Uncertainty and corruption

Overall the impact of the HOA that purports to apply to my home has been negative. When my wife and I first bought our house, we were told by both real estate agents that there was no HOA and the covenants on record did not apply. However, there were covenants on record that referred to an HOA and purported to apply. We were not in a position to refuse to buy the house, despite that uncertainty, because the market was difficult for buyers to access (2015).

After the purchase, I sent a letter to the registered agent of the corporate entity named in the covenants, to ask for copies of HOA documents (meeting minutes, rules, etc.). I received a call from the registered agent, wherein he told me that my property was not covered by that HOA. After much investigation, it turned out that the developer had named the HOA in the covenants, but he never created the corporate entity. A development adjacent to ours had created an HOA and had taken the exact name that was mentioned in the covenants. This was not that strange, as the name of that HOA was very generic and used a family name common to the various developments in the area.

The original five owners of the properties in the neighborhood ran the non-existent HOA over the years, including a few assessments to accomplish some road construction and other smaller projects. Over the years, those owners ignored the covenants that inconvenienced them (written notices to homeowners, process for improvement approval) and made exceptions to the requirements in the covenants informally and without public deliberation (again, contrary to the requirements of the covenants). The folks who ran the HOA made the same mistake that so many other HOA boards make: they came to believe that they could make an exception to any provisions of the covenants, that the rules by which homeowners had to live were rules of men (them) and not the rule of law (the covenants). They would point to the covenants when those supported their decisions and pointed to their authority when their decisions contradicted the covenants.

When my wife and I bought our house, the HOA had been inactive for many years (15 or so). During that time, many covenant violations had been allowed to occur without intervention from the HOA leadership. A few years after our purchase, one of the owners purporting to be part of the HOA leadership decided to wield the covenants and the HOA authority to force their neighbor to radically alter their landscaping - despite the fact that such landscaping had been in place for more than a decade.

A homeowner meeting was called with only oral notice to the folks who happened to be at home when that owner went around the neighborhood giving oral notice. A lesbian couple living in the neighborhood attended and vigorously objected to the meeting, the authority of the people purporting to run the HOA, and the validity of the covenants. That scared off the HOA leadership for a few weeks. Eventually, the HOA leadership called another homeowner meeting, again only orally (no written notices to anyone), not all homeowners were notified of the meeting, the lesbian couple mentioned above was specifically ignored and were given no notice of the meeting, and homeowners were promised that no voting would take place at the meeting - that it was only to have an informal discussion.

At that second meeting, the HOA leadership attempted to have a vote, ballots were handed out to only the male members of the households (our house was in my wife's name only, but I'm the one who got a ballot), and the HOA leadership attempted to convince the homeowners that the lawyers hired by the HOA leadership represented all the homeowners (this was not true) and that they had advised the leadership that the vote and the recommended decisions had been approved and recommended by such counsel. Thankfully, the majority of homeowners at the meeting refused to have a vote and expressed skepticism about the validity of the HOA and the covenants.

Since then, the owners purporting to be the leadership of the HOA continue to attempt to wield their perceived power. New owners in the neighborhood have been approached and reminded of rules that do not exist in writing, and they have been advised of an informal process of approval of improvements that is contrary to the explicit terms of the covenants. They continue to attempt to rule by decree.