Old rural community in peril, needs HOA, residents say NO WAY!

Hi all. I am trying to save a dying Colorado rural community (under 50 homes) that has multiple problems on the horizon. The subdivision has a Covenant which is about as bare-bones as one could hope - mostly just a repeat of County ordinances. The County doesn't have/want anything to do with Covenants any more, they pretend covenants don't exist. The vast majority of the homes in this development are so VEHEMENTLY opposed to any form of "Association", even if it is nonprofit and relies on donations! They foolishly believe that all HOAs are "evil", hell-bent on taking away their horses and demolishing their outbuildings. Our Covenant is one of the shortest, most benign ones I have ever seen, but people see the Covenant as a Letter from Satan himself, and anyone who wants an HOA as a minion of the Devil!

The primary risks to this development stem from the fact that it was all the brainchild of ONE man, who owned all the land all the water rights and did all the work himself to bring it into existence and grow from a population of 0 to approx 120 in the span of a decade. He left NO instruction manual behind, and most of his former crew who helped keep the place running have scattered to the wind - replaced by either incompetent hourly labor or not replaced at all. Most of the heavy machinery, like the road grader and the massive brush-hog tractor, are gone now too - never coming back.

Here are the main threats we are suddenly facing:
---------------
Safety - Fire is a big one. We are surrounded by native grassland, and there is a common area that runs through the center of the development that hasn't been mowed for several years. It is full of baby rattlesnakes and dry dead vegetation. The nearest ambulance or fire truck is 30 minutes away, so the less DRY FUEL there is out here the better. There was a brush fire less than 6 weeks ago, and there will be more and more as time goes on!

Roads - We have a 3 mile gravel road that is 20 years old and haven't gotten new material for half that time. Corners are washing out and sliding down the slope, ruts are getting deeper every day. 10-foot snow drifts are infrequent but do occur.

Legal - Our water provider MAY be in violation of several different regulatory agencies' rules/laws. If they are, the subdivision's ONLY source of water could be seized by authorities (it would be a drastic measure, but it is possible). If this occurs, our development NEEDS some form of legally-recognized 'entity' in order to have a collective voice in legal matters. It is possible the wells/water-rights could be handed over to the HOA, and if there ISN'T an HOA then the water would probably default back to a government authority - and we'd all literally shrivel up and die. It is possible the water consumption here will be severely curtailed, and we should definitely have a collective voice in that matter!

Paying contractors - When the eventual "black swan" event occurs, we'll have to hire a contractor to fix it. The contractor will expect a single, non-bouncing check from an HOA, not 50 individual personal checks from residents.
---------------

It is already very clear that 70-90% of the homeowners here do NOT want ANY kind of association/entity "telling us what to do" or "stealing our money". I don't know anyone here, including myself, who DOES want to tell anyone what to do. We all, myself included, moved rural to have a quieter life with less rules and more liberty. But what people just don't seem to see is that "THEY", who have always taken care of the development the last 15 years, was ONE MAN who is now deceased. We are on our own, we need to take responsibility for ourselves, but residents keep thinking "THEY" will still be plowing snow this winter.

What we would like is a BARE-BONES entity, with as little "evil powers" as possible. All it needs to be is a fund to take care of quarterly road grading, infrequent snow removal, mowing the fields, and a legal entity that exists to represent the homeowners in case bad things happen to our water/infrastructure.

What should we do? Is it possible for the dozen-or-so people here who understand the need, to form a VOLUNTARY HOA without the support of the residents, throw some initial funding into it, and elect a minimum board? We want every single resident to have an equal vote and voice on all aspects of our future, even if none of them cast a vote.
Myself and a few others are willing to volunteer some time and money to make it happen, but we have no idea how to proceed.

Is this a lost cause?

I don't want any HOA either, but we can't just lose our water because there was nobody there to accept it.

-- Covenants are not a bare-bones anything. You and your neighbors have a legal right to enfore the covenants in the courts.

-- The County has zero legal obligation to enforce any covenant applying to your land, unless per chance the covenant happens to be the same as a certain County ordinance. That you thought the County had a legal obligation to do so says a lot.

-- Your group can always solicit funds from folks who voluntarily wish to give money.

-- Creating a mandatory HOA will require 100% consent of all owners. Based on much reading, and in my experience, this will not happen.

-- Voluntary HOAs are notoriously, legally powerless.

-- Violations of state and federal law by your water provider do not require a group effort to remedy. I think any one of you (with the least bit of backbone and very little effort) can find the authority to whom the violations should be reported.

-- You need to research with the County clerk exactly who owns the roads and who owns the grassland. Then report back.

Great feedback from Melissa and Augustin.

My feedback is generally just rambling, but my general advice to people who dislike their HOAs is that they should just move. In this case, if someone doesn't like the absence of a HOA, my advice is the same: move.

Click on "File a new record" at https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/business/fileAForm.html.

That will create the entity, so you'll have an entity just with that filing.

There's more to getting a HOA up and running: creating the governing documents and getting approvals of owners may take a few weeks and will require a lawyer, but there's no point in doing that until it's absolutely necessary.

Whose attorney is seeking information?

What information is being sought?

From whom is the information being sought?

If you cannot answer the questions above, then yup, you need someone to hold your hand step by step through this.

Formation of a HOA with any kind of legal powers would take months at least.

Thanks for the reply.

-- I never thought the County has legal obligation to enforce, so I am not sure where you are going with that or what "lot" you think it says about me. I don't want any enforcement of the Covenant really...actually, I am encouraging other residents to understand that enforcement of it can only be carried out by residents or the HOA (as is stated in the Covenant), so they should not be afraid of what is essentially their own shadow. They see the covenant and the HOA as being the exact same "thing", and are rejecting an HOA because of the rules they think it seeks to enforce; despite it not seeking anything other than safety and water security.

-- Yes, I definitely want the HOA and its funding to be voluntary. I don't want anyone to feel that anyone is "taking" their money.

-- Good, I don't want a voluntary HOA to have much legal power, only what is needed to take custody and assure the continued operation of the Public Water Distribution System. The water entity itself requires at least 5 board members and at least one State-certified public water system operator (which they don't have), so if that is seized or dissolved, and handed over to the HOA, it's gonna take more than one person 24 hours to get all that up and running, take over the proper operation of a Public Water Distribution System, EPA compliance, etc.

-- You would be surprised how little authority the State and Fed have over these water matters. Compliance is largely voluntary and on the honor-system, there are 5 Compliance officers for over 2000 public water systems, they literally said "a System could send us Aquafina samples and we'd take their word that it came from their grid". The State can only issue alerts to consumers, and recommendations to the Provider, but they actually have no obligation to consumers to ensure the Provider serves safe drinking water. They can alert people that they are drinking contaminated water, but they cannot force clean water to come out of the plumbing. I've already taken several days off work to talk to multiple people within multiple departments of the State Health and Water divisions, I have already collected water samples and am preparing to submit them to a Certified lab. I'm already scheduled for meetings with an attorney. No need to lecture about backbone - that is why I am on this forum in the first place - nobody else will even look into any of this stuff even though it's about to smack them in the face.

But at any rate, the water issues we face are not only a of a matter of quality (Public Health Dept), more urgently they are a matter of quantity (a quasi-governmental authority around here calls all the shots, autonomous from the State, leveraging the State's enforcement powers). Quantity is definitely a "group" problem in this case, the acre-feet may already not belong to us.

The water entity itself requires at least 5 board members and at least one State-certified public water system operator (which they don't have), so if that is seized or dissolved, and handed over to the HOA, it's gonna take more than one person 24 hours to get all that up and running, take over the proper operation of a Public Water Distribution System, EPA compliance, etc.

-- The County Clerk and Covenant both agree that the roads are 100% privately owned by the HOA, and maintenance is entirely our responsibility. The grassland in question is all defined as 'recreational easement' or 'detention pond' (which is still flat and subject to flooding) that is owned and maintained by the HOA, as specified in the Covenant. There is a 100-foot easement at the back of everyone's property that is designated as community property. This is the major fire and rattlesnake hazard - people are supposed to be riding horses and playing frisbee back there, not getting lost in 6-foot weeds and bitten by rattlesnakes.

HOA means "YOU and your Neighbors". So when you refer to "HOA" it isn't a "they or them". It is the entirety of ALL the deeded owners.

I think some people think HOA means something it doesn't. It means you and your neighbors or if still developer owned it's the developer.

I can answer your questions:

-- The attorney of the aforementioned groundwater authority, which has final say over the allocation and usage of every drop of water that collects in the basin that supplies this geographical area.

-- Anything and everything about the wells, the flow meters, the electrical meters, the condition of the sites, the security of the sites, chemicals near the sites, power consumption records going back 20 years, GIS metadata, etc.

-- The HOA. The power company. Me. The System Operator (who hasn't responded to their inquiries for a decade), and probably many other people and entities.

Agree with Augustin.

A lot more information is needed.

Eric

Were I you, I would be looking to get a group of concerned owners together and each contribute some money to a "war chest" to hire an attorney to review the situation and advise. I know it is possible to form so limited entities to maintain roads and maintain the water system. I forget what they are called.

Perhaps you are thinking of a "Road Maintenance Agreement" and a "Well Agreement." Nationwide, these are common, formal contracts that folks in rural areas use, with the help of an attorney or two, to achieve the (arguably, always somewhat complicated) goals here.

The question I have is whether there are covenants that already bind the neighbors to pay for maintenance of the roads and the well.

An HOA is typically explicitly formed in the covenants. Changing the covenants after the fact to create a mandatory association is highly unlikely. As mentioned upthread, it could require 100% assent. I've been following this board for years and don't remember ever hearing about it being accomplished.

As far as the issues, in my area the county would probably create a special taxing district to maintain roads, do the maintenance, and bill the owners as part of their property taxes. Probably the same for water.

Since the first post mentioned that the county is not likely to get involved, a road maintenance agreement of some sort could work, but would still need a board of directors or some other form of administration. Somebody has to collect the money, get bids, hire contractors, etc.

Eric, I think you have a real uphill battle in front of you. Getting some legal advice to really understand your options would help.

I expect some of them will install a water storage tank and have it filled periodically until and if the well can be resurrected to produce appropriately suitable water. This is not uncommon in some rural areas where the ground/aquifer/yada water is contaminated but people want to enjoy the peace and quiet of a rural location.

I would say that the good news is that what is happening could very well persuade the owners to pony up $10,000 or so for a well agreement; paying for an expert to evaluate the well; and so on.

The light bulb just lit. If I lived on EricL7's land, I would be investigating digging a well on my own property. Its cost and trouble is likely to be less than dealing with ignorant neighbors over many months, at a minimum, while I have to truck in my own water. The he-l with 'em.

I would move.

Exactly what I said. Painful reality: meet stubborn human. Now the trick will be to manage the transition from apathy to effective action. Right now people will be afraid and angry, and that's never good for smart decision-making.