Maryland Signature Club Builders, Managers Failed to Warn About Faulty Sewage, Wastewater System, Class Action Alleges

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Several Signature Club residents allege in a proposed class action that they have suffered property damage, flooding, sewage backup, noxious odors and other damages as a result of the failure of multiple neighborhood management companies and home builders to address known problems with the community’s private sewage and wastewater system. 

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The 51-page lawsuit alleges defendants Caruso Homes, Caruso Signature Club Mgt, Ryan Homes, Signature 2016 Residential, Signature Club Homeowners Association, VIKA Maryland, Delmarva Site Development and Airvac, Inc. have known that the private sewage and wastewater system in the in Accokeek, Maryland, neighborhood was improperly installed, designed, maintained, and otherwise inadequate for its intended use—and that it would cause damage to Signature Club residents—yet failed to warn homebuyers of the issues. 

In addition to property damage, Signature Club residents have since at least the summer of 2021 incurred financial harm in the form of overbilling for wastewater services, overpayment for their respective properties, increased insurance premiums, and the reduction of the value of their homes and properties, the case argues.

According to the suit, a company called TSC/Muma Mattawoman Associates Limited Partnership bought a 70-acre tract of land around 2005 with the intention of building 315 assisted living units and a large, multi-unit building for residents 55 and older. In 2014, as part of the initial development of this land, TSC/Muma and defendant VIKA Maryland designed and built a sewage and wastewater pumping station for the proposed community, the case says. Within the pumping station was installed a vacuum sewer pump designed and made by defendant Airvac, and the vacuum pump was designed such that it would be connected to wastewater lines that would connect to the proposed residential living facilities and maintain continuous vacuum pressure on the entire system, filing relays. 

In particular, valve pits were installed to hold wastewater at or near the homes and living facilities, connecting to the homes and facilities via gravity sewage lines, the case explains. In each valve pit, the suit says, vacuum valves were meant to seal the system to keep wastewater from moving through the pipes, and after 10 gallons of wastewater collected in the pit, the vacuum valves would activate and quickly unseal the system. From there, the sewage and wastewater, after being sent to a collection tank in the vacuum pumping station, would then be forced through a main pipe to a nearby wastewater treatment plant, the lawsuit states. 

However, after the pumping station was built, TSC/Muma “abandoned the project” without building the residential living facilities and without installing “the vast majority of the sewer system,” the complaint says. From there, the project went into foreclosure, and at some point thereafter, around November 2016, defendant Caruso Homes became involved in the purchase and redevelopment of the tract of land, the filing relays. 

A new plan for the land called for 312 fee-simple lots, a mix of 217 single-family homes and 95 townhome units, and included four playgrounds and a meeting hall/clubhouse, the lawsuit shares. Crucially, these changes to the site plan “greatly increased the demand that would be placed on the sewer system,” and neither Caruso, Signature 2016 Residential nor VIKA Maryland modified or expanded the design of the existing pump house and pumping station to accommodate the increased demand, the complaint says. 

According to the case, none of the defendants took measures—or implemented modifications—to ensure that the existing pumping and vacuum sewer technology, as originally designed, could meet the demand of more than 300 single-family homes and townhomes and the common areas, including by installing all sewer valves with an alarm.

During the planning and development of the Signature Club neighborhood, the lawsuit continues, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) reviewed and provided feedback on the proposed private sewer system and directed Caruso Homes and VIKA to ensure that all Airvac sewer valves serving homes be equipped with an alarm. The defendants did not do so, the suit says. 

During the construction process, the WSSC “indicated concern that different dwellings with different lower floor levels would be connected to common vacuum sewer pits,” yet Airvac and VIKA ensured the commission that the gravity lines were equipped with a backflow prevention device to protect connected homes against sewage backup, the case shares. 

In reality, however, backup prevention devices were not installed, were improperly installed or were otherwise inoperable, the lawsuit alleges. 

The complaint says that Signature Club residents began to experience flooding and sewage backup in their homes, driveways and properties in the summer of 2021, problems that allegedly continue to this day. 

“Over the course of more than two years, dozens of Signature Club homes and properties have experienced and been affected by sewage backup and wastewater flooding events,” the filing says. 

In September 2021, a company called Inframark was hired to perform an inspection of the Signature Club wastewater and sewage system and found “construction debris in the wastewater lines and numerous dysfunctional vacuum sewer pits,” and “couplings in the system that were loose” in addition to “at least one deformation in the wastewater lines,” the suit states. Per the case, the defendants, in response, “began blaming residents for flushing improper materials down the toilet,” despite the fact that no evidence existed that any materials flushed by residents were the cause of sewage backups, overflows or flooding. 

To date, the defendants have failed to address the wastewater and sewage problem at the Signature Club, and residents have been forced to pay out of pocket for mitigation efforts amid continuous noxious odors and discolored water linked to the problem, the lawsuit says. 

“These noxious odors are emitted every few minutes from the pump station, which is located on the southern end of the property,” the complaint states. “As the vacuum pumping system processes sewage, it sends a large volume of foul-smelling exhaust through two tall air terminals located adjacent to the pump house.” 

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons who have bought a home in the Signature Club community in Accokeek, Maryland.

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