Residents reach settlement 4 years after homes damaged by muddy water

A settlement has been reached between homeowners whose houses were damaged by muddy waters traced back to a nearby neighborhood under construction.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - It's an update four years in the making.

A settlement has been reached between homeowners whose houses were damaged by muddy waters traced back to a nearby neighborhood under construction.

""To me it shows lack of concern, lack of worry for your fellow man, a victim of what's happened here," said Paul Selko, a resident impacted.

Selko described how he felt left adrift by A-List Construction. His wife, Christina, was battling cancer and the headache of the flooding just added more stress.

"It's stressing us both out," said Selko.

"I'm sleeping on a blow-up mattress," said Evans Brown, who lives a few doors down from the Selkos. "In 26 years, I never thought that'd be happening."

With several residents all in the same boat, and getting nowhere with the construction company, residents took legal action.

"I've never seen a case where, the homeowners just left hanging. It was clear what had happened. That it wasn't the fault of these homeowners. They should have been taken care of and instead they had to pursue litigation," said attorney Jim Buxton.

The case was filed in 2021, and was recently settled with terms not disclosed to our In Your Corner team.

"The thing that hits me the most about this case is how the plaintiffs and all these homeowners stuck together. They were a team. They were a unit. They all supported each other," added Buxton.

The area behind the Florida Avenue Homes, near NW 115th, have since been built up with homes and duplexes.

Back in 2020, the area was cleared of vegetation while the streets were being laid out. When heavy rain fell, the water channeled straight towards Florida Avenue.

The city of Oklahoma City said the required runoff control failed and the flooding seeped into homes.

A city inspector assessed the problem and cited the failure of the Storm Water Control System.

"They are required to submit a permit to install storm water quality controls to mitigate any of the runoff that would occur from that site," said Buxton. "In this case some of those systems failed, which is a lot of the reason for all the muddy water in the streets and some of the flooded areas."

At the time, A List Construction blamed subcontractors for the issue. At no point did they offer recovery assistance to homeowners.

"It's a class three water damage, which means you have to take out any of the fabrics or the sheetrock or the flooring. All that stuff has to be removed because it's an environmental health hazard," said Buxton. "And then your homeowner's [insurance] doesn't cover it and you're
left having to get it from the party that caused it."

Buxton said in these situations, homeowners may not have many options for recovery.

"If something like this happens to you, your options are to either just lay down and say, "I'm not going to do anything about it," or to fight, or reach out to people like you that are in your corner, and ask for help, or reach out to me or reach out to some other lawyers. I mean, there are a lot of people in this community that care about one another and just because somebody in our community does something wrong and won't accept responsibility for it," he said.

The development, that was once cleared for the new homes, is nearly completed.

News 4 called the developer's attorney for a statement. They told us they could not comment due to pending litigation.