if I were single, sell if I'm married. You probably come out ahead keeping it, but it's not worth the risk of having your wife complain about it for the rest of your life if something does happen, because she will never let it go.

At least part of the problem is improper grading of the back yard by builders.

The water should run away from the house and then down the side property lines. There should never be a high spot along those side property lines to hold water back. If it can't be seen from the street, they don't worry about it. Lazy/ cheap builders.

Unfortunately extremely common in newer builds.

OP - where is this neighborhood?

Not saying your wife is right or wrong about the decision to move. But YOU are right in that it sounds like you're on a time bomb. If anything does happen, you're gonna be wasting a lot of time and effort to go after the developer who can just fold an LLC and declare BK.

I feel for you though - my first house cost us $15K in foundation repairs. But this was in Dallas with an 1980s built and it's known that you'll eventually have foundation problems. Not if you have them.

I would move. We have foundation issues. Builder paid half to fix as it was in the first 10 years. We would have had to rip up all our tile to see if the crack was "big enough" for it to count for them to cover it in full, so we paid half.

We only have issues on one side. I can still tell 12-13 years later the foundation shifts as doors get harder/easier to open, etc. We tried to sell the house years ago and the foundation company wouldn't "sign off" on everything being okay because we had recently had a ton of rain and the house wasn't sitting I guess correctly on the piers or whatever they are? So the buyers walked away. While we aren't having any big problems at all now, things do shift. We've had the foundation company come out numerous times and they state all is fine.

This shouldn't happen and someone should be held accountable. Has anyone spoken to a lawyer yet?

My neighborhood, built mostly in 2012-2014, had a ton of homes have warranty work for heaving foundations. Nearly every house around me had their basement or garage dug out and foundation work on it. It has also been very common for homeowners to have to bury their sump pump discharge hoses and get it to the street, through the sidewalk using a curb chase. Just like you've explained, many houses have a house behind them that is 6-10' higher in elevation, so we all know where the water is going to go.

The warranty period was 10 years for the homeowner so no one paid for any of that work.

This is in denver metro.

It's now been 10+ years, and no the neighborhood hasn't fallen apart and values plummeted. In fact our values skyrocketed between 2016-2020.

My home in particular, we didn't pass testing after the initial basement was dug, so they had to overex another 5' which added on ~2 weeks. At the time it made us mad because it delayed our closing and we didn't have much overlap in our rental as it was.

But in hindsight, I've had none of the issues that most of my neighbors have had.

Seems strange. Those are real developers and builders in your hood that do soil tests on every lot.

I do have concerns about pools getting built because I don't think the pool builders correctly grade or do studies on how grading can be impacted.

My house is just like you're stating. Our back fence is a 2' retaining wall.

Water collects in the middle and flows to the side of the yards. Surface drains run along both sides of my house. We have good slope away.

My neighbor behind me (to the north) has a pool and I do not notice water coming my way. Rather, the grading has it going to their street, as it should.

I'm not sure there any springs around us, rather just clay soil that shifts.

Last summer was brutal on foundations. I doubt people were running their foundation drip lines.

Yep. Hines was the developer and they aren't a fly by night company. Highland/Huntington, Toll Brothers, and Shaddock builders. Our pool builder was gold medal and they didn't recommend piers. It is my understanding that the last couple of years pool builders have required them on all builds.