Can I sue my HOA when they don't abide by their own covenants? (sale, rental)
Western North CarolinaThe Mountain Region including Asheville
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So what would wrong with you picking up a hammer and fixing the gate. Several years ago our HOA went under and the home owners stood around wring their hands wondering how we were going to get things fixed. I picked up a hammer, fixed things/ mowed the property and did general maintanence as needed. No one asked me to do it, I just did it cause it was what needed to be done. Not one of the other owners said thanks or pitched in to help. This is what is wrong with our society. Everyhing handed to them. Are you entitled to a new gate. No you are not. FIX IT YOURSELF.
Ok, so we are done with our lawsuit. The HOA only had to give us certain documents which wasn't exactly a total win for us, and we did not get our money back as our lawyer told us we most likely would. Apparently in NC, HOA's don't have to uphold to transparency. Is it bad business? Yes, in my opinion it is bad business. We are in a neighborhood where obvious violations occur, but if you are friends with an HOA board member that violation goes unnoticed. Our board actually did not comply with the court order to give us all the documents, we sent them another letter but we are moving and getting out of this neighborhood and the state. NC needs to create laws that protect homeowners as well. HOA boards should have to be accountable to the neighborhood, and they should not arbitrarily pick and choose violations to go after. I think anyone living in NC should care about laws protecting them for rogue boards who will stop at nothing to hide documents.
I have backyard chickens for almost 5 years now. The HOA told me I am incompliance. Seriously It took them 5 years to figure out I am violating the covenant. After all the expense and time I spent bonding with my pet chickens, they are telling to remove my chickens from my property. Not only three board members know I have chickens, one of them lives across from me and agreed to watch my chickens will I am on vacation. The violation came about when my husband and the adjacent board member had an altercation. Is there a statute of limitation on my violation or Is the board member just being vindictive.
Suing is one thing. But I've only known small claims court to be suing for money, not performance. You can very likely find it online. But check your state laws on winning/losing. And this might also be in your HOA info. Increasingly, the side that loses has to reimburse the winning side. And if the hoa board members are connected with any good ol' boy judges.....
I have backyard chickens for almost 5 years now. The HOA told me I am incompliance. Seriously It took them 5 years to figure out I am violating the covenant. After all the expense and time I spent bonding with my pet chickens, they are telling to remove my chickens from my property. Not only three board members know I have chickens, one of them lives across from me and agreed to watch my chickens will I am on vacation. The violation came about when my husband and the adjacent board member had an altercation. Is there a statute of limitation on my violation or Is the board member just being vindictive.
It would be great if you had emails back and forth with the board members stating "sure I'll watch your chickens, love those little birds" kind of thing that would be great.
Did you mean the HOA told you you are in complaince or not in compliance. If at first they did tell you you are in compliance, do you have that in writing?
If vindictive people are bent on calling in all chips to destroy things....I'd have to move before parting with pets.
Can you talk to the wives of these characters to get them to change their minds? Knowing the bunch in our last hoa, though, I'd say their wives are beaten down by them too.
It would be great if you had emails back and forth with the board members stating "sure I'll watch your chickens, love those little birds" kind of thing that would be great.
Did you mean the HOA told you you are in complaince or not in compliance. If at first they did tell you you are in compliance, do you have that in writing?
If vindictive people are bent on calling in all chips to destroy things....I'd have to move before parting with pets.
Can you talk to the wives of these characters to get them to change their minds? Knowing the bunch in our last hoa, though, I'd say their wives are beaten down by them too.
How do you know when a HOA board member is acting as a board member or acting as a neighbor.
For instance my neighbor is having a party and I lend him my two guest parking passes. Can someone now think the board has a new policy where you can borrow parking passes.
Are pet chickens even legal to have in the first place. It is illegal to have pet chickens in my town.
How do you know when a HOA board member is acting as a board member or acting as a neighbor.
For instance my neighbor is having a party and I lend him my two guest parking passes. Can someone now think the board has a new policy where you can borrow parking passes.
Are pet chickens even legal to have in the first place. It is illegal to have pet chickens in my town.
An interesting philosophical as well as practical topic.
Can one take on a position of responsibility....but only act in that position when one chooses.
For example, about your neighbor and the parking passes. One could say the fault started with his asking for or accepting your offer of those passes.
When there are rules.....does the wink-wink ever apply? What does one do about silly rules? What does one do about an understanding that rules have changed?
I'm running through a list of possible circumstances in my mind. What's the purpose of that wink-wink of secrecy. It means "we both know this isn't supposed to happen", "we shouldn't be doing this", "I won't tell if you don't". If there's the need for the wink there's the knowledge one is doing wrong. Why even bother to do that when one has chosen the rules. And chosen to stay.
At the same time, there are rules that are just plain silly. Like in your parking example. There should at least be an easy system of getting permission. You're really expected to only keep unused parking spaces empty? You can't share?
As far as the animal example...imo life and innocent animals and being come first.
When there is an emergency, of course most bets are off and one must drive one's emergency vehicle on common area to put out the fire if one is a board member, a resident and a firefighter. If one is a nurse and happens to follow an erratic driver who drives into her own limited common area (limited to her sub-association within a master association) even though the nurse lives in a different sub-association and is not supposed to go in the other one...sure she should go. Openly and proudly, no secrets. Both these things happened for real, btw.
Thinking about this....When the long term VP of the board in my last (and only bad HOA out of many) was finally found to not have paid dues, was he not paying dues as a resident or as a VP sitting on committees that fined people swiftly like the widow who didn't know what bills were to be paid. Was he not paying dues as a resident while sitting as VP on committees that worried about the foreclosures and HOA finances of his community.
I see your point as far as the comments about HOAs where I read one can "join the board" or "get on the board". The board in such areas must be like a club one can just sign up for. But it is not like that everywhere. There are term limits to wait for; time and expense in running. So it is a position of responsibility to be taken seriously.
I feel like anyone in leadership is held to a higher authority because they know the rules better than residents-who-are-not-in-office; they may take an oath or have a Code of Conduct they have to sign for behavior in meetings and in interacting with other residents outside of meetings, as the last one we were in had. As many I know of have.
What are your thoughts?
Last edited by cully; 02-09-2015 at 03:54 PM..
Reason: had to add something philosophical
My situation is the other way around. I have the same bad neighbor who parks commercial vehicle with big bright advertising sign, tall weeds in yards that is visible to people, keeping trash bin and logs in front of house permanently. I asked the Board to send letter or educate them that these are against our covenants. But, they do nothing. I asked them to provide me with minutes to meetings. They said they do not have it. They have not have an elections for year.
Can I sue them to the limit of small claim court for potentially harm the value of my property? Anything I can do to get the Board to fulfill their judiciary duties. My lawyer send a letter to them to act, but they still refuse to send letter to the violator. The old, old board used to send letters to people if there were violations. Please advise. Thank you.
My situation is the other way around. I have the same bad neighbor who parks commercial vehicle with big bright advertising sign, tall weeds in yards that is visible to people, keeping trash bin and logs in front of house permanently. I asked the Board to send letter or educate them that these are against our covenants. But, they do nothing. I asked them to provide me with minutes to meetings. They said they do not have it. They have not have an elections for year.
Can I sue them to the limit of small claim court for potentially harm the value of my property? Anything I can do to get the Board to fulfill their judiciary duties. My lawyer send a letter to them to act, but they still refuse to send letter to the violator. The old, old board used to send letters to people if there were violations. Please advise. Thank you.
First, the board doesn't have 'judiciary' duties. Secondly, you should get a better lawyer. Or, quite simply -- move. Sorry, but we cannot give legal advice on this forum.
I'm guessing she might have meant "fiduciary" duties. It'll be difficult for her to move (e.g. sell her home) as long as her neighbor is creating the violations she described.
Maddie2007: You are in a difficult position. The best I can suggest is to try to round up support by getting as many of your other neighbors as possible to band together to put more pressure on your HOA board. Would that be possible?
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update on HOA lawsuit
