Alabama's HOA/ACC laws?

[Threestep2]

What do your covenants say about annual meetings?

[Nlambert]

Nothing. It doesn't mention meetings or anything that gives the community an opportunity to voice comments or concerns. Nor is there a way to contact this board without going through the probate office to track down their home address.

[Nlambert]

Slight update.....

After months of not talking to this neighbor, he finally called me over yesterday to "clear the air".

We are still working with the lawyer to try and fight this committee. He said that he did not call the ACC on us, but then said that he did not like the gravel rv pad we installed over a year ago. I asked why this was an issue now, as when the guys were here installing he was out there with them and had no complaints then. He is the only person that can see the gravel, and he has to walk around his detached garage to see it. It isn't visible from his house.

I asked why he hasn't cut the grass between our driveways since March (it's over 4ft tall now) and he said it was because he intended to install a barbed wire fence and put a goat there so that everyone could see his mess because he had to look at ours...... I won't post pictures, but I wish I could. Our home and yard is well maintained and we have gotten compliments multiple times on how well we keep it.

I point blank asked if he called in on us, and he denied it but when I told him that I set him up with information to see if it would make it to the ACC (it did), he quickly said he would go ahead and cut the grass so that we didn't have to look at it. I asked if installing a fence to further block any view he would have of the gravel would solve his complaints, and he said no. Then he said to forget about the whole thing, as we needed to get along.

Kind of difficult to do now that we can't stop this train that he started. I told him that I'd forget about it when he either got the ACC to back off (they're not sending letters to any other neighbors) or when he pays me back for the attorney bills that we've had to pay so far.

The final thing that he said (and I believe what started it all) was that he got mad one evening after we got the first lawyer letter because he was trying to tell us about restrictions that didn't even exist. When I pulled out the copy that we received and showed him that certain things weren't even mentioned in there, he got mad and walked away. He didn't like that we questioned him.... apparently that's what started the whole thing.

He wanted to shake my hand and tell me to forget everything and pretend like none of it happened. When I took his hand to shake it, I told him that we'd get along for the sake of the neighborhood but that we would never forget this happened and that he could forget any chance of having a friendly relationship again.

Now we have to wait for the attorneys to decide if we have to go to court to get this thrown out (selective enforcement) or if he can convince them to stand down.

Sad that all of this was a knee jerk reaction to him getting upset because we didn't agree with what he said. We've had one fantastic neighbor put their house up for sale because they found out during all of this that they couldn't build a garage, and another that is about to sell for the same reason.

[dijkstra]

He now realizes he started something he wishes he hadn't. He most likely got a letter about the unkept section of yard and maybe other violations he has. He ticked off other neighbors and now they are selling and moving and who knows what the new neighbors will be like.

My advice is to stick to your guns and let the judge make the decision and file the order. That way it won't come up again. It is in all likelihood going to be thrown out for selective enforcement and it will be done for good unless a HOA is formed and new covenants and restrictions are agreed upon but at that point they can't require people to remove parking areas or detached garages since they will have already been there.

[Nlambert]

Originally Posted by dijkstra

He now realizes he started something he wishes he hadn't. He most likely got a letter about the unkept section of yard and maybe other violations he has. He ticked off other neighbors and now they are selling and moving and who knows what the new neighbors will be like.

My advice is to stick to your guns and let the judge make the decision and file the order. That way it won't come up again. It is in all likelihood going to be thrown out for selective enforcement and it will be done for good unless a HOA is formed and new covenants and restrictions are agreed upon but at that point they can't require people to remove parking areas or detached garages since they will have already been there.

As of yet, he hasn't received any letters, nor has anyone else. We've taken 100% of the heat from the ACC, and haven't breathed a word of any other potential violation to the ACC because we don't want them in our neighborhood harassing our other neighbors. For the most part, our neighbors are all really nice people and we want to continue a good relationship with them.

I have been trying to catch this neighbor outside to confront him about everything and get an explanation and he has gotten tired of trying to dodge us. One can only sit in their car for so long waiting on us to go inside before they get out, before deciding that it's getting ridiculous. That was my first notion that he was guilty because until yesterday I had not ever actually point blank called him out, so there was no real reason to avoid us if he hadn't done anything. And, as expected, he lied to me. But, I digress. I know where we stand.

I've asked the attorney to stop wasting time in the expensive back and forth letters with the ACC attorney and just ask to take it before a judge. He suggested that we hold a community meeting to vote out the current ACC, which we are in the process of setting up. But at this point I still want this to go to the judge. Even if we vote them out and replace them with folks in the community, the rules are still here unless we change them.

What's so crazy is that we have not, nor do we intend to, intentionally violated any CCRs. In this instance we just found out too far down the road to do anything about them. We'd like to prevent other neighbors from suffering the same fate.