VA Supreme Court Ruling may provides words of warning for VA Associations when assigning parking spaces or amending documents and may have changed the

All VA Associations should take note:

A recent opinion by the VA supreme Court offers word of warnings and changes the rules for attorney fees. Per the opinion of Manchester Oaks Homeowners Ass’n, Inc. v. Batt 3 things were addressed:

Non-Uniform Assignment of Parking Spaces

The Court ruled that an association may not assign parking spaces in anything other than a uniform, equal basis unless the Declaration for the Association expressly allows the Association to assign parking spaces in a non-uniform basis. This decision can be particularly important for communities that have a mix of garage and non-garage town homes, and also for those communities that have a mix of town home and single-family homes.

Following Procedures to the letter when adopting amendments

The Supreme Court ruled that an amendment to the Declaration adopted by the Manchester Oaks Association was invalid because the notice for the meeting at which the membership voted to approve the Declaration was defective. This decision supports the proposition that any defect in following the corporate procedures of the Association can invalidate any actions related to such defect.

But Hey, we all knew that already.

Right for homeowner to collect reasonable attorney fees

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that in any case brought by a homeowner against an association, which alleges that the association was in violation of its Declaration, the homeowner is entitled to an award his or her reasonable attorneys’ fees if the homeowner is the prevailing party.

It appears that this holding is inconsistent with the stated language of the Virginia Property Owners’ Association Act. Accordingly, when involved in disputes with homeowners, associations must be aware that there is a chance that the Association may be held responsible for paying their own attorneys’ fees, but if they lose the case, they could also be found to be responsible for payment
of attorneys’ fees incurred by the homeowner who initiated the legal action against the Association.

I think we all knew this as well.

All of the above summaries were taken from an attorney newsletter.

Tim

Yep it indeed must have been one heck of a fight.

Figuring legal costs were equal to each side, if you include the damages, the whole bill was likely around $500,000. Most likely all of this started because someone couldn't find a parking space one night.