Property owner plans to fill in a man-made 'pond' against neighbors' wishes, 'a beaver took up residence.' AITA? UPDATED

"WIBTA for filling in a man-made 'pond' against some neighbors' wishes?"

For the past several years, I've owned a property in a semi-rural area. It is part of an HOA with only 12 houses over 1000 acres, so we don't get much in each others' way.

There is a "common area" that abuts my property and on it there is a "pond" that is fed via an irrigation headgate on a creek on my property and a cut that runs from it through my property. I've come to discover this pond is a real pain. One neighbor used to maintain it (without making a fuss) but he died.

So dealing with it fell to me, as the neighbor most affected by it. And it's a pain. People trespass to go fishing or having their dogs swim in it. People from outside have come to ice-skate on it (totally not safe!). It has silting problems. The headgate needs to be dug out every spring, sometimes multiple times.

The cut clogs up and has to be cleared. Then a beaver took up residence and kept blocking the outflow culvert, causing a flood on neighboring farmer's land (he was rightly pissed and I got the brunt of it). I was clearing out beaver blockages several days a week. Nobody else in the HOA would help.

I did some research and discovered that the water right for the headgate belonged to *me alone* and not the association (whoops!), there was no easement for the irrigation cut and, cherry on the sundae, the pond is actually on my property and not common area. Had a survey done just to be sure.

I also discovered it wasn't really a "pond" -- it was a hole dug up to provide fill for our road and the original developer just routed irrigation into the hole and called it a "pond," but this explains why it is such a mess.

A landowner a mile away is now digging out a proper pond and he has to pay a ton to dispose of the fill (even though it is clean). I asked if it would help if he could put some of the fill in our "pond" and he offered to pay for the privilege.

I have closed the headgate and started draining the pond. Some members of the HOA have been yelling at me that they like the pond (just to look at as they drive out to the main road).

So I said, ok, if you like it, pay up $10K a year for someone to deal with the nonsense. They refused, I said that in that case the pond is getting filled in and planted with native grass, using the money from taking the fill. They call me a selfish ahole. Am I?

Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:

owls_and_cardinals said:

NTA. You were burdened with a feature on your own property that you no longer wished to maintain. Based on your details, that was entirely your decision, and an apt one given that no one else in the association was willing to contribute. It sounds like an unfortunate error on the part of the HOA / leadership to have not set up the feature and its maintenance appropriately.

The only 'right' answer here, in terms of the HOA's broader benefit, is for the association to decide to install one on a truly common area along with allocating the funds to maintain it.

That would force it to be a truly shared responsibility and cost, rather than falling disproportionately on any one property owner. Your neighbors are AHs for thinking it is fair to complain about something they never paid for or helped to maintain, and expecting you to incur the PIA and the cost out of generosity alone.

d2020ysf said:

NTA - If it's a community pond, then the HOA dues should go towards maintenance of it and not a sole homeowner. It's not a community pond, they don't want to treat it as such, then fill it in.

Fleurtheleast said:

So you have to pay for the privilege of maintaining a headache that they 'like to look at'? You have to break your back fixing yearlong issues while they literally drive on by? And YOU’RE the one who's selfish? I really wish they would close down the Audacity Warehouse. NTA.

Broad-Coach1151 said:

NTA, but in any dispute I believe that the HOA is always in the wrong and has no right to exist, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

catinthecurtains said:

NTA. Have a similar situation on my dad’s farm. Had a pond back off the road, no trespassing signs everywhere since it’s an active farm (and private property). People would come on the property constantly to go fishing. Dad tried putting barriers up, let the trees and shrubs overgrow so it would be less appealing.

People just started bringing their own clippers to make a path to the pond. Four wheelers driving through the fields and ruining crops doing donuts. Would vandalize the shed and hangar by it, steal equipment.

One guy figured out how to crank an old tractor sitting by it (to steal it) but the transmission is seized so it doesn’t move, then he couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so just left it running for us to find the next day.

Finally Dad said enough, drained the pond and has been back filling. Neighbors have been PISSED. All they’re doing by complaining is telling us exactly who has been trespassing this whole time.

Glittering_Lunch_776 said:

NTA, this is a simple matter of legal property rights, which it seems you’ve done your homework on. HOAs love bending people over the barrel when the paperwork is on their side, so maybe this time they can at least do everyone a favor and be quiet about it when they are over the barrel for once.

UPDATE:

I already met with a beaver expert from Fish & Wildlife. They would have given me a "nuisance" permit to trap,but I wanted to try an exclusion fence. Nobody else wanted to pay for that. Expert said that if we lower pond, beaver will probably just move back to the creek.

We do have fish in the pond, but it isn't deep enough to support overwintering, so the actual sustained fish population is in the creek. Finally, I did speaking to the local conservation district about a permit to drain. They said it should not be an issue, as they don't love these "fake ponds" and would prefer the water stay in the creek to support higher stream flow.