Tub Owner Wins Battle vs. Home Owners Assoc

[hotubinn]

Glad you have a good HOA Zep.  Once you have a lawyer involved, the HOA doesn't need to have boat loads of money... they'll get theirs from the individual homeowner.  If you think the following story is a rare occurance, search the net and you will find thousands more like it.



HOA battles dying woman over fees  
A Gilbert homeowners association is moving to seize the home of a single mother with terminal breast cancer to recoup $1,000 in legal fees.


  
By Mary K. Reinhart
Article Courtesy of Arizona East Valley Tribune
October 7, 2003
And Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman is determined not to let it happen.  

"It’s absolutely pathetic that someone is committed that this woman should die a homeless person over homeowners association fees," Berman said. "They really will look like the most heartless neighborhood in the country."  

Evelyn Lyles, 44, fell behind in her bills last summer, including $40 monthly dues to the Western Skies Estates HOA, as she tried to work full time while undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy for recurring breast cancer.  

But what began as a lawyer’s letter for $393 last November ballooned with late and legal fees into a $2,216 bill and a foreclosure action last month.  

"It’s hard for me to believe that they took it this far," Lyles said. "I didn’t even know they had that type of power."  

Guy Wolf, an Ahwatukee Foothills lawyer representing the association, said federal law prohibits him from discussing specific cases. He said association members also would not be permitted to comment.  

But in general, he said, people may believe they have worked out a payment plan when there has been no such agreement. Or they may be paying, but not fast enough to work off the debt when late fees and legal fees are added.  

"While they think they’re catching up on their dues, in fact they are getting further behind as the legal fees accrue," Wolf said. "In general, homeowners associations have the power to foreclose if the dues that are unpaid go unpaid for too long."  

Lyles was trying to catch up on medical and other bills, and said she worked out a payment plan with her mortgage company. But when she offered to pay off the association balance of $393 last January, she said Wolf told her it was too late. With legal fees and late charges, she now owed more than $1,000.  

Wolf told her he would file a complaint in South Mesa Justice Court and she could work out a payment plan, Lyles said.  

"He said just pay as much as you can," she said.  

The court document and her conversation with Wolf led her to believe she could pay off her balance with monthly payments of $55, or more when she could afford it.  

A default judgment was made against Lyles for $1,046. Over the next several months, she made regular payments of $55 to $75. Lyles said the next thing she received was a foreclosure notice on Sept. 11.  

"I had heard nothing from them, and they cashed my check every month," she said.  

She borrowed money and paid Wolf $1,000 within a week, bringing her payments to the association for 2003 to about $1,800.  

Court documents show a lien was placed against Lyles’ two-story home in July, but Lyles said she never received notice. That same month, she took out a loan to take her three children to Florida to watch her 14-year-old compete in a national track and field competition.  

"If I had known this, I would’ve paid my fees. I wouldn’t have put my home in jeopardy," she said.  

Lyles has responded to the foreclosure notice, disputing the $1,046 Wolf and the association claim she still owes and asking for an explanation of his legal fees.  

"When this first started, I owed $363," Lyles said. "When I tried to make amends with (the association), all they kept doing was sending me letters from their lawyer."  

Berman said he told Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, about Lyles’ situation, "and he was livid." Farnsworth last year sponsored legislation to rein in homeowners associations, including requiring that they wait at least seven years before seizing a home for unpaid dues.  

"The nice thing would be if Mr. Wolf would drop his attorney’s fees," Berman said. "That would solve it immediately. It would just go away."  

If Wolf refuses, Berman said neighbors could help pay the legal fees, or he could meet with the association.  

"We’re not going to let her lose her house," he said. "We’re going to find some way to take care of this."  

Lyles’ breast cancer, first detected when she was 27, was in remission for six years but has now spread to her spine, thorax and sternum. She told her three children last week.  

She continues to work as a logistics analyst with MD Helicopters after daily radiation treatments. On Saturday, her 45th birthday, Lyles will participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  

"I am terminal. My kids know that," she said. "That’s why I’m so adamant to do all I can for my kids now. So that when I’m gone, they won’t just fall apart."  
 

[wmccall]

Maybe I need an HOA.  Apparently lawns are fairly rare in Mexico, they think they are parking lots.

[Zep]

I am 99% sure that if there were valid medical reasons or reasons of real need that they would work with someone that had been a good member of the HOA.

I believe the way my HOA handles deadbeats is they simply file a small claims case and place a lean on the house. Whenever the house is sold and the owner reaps the rewards of selling a house in a nice neighborhood the HOA gets the money it's legally owed.

It seems like I read in the newsletter that there are maybe 2 or 3 that fail to pay their dues every year.  

My HOA are not "Nazis", they are elected members, they are my neighbors, people that have come together to work on maintaining property values and have a beautiful, safe community to reside and live.

[wmccall]

I've given consideration to buying out my sister's half of my mom's house in the hopefully distant future and I've already inquired about hot tubs and they mearly want to discuss the setup and approve it ahead of time.  They probably have some guidelinesabout privacy walls, and it sounds like that could be cooperatively worked out.  

Do your HOA's have guidelines about pets?  I have three cats and they always stay indoors. I hate cat owners, at least urban ones, who think they need to let their cats out to run through their neighbors yards.  

[Zep]

re: "I've already inquired about hot tubs and they mearly want to discuss
the setup and approve it ahead of time"

I had to submit a request to the HOA about my new hot tub
about this time last year.

I sent them pictures of what it would look like and promised that it
would be professionally done.

They quickly approved my request and just reminded me to make sure all
city codes were followed.

They said they would come look after completion, but they never have.

Same thing with the new fence.....quick approval after showing plans.

They just do not want any "slop job" wooden fences going up that you
see where people do it themselves and it is all crooked, not stained,
and generally looks like hell.


re:"Do your HOA's have guidelines about pets?"

I don't have any pets so I am not sure, but I do not remember reading
anything about pets in the bi-laws.

Although I would hope there would be some type of restrictions on the
number of pets.

At my old house some half-wit had like 9 dogs in her backyard......gosh
the odor and the noise when they all started barking!

[Spatech_tuo]

I've given consideration to buying out my sister's half of my mom's house in the hopefully distant future and I've already inquired about hot tubs and they mearly want to discuss the setup and approve it ahead of time.  They probably have some guidelinesabout privacy walls, and it sounds like that could be cooperatively worked out.  

Do your HOA's have guidelines about pets?  I have three cats and they always stay indoors. I hate cat owners, at least urban ones, who think they need to let their cats out to run through their neighbors yards.  

I had 2 issues with the HOA in teh 4 yrs we lived in a condo:

1) I went in front of them to discuss a concrete pad (no spa plan at that time). I stated I was going to pour a pad and wanted to inform them. The lady dressed me down that I needed to do more than just inform them blah, blah, I needed plans blah, blah. All the while I sat patiently listen to her I had them right on the table I was sitting at but sat quietly as she merely read me a riot act. When she was done I handed her the plans and she looked at me and said "Why didn't you say you had these" to which I responded "you never gave me a chance, you immediately went into the mode of scolding me like a child without even finding out how prepared I was". It got approved.

2) The Pet part! A few months later they got a complaint from my neighbor that our cat roams around outside (imagine that, a cat that goes outside). This time she was nice to me so she calls me up and I stop over to discuss the issue. It clearly states in the by-laws that pets are to be indoors only and walked on a leash when outside. I said "I see other peoples cats outside often, have you informed them?". When she said no, there was no compalints relative to other people's cats I said "fine, the moment a letter is sent to ALL residents and it is enforced accross the board I will comply. Until then I won't be singled out because I live next door to a pain in the ass". The subject never arose again.

[Tom]

Former soldeir Bernie Robitaille [of Edmonton] landed in hot water with his condo association after he installed a six-person hot tub on the patio of his ground-floor river valley unit last summer.  

Bernie won his court battle, and is enjoying his hot tub.  I just learned that the tub in question is an Arctic.  

So of course, I got all excited and had to let everybody know.