Buried portable basketball hoop

Hello, I have a question about our bball hoop. Our community doesn't allow portable hoops in the front yard, so we buried ours in the front to convert it into permanent. Our CC&Rs state: "All basketball goals must be pole mounted and permanently installed. Poles must be painted the color of the house." That's all. If you look up the definition of portable, it says that you can easily move it, definition of permanent means it cannot be easily moved, and is intended to last for a long period of time.

I realize that when the rules were made they might have intended to write them so that portable ones couldn't be converted, or maybe they just didn't even think of that possibility. Since the rule does not say what kind of hoop or how it needs to be installed into the ground, our hoop is in compliance. legally, the wording is what matters--people are allowed to do things all the time that the rule-makers didn't intend, which is why rules/laws are amended all the time. Our hoa board is a group of 5 friends, all men, who want nothing to do with any of this. They've denied our appeal and last night I had a second hearing where it was like a courtroom drama, them all yelling at me and laughing and rolling their eyes. They said that either I just want to argue or I don't want to do the work of converting it to permanent the way THEY want me to--putting a sleeve on it. I told them it would be alot of work for us to tear it out and re-do it all, my husband has knee problems and is on crutches, and I have MS. Their reasoning is that because the CC&Rs say no portable hoops allowed in the front, then mine doesn't comply. BUT, they will allow a portable converted to permanent only if I do it their way (their way is nowhere required in the CC&Rs).

I kept reminding them that they can't base their decision on what they wish the rule would be or what they think it should be, it's not a matter of broad interpretation like "a neat a tidy yard", its clearly says that all we have to do is "permanently install it", which is what we've done. I also told them that we've consulted several attorneys (my husband and several friends are attorneys) who have all worked with hoa boards and they all said this is ridiculous and should never go to court because the hoa would likely lose. The board just started yelling at me in response to that that they're "not afraid of lawyers and there's nothing that I can ever say that will change their minds ever."

One more thing--our next door neighbor buried theirs and was approved by the previous board because those people in my opinion were obviously reasonable. I had one of those board members come to my second hearing to back me up and the current board scoffed at her as well. I reminded them that they are legally bound to the CC&Rs, and not the other way around. They then told me that they didn't care because it's their decision and there's nothing I can do.

We are ready to go to court because of how terribly handled it's been and abuse of power that's been shown (one board member has had his portable out in front for almost a year and he conveniently brought it inside 2 hours before the hearing so that he could say that he wasn't breaking any rules).

Andy advice on how you would think it would go? Do we have a strong enough case?

Thanks alot

To a misbehaving board, there is nothing worse than everyone knowing about it.

We DID receive approval prior to us burying it, in writing. Thanks for replying

You left that out of your original post. If you have that in hand then IMO the current Board is wasting time and money and since your defense should cost you nothing, let them sue. But I would as Steve suggests inform your fellow homeowners of what the BOD is doing. Do any of your local TV stations have a "trouble shooter"?

If you have the approval letter (and it is something like an ARC approval and not a former Board member saying "it should be okay"), then sit back and relax. If the HOA's attorney has all of the facts, they will hopefully advise the Board that it is foolish to pursue it and explain to the Board what the likely outcome will be.

Not to get off track here, but how does one bury a portable basketball net set-up? Every portable one I've seen has the big black plastic base. You dug a hole and buried the whole base? Seems like a strange way to do it, but once it's done, I see no issues or real difference between that and a "real" permanent unit.

Hmmm ...

1. If you received approval to bury it (from the same BoD?) then it seems reasonable and approved bury it, except ...
2. If when you buried the base it wasn't complete, didn't get get landscaped well, has some part showing, didn't look "permanent," etc ... perhaps this is the issue?

Gah - how does this keep happening?