Bought A Home, Discovered Less Than Year Later We Were Responsible For A Storm Water Drain That Was Never Disclosed To Us.

Location: Lower Southampton, PA

Hey All

I'm gonna try and keep this as short as possible. We bought a home last Summer and discovered recently that we were responsible for maintaining our storm water drain pipe. It is a very large pipe (approx. 4 ft wide, 200 ft long) and is underground. This is a now-problem because it appears to be failing and collapsing in some areas. It was never disclosed to us that we were responsible for it OR that it had damage to it. Some bullet info that I have obtained in the last week+:

• My neighbor told us he informed the previous owner AND her real estate agent that he had an estimate done to repair it and it was over $100,000.00. So, they were at least told about it. He also said he told them to tell the person they were selling the house to and they didn't.. or I wouldn't be here.
• My county supervisor told us that he had been out to visit with the previous homeowner's husband who died in 2022. She allegedly hated her husband which is relevant because its not clear if he would of told her about it or not. My neighbors said they never spoke to each other. Not sure if that matters.
• There is no easement for the township to maintain the pipe. It was installed by the developer when our neighborhood of homes were built in the 1950's and is on private property so its the property owners responsibility, per my county supervisor.
• County supervisor told me I basically need to fix it because if I did something else with it like fill it with concrete or intentionally collapse it, it will likely back up all the storm water for the entire neighborhood that runs through that drain since we are at the bottom of a hill in our neighborhood.

We have no idea what to do at this point except nothing. We are going to get a surveyor out to determine if it's actually on our property but i am 99 percent sure it is going to be a joint responsibility with our neighbors as it runs down the shared property line. My township does not have a storm water tax so there is no "funding" to fix it from the township.

Does this limited info sound like we would have a case if we decided to proceed legally against the previous homeowner? Or if it would even be worth it?

Any advice or suggestions with how to proceed would be greatly appreciated!