Not Petty and the Homebreakers II

If it's in your covenants, it's not petty. It's a covenant that you agreed to comply with when you moved into the association. There is a responsibility to follow the rules and to pay the assessments.
- Lallis Jackson. H.O.A. Task Farce. January 16, 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyDa3Rh0J4U @ T+2:48:43

Nashville, Tennessee. The frantic cry still haunts Monica Meeker.

It punctured the darkness as she and her husband lay in bed at the end of a fun-filled day celebrating daughter Camilla’s third birthday last October.

She rushed to her daughter’s bedroom and found her hanging from a window, the cord from the blind wrapped tightly around Camilla’s neck.

“She was gasping for air and crying and coughing,” Meeker said. “She had purple ligature marks on her neck for a week.”

The couple took down the blinds that night, replacing them with curtains.

Within two weeks, a letter arrived from the property manager for their homeowners association. The gray curtains they’d put up violated the association’s standards.”

The Meekers spent thousands on a losing battle with the HOA — even after the near tragedy, it wouldn’t back down on the requirement.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that on average, one child dies each month of strangulation from blind cords.

The family unsuccessfully tried to fight the window blind requirement, spending $7,000 on legal fees, but last summer moved to a home that is not in an HOA.

sources

- Judy L. Thomas. “HOAs from Hell: Homes Associations Torment Residents They’re Supposed to Support”. Kansas City Star. August 03, 2016.
@ http://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/hoa/article92502962.html

- Judy L. Thomas. “HOAs from Hell: More Horror Stories, More Fraud — and Prospect of Legislative Action”. Kansas City Star. December 23, 2016.
@ https://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/hoa/article122547749.html

- Joe Ledford and Monty Davis. “Tennessee Family Battles HOA After Daughter Is Nearly Strangled”. Kansas City Star. February 07, 2018.
video @ https://www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/hoa/article93106177.html