HOA or Mandatory Country Club Membership?

For the last few years, we have been at war with our "HOA." When we bought in our neighborhood, it was still in the development phase and the HOA hadn't been turned over to the homeowners yet. We live in a neighborhood that has a country club, but the club is not in our section. When we signed papers to buy the house, we were told there was an HOA. We learned that we sent our "dues" for the HOA to the country club and that the HOA operated from the club.

At some point, the "HOA" was turned over…. but not to the residents. It was turned over to the country club, and the country club hired a property manager. We are required to pay 1/4 of the country club membership as our HOA dues-- the line item on the monthly bill was changed to "deed fee" a few years ago. So, as we pay 1/4 of the country club dues, our fees go up every year without our input. When we bought, it was about $100/month. Now it's close to $140. Even worse is that some of the more expensive sections pay lower fees and have active HOAs.

The property manager does NOTHING. The CC&R's are not enforced. Yet, we still have to pay the fee every month.

There's a golf course and a pool and tennis courts and a weight room in my neighborhood, but, since we only pay the "I don't want a lien put on my house" level, we are not allowed to use any of the amenities because we aren't members.

I have heard of Mandatory Equity Memberships in private country clubs, but at least those cases upheld CC&R's. Has anyone ever heard of this? What kind of recourse do I have? I am one of the few people who actually wanted deed restrictions. But now, I have the worst of both worlds-- I pay through the nose for deed restrictions and there is no one there to enforce.

Before you tell me to get a lawyer, I have one! I am just looking for extra ways to move this along. I am sick of the stress.

Thoughts?

I've read and reread and reread again the deed restrictions of the neighborhood. The CC&R's state that the deed restrictions will be upheld by "the board" (which there is NOT a board since when the developer handed over the responsibilities of the HOA, he handed them over to the Country Club). After a few years of complaining, the Country Club hired a property manager, yet the property manager doesn't do anything except respond to complaints (and even finding the contact information for the property manager requires a lot of digging). And, the two complaints I have made (a camper set up across the street for me for two weeks and a boat next to the mailboxes) took several weeks to be rectified-- if it was even rectified at all by the property management company or just by the owners of the camper and boat just moving them because they used them or moved them for another reason. Basically, the Country Club sends out invoices monthly to everyone in the neighborhood. If you are a member of the Country Club, then your fees are lumped in with your monthly dues. If you are not a member, you pay what they call a "deed fee" to the Country Club. There are no common areas as the only common areas in the development are for the country club and you can't use them unless you are a member. I've called the property manager and asked if there is an HOA forming, and was told that there wan't one now and there won't ever be one. But, we still have to pay this bizarre "deed fee" to a country club that we aren't allowed to use unless we join and pay the additional fees-- BUT, even if we DO join, it still doesn't change the fact that the CC&R's aren't being upheld and my $400K house is now in a neighborhood filled with campers and boats and trailers and commercial vehicles and things that we expressly did NOT want when we bought our house. I just wonder how it can be legal that a country club can collect funds for something it doesn't actually DO.