HOA and Condo Association Plumbing in Phoenix

Board members and community managers get the same call over and over: a pipe broke, and nobody's sure whose pipe it is. In Arizona the answer starts with what kind of association you run.

In a condominium, A.R.S. 33-1247 makes the association responsible for maintaining, repairing and replacing the common elements, and each owner responsible for the unit, except where the declaration says otherwise. A.R.S. 33-1212 fills in the gray zone. When a chute, flue, duct, conduit or other fixture sits partly inside a unit, the part serving only that unit is a limited common element for that unit, and any part serving more than one unit is a common element. A shared drain stack running through several floors usually lands on the association's side of that line. See our page on A.R.S. 33-1247 condo plumbing responsibility.

In a planned community, owners hold their own lots, and the association owns and runs the common areas under its declaration. The plumbing serving one house is usually that owner's; irrigation, pools and other common-area systems are usually the association's. Our Planned Communities Act page walks through it.

Either way, read the declaration and the community's governing documents first. They often draw the line more precisely than the defaults.

A.R.S. 33-1255 sets the default billing rules for condos. Costs for a limited common element go to the units it serves. A cost that benefits fewer than all units goes to those units. And if an owner's misconduct caused the expense (for example, an owner's contractor cutting into a common line), the association can assess that cost to that one unit. The declaration can change the first two defaults; the misconduct rule stands on its own.

Access is part of the deal. Under A.R.S. 33-1247, owners must let the association through their unit on reasonable notice to reach common plumbing, and whoever caused damage during that access pays to fix it promptly.

Phoenix City Code 28-5.1 makes the property owner (or the owner's contractor) responsible for the sewer connection from the building to the public sewer. The city only steps in for single-family and duplex properties with a break in the public right-of-way. Whoever owns the shared line in a condo complex or townhome community, often the association, is on the hook for the whole run, including sections under the street, with a city permit. When a condo project goes through Maricopa County subdivision review, the county also requires covenants that provide for maintaining the water and sewer piping serving common areas.

Roots and grease in shared laterals are the usual culprits. A camera run shows where the problem sits and whose line it's in. That answers the who-pays question with footage instead of guesses. More on who is responsible for the sewer line in Phoenix.

Phoenix requires backflow protection on irrigation systems: a pressure vacuum breaker (PVB) where there's no backpressure, and a reduced pressure (RP) assembly where there's chemical injection, multiple services, or elevated areas higher than six inches below the PVB. Every assembly gets tested at least once a year by a certified tester, with records kept three years. A community with dozens of controllers can have dozens of assemblies, so put the due dates on one calendar. See backflow preventers for sprinklers and what to do after a failed test.

Newer communities often have a dedicated landscape meter. Phoenix City Code 37-53 requires a separate meter for landscape watering of areas over 10,000 square feet on services set up after January 1, 1990. When a common-area water bill jumps, that meter is the first place to look; a valve that won't close is a common cause. Here's why a sprinkler system won't shut off.

Maricopa County treats a pool run by a neighborhood or community association as a semipublic pool. Its Environmental Health Code bans cross connections between drinking water and the pool's recirculation system; fill water has to come in across an air gap, above a float-controlled feed tank, or through a submerged inlet with an approved backflow device. Auto-fill valves and pool equipment leaks are common trouble spots. See how to find a pool plumbing leak.

Shutting off water to a building or a whole community needs notice and a plan: a valve that's been exercised, a firm window, and a crew ready to restore service. Our commercial water shutoff guide covers the steps. When a main breaks overnight, the board doesn't have to wait. A.R.S. 33-1804 (planned communities) and 33-1248 (condos) let a board hold an emergency meeting for action that can't wait for 48 hours' notice, as long as the minutes record the reason. Fix first, document after. That's it.

We handle common-area repairs, shared drain and sewer line jetting, sewer camera inspection and repair, testing and certification of domestic backflow assemblies, city filing, repairs to leaking assemblies and replacement of stolen ones, and water heater work in shared buildings. Fire backflow assemblies and fire sprinkler system work are outside what HQ does. Managers get upfront pricing before work starts and free estimates for bigger projects, and emergency calls are answered 24/7.