Family Says City is Responsible for Sewage Nightmare

Even though it has only been five months the Kite family is finally living in their dream home.

Just when they thought their hard work was paying off on this brand new home, a messy disaster forced them out.

"It's more than just four walls to us," said Bobbie and Toby Kite.

The Kites, along with their two girls, were finally in a house they could call their home, that is until they got a messy surprise one night last month.

"The toilet was over flowing, sewage was coming up out of the shower, raw sewage," said Bobbie, "It included all the nasty stuff that's in sewage."

Their bathroom was flooded two inches deep, but the problem wasn't just spewing from there.

"I heard water running from down the stairs," said Toby, "So, I came down here, came down the basement stairs here and there was water just running out of the can light fixtures here into the floor."

They immediately called a licensed plumber who told them there was nothing wrong from the homes service line to the main line, the problem was with the city's pipes.

"He then told us he wasn't allowed to dig up or mess with any of the city's plumbing," said Bobbie.

According to The City of Lubbock, only a licensed plumber is allowed to contact the city about a sewer emergency.

The city came out to check on the mess, but couldn't figure out a cause.

They told the Kites they'd be back the next day.

Until then, the Kites were forced out of their home and into a hotel.

The next day, Bobbie said two men came to their house in a city truck, but did nothing.

"I immediately called the city and said what's going on," said Bobbie, "They said, 'We just sent to guys out there, they worked for 30 minute to flush the main, they flushed it out and everything's completely clear,' which is a lie, because they never got out of their truck."

The Kites had to then call another plumber for a different opinion.

"I was worried they were going to pull out a Barbie doll or a baby doll that one of our girls had flushed," said Bobbie, but that wasn't the case.

"Once I realized that it was nothing that we had done, I think that made it even more frustrating that we couldn't get anyone to help us," she said.

Finally, Bobbie said after days of hassling with the city, they came out again, this time with a robotic camera that was able to detect the problem --- a collapsed city pipe.

"When we dug up the line and got down to that connection between their service line and our service line that comes off our main sewer line to that property line that joint was broken," said Kevin Lair with The City of Lubbock's street and utilities superintendent.

But he said it's hard to tell who's to blame.

"Nobody knows what happened," said Lair, "Was it the plumber that connected to the line, was it a problem with the line that was put in by the contractor that put in the stub, you can't point a finger."

"I know they probably have big attorneys and big money to turn this around and to make it look like it was not their responsibility," said Bobbie, "And that's so frustrating because as a single little citizen you can't fight against that,. so that's very difficult, that's very hard for us, but we will fight until they take care of what they've caused."

Finally after days of claiming it wasn't their problem the city took responsibility and fixed the pipe, allowing the Kites to be back in their home.

The Kites did file a claims report to the city, but they say even if everything is replaced it will never be 100 percent back to normal.