A Dallas homeowner has found himself in hot water after two separate water main breaks damaged his house, and neither the City of Dallas nor his insurance company has been willing to take responsibility for repairs.
A City-owned pipe has burst twice in the past 18 months behind Robert Brown’s Preston Hollow home, in February 2023 and August 2024.
The two water main breaks occurred in the 4300 block of Margate Drive, just north of and uphill from Brown’s property. The water ran downhill into Brown’s home and his neighbor’s home.
Brown said the flood in 2023 caused about $300,000 in damage to his home. All the floors and counter spaces had to be ripped out and replaced, and all the walls up to two feet high had to be replaced.
The second flood in August 2024 caused an estimated $157,000 in damages, not including the cost of replacement furnishings.
“I paid $300,000 for the first flood. I had to come up with a lot of money with credit cards and loans. It pretty much ruined us last year to deal with this financially. We’re still dealing with that, and for us to have to deal with this again is extremely terrible,” Brown said.
While the City acknowledged that the damage to Brown’s home was caused by flooding from the broken water main, they say the pipeline failure was due to degradation of the pipes over time and not related to negligence on the City’s part.
“[Brown’s] claims were denied for Governmental Immunity,” the City of Dallas said in a written statement, per CBS News Texas.
However, Brown disagrees.
“I’m not saying you ran into my house with your vehicle. They’re city-owned assets that caused the floods,” Brown said.
Brown has also received the cold shoulder from his homeowner’s insurance company.
SafeCo Insurance, under the umbrella of Liberty Mutual, has denied Brown’s claims for damage, declaring that the damage was caused by “surface water” and, therefore, not covered under a regular homeowner’s policy.
“Surface water” damages would be covered under a separate flood insurance policy if the homeowner has one.
However, the definition of “surface water” seems to vary depending on the municipality and the policy’s specific language. According to the Merlin Law Group, surface water is “water that accumulates on the ground’s surface, which usually results from some kind of precipitation, and that does not flow within a defined channel or watercourse.”
While the City of Dallas and SafeCo have seemingly washed their hands of the situation, Brown is left to clean up the mess.
“I liquidated everything. We have no retirement at this point. I got a bunch of credit cards, and I maxed all those out, and then I got about $300,000 in personal loans,” Brown told CBS News Texas.
Brown’s neighbor, Fred Graffam, was also affected by the flooding from the burst water main. He told CBS News that he had already spent $600,000 on repairs, and more repair work had yet to be completed. Graffam likewise has not received any relief from the City or his insurance company.
Brown said he is on the verge of foreclosure after following behind on his home loan payments after the first flood. He has set up a GoFundMe account to save his house from foreclosure.
“The existing water pipeline in the 4300 block of Margate Drive has previously been identified for replacement by DWU,” Dallas Water Utilities said in a written statement, per CBS News. “The engineering design has been completed, and a construction contract including this pipeline is scheduled for council award this fall. Construction activities are expected to begin in spring 2025.”