Hands Tied by Metro District

We have lived in Sterling Ranch (Littleton) for over 5 years. We have many of the same issues as others who have posted their stories. It is frustrating to have little say in how the rules are defined. Granted, they go through the motions to make it APPEAR as if the homeowners have input, but very few of the comments/recommendations are ever adopted. If the family that runs the development doesn’t agree, they have enough influence with the other non-residents on the board to have them voted down… the ratio of resident to non-resident board members is laughable.

Our biggest concern is that because this development is governed by metro districts, there is no legal recourse when something truly underhanded transpires.

Because our home was one of the first ones built and because many of the contractors were not educated on how the two-water-meter approach was to be implemented, our house was built with a glaring construction defect, through no fault of our own. The CAB recognized that it was a defect, but decided for some reason they would *not* be holding the builders accountable to correct the defect (we have documentation), and they came up with an alternative proposed solution. We naively believed that the proposed solution was underway and would resolve the issue.

Unfortunately we were informed JUST AFTER the 2-year statute of limitations expired that the trial of their proposed solution would not work, and we were told we had to incur the cost to repair the defect ourselves. Otherwise, we would be held out-of-compliance for the water covenants. Fortunately, the 150 or so property owners affected banded together and fought back hard enough to get the CAB to provide a variance to the water covenants and we did not need to spend the $10,000 to fix the construction defect.

During this battle, it was extremely frustrating that original board members acted like they were unaware of the situation, blamed it on the builders not overseeing construction properly, claimed it was an inspection issue, etc.

At the moment, we have the variance for our property, but were advised that this could change at any time should a future CAB board vote that the variances are no longer agreeable, for whatever reason.

Because our development is governed by metro districts, we have been advised that we cannot sue the CAB or metro districts. Our hands are completely tied by something that was done long before we purchased our home.

We are not suggesting that metro districts should be sued frivolously, but when something like this occurs, the homeowners should be able to receive financial compensation, allowing them to make the changes necessary to meet the covenants for the neighborhood.

UPDATE: Thank you for pointing out I had posted this to the wrong task force, I have moved it to the correct one.