Neighbor built an above ground pool and raised deck

This raised deck is huge 20 x 25, it is 4 feet high with a hand rail that is another four feet!

So besides being ugly, awkward, etc., one he did not get any permission from the HOA, for the pool or the deck, he did get a building permit for the pool from the city, his fence is not in compliance with the HOA and or the city codes.

I went to the HOA Pres. and he said they would did not approve any of it, and he would look into it. Turns out a board member is the my neighbor's other neighbor, and told him it would be O.K.?

President at first sent him a letter to remove the deck, stating it was against the CCR's and it was blocking the view of the lake, and he did not get approval, President invited us to a meeting where he had a vote for the deck to be removed and the pool to be dug down another foot. Board approved.

Then the Board had another meeting about this issue 10 days later, of which I was not invited to, and reversed the previous decision and has sent me a letter stating the board found no violations with the deck or pool?

None of it has been inspected by the city? The CCR's were not followed, when standing on the deck we have no privacy as it is about 15 feet from our bedroom window, master bath window, patio and rear door, all of which have a total of 8 viewing windows to the lake, as both our properties are lake front.

So he and his friends/kids can just sit there and look into all our rear windows. The wood railing is 10 feet high, if you are 6 foot and stand on the deck your are easily 10-11 feet in the air, and I cannot build a fence over six feet high, four feet near the lake, as I am supposed to preserve the view, but apparently he can do as he wishes.

This ugly pool and deck does not blend with the natural beauty of the lake, blocks our sunset views, invades our privacy, keeps us from being able to enjoy our property.

The CCR's state that fences must be kept to 6 foot high so as to preserve the view?

Any advice on action to take, as my wife is beyond herself. Thank you..

You will getting some good advice here.

I have lived on a lake and understand the priorities of view, etc.

I would have already met with an attorney to ask questions - and, if necessary file in court to stop the construction. I would attempt to involve the HOA, as well. This is a big deal.

Now, you may find out from the attorney things you don't want to hear - get to the truth of situation prior to acting.

Thanks for the reply...

The pool was put in this time last year from my understanding, we bought the home in March of 2020. We never said anything as we were new, and figured the neighbor had gotten permission for the pool, as there are a few others in the neighborhood. The deck was started Sept 12th 2020. That is when we became concerned. Yes during construction of the deck we contacted the President, the second day into construction. The President said he was out of town, but would send a letter which he never did and would check when he got back into town. We were sending photos through Nextdoor N in PM to the President of the
deck construction.

President then put us off and would not do anything? So I and my wife kept PM the President for updates on the situation. He put us off with excuses and never did anything. The deck was built in about a week.

The first board meeting was 10/23 and the second meeting we do not know when it occurred? But we were sent a letter dated Nov 9th, but the stamp was Nov 14th.

I have tried to document the board votes, the secretary has not been attending meetings for some reason, and so I sent a letter to the President documenting the meeting that my wife and I attended, and what transpired. I think this letter I sent to him must have spurred his next meeting reversal? As we think he
was doing all this for show, but then when I documented the boards actions, I had the legal win, so the board went in and reversed there findings, to take away my legal advantage.

I have since requested all board meeting minutes for the year, all ACH documents and committee minutes, for the last year and the minutes of last years election. Our state gives a corporation 5 days to provide these documents, the President indicates the documents may not exist? But he will try and get what does exist to me?

For clarity we reluctantly had agreed to the pool as it was pre-existing and there are others, but not the deck and 11 arbor vitaes planted along the fence line which will also block our views when they grow 20-30 feet! And my wife is highly allergic to cedar trees.

Thanks for offering to help, I will take any I can get, as I am a noob at dealing with HOA's. There are other issues that have come into play, the Board spent 3-4000 on 25 signs posted all around the lake which is only 15 acres, well three of them were supposed to be planted behind my house, by the sidewalk
on my property, as there is a one mile sidewalk around the Lake. I told the sign company to stop as they were putting the signs on my property, and that there was a dispute with what the HOA owned. The sign company did refuse to place the signs on my property as the GIS data shows my property extends some 5 feet past the sidewalk. The signs are eight feet tall and a real eye sore.

So my views were being attacked from all sides! I think the HOA President is just retaliating against me as he could not place the signs on my property? So all this was is just a game to him, but elections are also coming up and I guess there is some pandering.

CCR's state all structures, landscaping, etc. must be approved by the ACC. Which at
first they did not and now they do, CCR's also state the Board will here and mediate disputes. Not sure they did that in this situation, as all they did was piss off my neighbor, and now piss us off? Hardly mediation.

Thanks Shelia, I did request meeting minutes, and ACC committee documents for the past year from the secretary, who replied back for me to get this information from the President. The President stated much of the information may not be available, but he would send me what he had? He has five days to provide this information in our state, but due to the holidays and the fact that he is apparently filling in for the secretary for some time, who is indefinitely out I am willing to give him time to find the documents that should have already been created and saved on someone's computer?

Not Sure which state agency would assist with this but did find the following:

Shareholder's Right of Inspection
A. Rationale
All states recognize the shareholder's right of inspection.7 Two general
theories support this right,8 both arising from the fundamental notion that
shareholders own the corporation. First, the "agency" theory explains that
shareholders own the corporation and that rights of inspection protect the
shareholders' investments in the company.9 As the United States Supreme
Court noted, "The right of inspection rests upon the proposition that those
in charge of the corporation are merely the agents of the stockholders, who
are the real owners of the property."'0 Oklahoma courts hold that the
statutory right to inspect corporate documents is an incident of stock
ownership."
A second, related theory also supports the shareholder's right of
inspection. The "watchdog" theory explains that inspection rights exist to
protect shareholders who, after entrusting their property interests in a
company to its agents, must "keep a watchful eye on the management and
the condition of the business."' 2 I

That is the problem.

The owner did get verbal approval from the board.

Hence, one could argue that they acted in good faith and if removed, the HOA will have to pay for the removal and restoration of the land.


Your options are limited.

Talk with an attorney and seek a legal options.

In addition to the HOA, you can also enforce the covenants through the courts.

Keep in mind, you have to live next the the individual.

AugustinD,

I do have all the documents with an attorney, I have it well documented every text message printed, notes taken, certified letters sent, emails etc. My attorney has been in town for 30 years, knows everyone, but HOA stuff is not his specialty, My very good friend has done business with him and been friends with him for 30 years, so he would only help me on this issue as I am a friend of a friend, as he does not make his living on HOA cases in O.K.

The attorney wants to go after the HOA to remove a dangerous steal bridge from my property that he says is an "attractive nuisance" that he says puts me in a bad liability situation when someone gets hurt, and maybe remove the sidewalk as well as no easements were granted for the bridge our side walk. The City attorney has put it in writing that the side walk is on my property. The City Surveyor states that the bridge is not supposed to be attached to the drainage overflow. Also damages to my property for the sidewalk altering the natural flow of water, creating a damn and causing a little pond in the back yard.

This is not the direction I wanted to choose, but I told him if the HOA does not want to work with, me then well I really do not care to work with them? He says we will win this battle easily.

What he charges is anyone's guess, I was scared to ask, but my friend said he will work with me, and for a letter or two, to start with it would not be very much.

I do not like legal battles, but I understand them very well, what I am doing now is exhausting my remedies, as if that is not done before a case is brought you have already lost. So I will completely exhaust this Board before going legal, as the law requires this step first. The CCR's say the Board should mediate but gives not procedures, so I will keep pushing for them to mediate this situation, all of the grievances we have which there are many, such as selective enforcement and possible abandonment of the CCR's, for lack of enforcement. They have never had a an ACC and half the CCR's deal with the ACC?

What should I demand? That the Board uphold it's fiduciary responsibility, compensation for lost property values, that they stop selective enforcement/nonenforcement of CCR's, return my property to it's original unaltered condition?

Augustin,

Thanks for offering to take a look at these crusty old CCR's, If you can help with a demand letter that would save me a fortune, I have redacted the personally identifying info as you stated. The mediation states that the Board SHALL mediate! Grievances...so maybe an opportunity here, in my first communication with the Pres. I asked for the mediation/grievance procedures, and he avoided the topic of mediation.

The whole situation has not been handled right and even I am now confused about a direction to take.

I had to scan 3 different times to keep below 200kb? may not be readable now as it was already a poor document...

These may also be available online in they have a comprehensive GIS.

James,

-- Attached is a 'demand letter lite' that I suggest you review, check for accuracy, edit and then send registered mail, return receipt requested to the HOA's registered agent. I expect it needs a lot of the hard facts inserted. Present the facts in the context of the Covenants that the facts actually violate.

-- If you have to go to court, keep in mind statute section 60 OK Stat § 60-856 (2019)

"Any person owning property in a real estate development shall be entitled to bring action against any other person owning property in such development to enforce any of the restrictions or covenants of the real estate development which are specified by the covenants or restrictions. In any action to enforce any restriction or covenant pursuant to the provisions of this section, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorney's fees to be fixed by the court, which shall be taxed as costs in the action."

The qualifier "to be fixed by the court" bothers me a little. I tend to think the statute is simply saying the courts are to abide by what is known as "The American Rule" for attorney's fees. This rule says each side pays its own attorney, period, end of discussion.

I think this works to your advantage some. No one wants to pay any attorney's fees. No one wants to go to court.

-- That the Board/ACC approved whatever, even after the fact, is bad news indeed. Where you can nail them is the fact that the detailed plans were not submitted (as far as I can tell) and the plans were not retained as a record of the association. For something as elaborate as what your neighbors did, this is a big deal.

-- I think you need to be pursuing separately with the city violations of city code. City Land Use staff tend to be more cooperative than HOA boards. Slow but they do tend to get to violation allegations quicker than HOAs do.

-- Getting these neighbors to take down their deck et cetera sounds like it is going to be one heckuva battle. Be patient and firm.

-- You have a number of other grievances: Signs being placed on your property and the drainage problems. I do not want to try to treat these right now. I am not sure where the law is on these matters. I am not sure I want to try to help with these, because they are complicated. You are angry with the HOA, and you claim some revenge is happening, which makes me just want to run away from the soap opera and emotion. Being kind of automaton-like about it is important.

-- After December 15, report back with the Board's answer. If the Board refuses to rescind their approval, or refuses to obtain detailed plans et cetera, or is just mealy-mouthed in its response, The next step will be a threat of litigation to both the Board and neighbors.

-- It's hard to say, but in my opinion, this will be tough to win in Court. The covenants give the ACC a lot of leeway about what neighbors can construct. Yes the ACC has to be reasonable. But the Courts give "free enjoyment of land" a lot of leeway. In other words, everyone who bought into this HOA knew in advance the ACC can approve whatever. I bet the courts would say that the ACC here could not lawfully approve a five-story building. But what the ACC can approve is not black and white. What "reasonable" is will always depend on the specific circumstances.

This Website and forum is amazing! You guys are so quick, knowledgeable and thorough. It inspires me to be a board member if I could someday have the knowledge you all do!

Augustin,

The mediation is in the by-laws this will take a little more time to redact, but I will get it done ASAP. Thank you and anyone else that took the time to read anything I have posted and uploaded.

Yes, I have pictures of the Plats and emails of them from the city surveyor, as I have spoken with the City Attorney and the City Surveyor already, because of the sign issue. I have a letter from the City Attorney stating the rear sidewalk is on our property and this would be an issue between the me and the HOA.

I did not ask at that time about the Bridge to the city attorney, but I did ask the Surveyor about the side drainage overflow and the bridge, he stated the side drainage overflow is not a sidewalk and that the bridge was definitely not something the city would have done, or something like that. He and the city attorney looked for a rights of way or easement granted by previous property owners and there was none on file, and he stated even if there was the city does not recognize them? The City Attorney seemed surprised by this statement, but she deferred to the surveyor on the statement, and would ask him about this interesting statement.

Can I post pictures here so you all can see how this deck and pool does not harmonize with the surroundings as is the ACC's responsibility to make sure landscaping and new structures do harmonize with existing surroundings and structures. CCR#4 and how it effects the enjoyment of our property. As there is actually a table and chairs sitting above my six foot fence?! I know Augustine you said the words speak loud and clear, but a picture says a thousand words...As my back yard is a beautiful nature wetlands persevere, with flocks of ducks and geese coming and going daily! But then turn to the left and you have a guy that has destroyed the harmony of this natural paradise on purpose and without any permissions or guidance from the HOA BOD/ACC, and for some reason they do not care? There are 68 homes on my street alone and they all have to walk by and look at this ugly pool and strange deck to get to the Lake. This means that when they go to sell their home, the buyers will also have to look at this mess?

The Plats may take more time to figure out how to redact the pictures, but I'll see what I can do...I was looking at them last night on GIS the Bridge appears to be slightly on my property, and my attorney said looks like kids would love to play on that and get hurt and then they are coming after you and any other owner of it. The HOA is protected from lawsuits by the CCR's and their high dollar insurance and possible umbrella coverage, I am not.

Yes I would to your question about an engineer will probably be needed to fix the water problem created by the sidewalk.

Also, Augustin how did you remove the state from under your name, when I signed up it said this info would be kept private, I looked at the account settings and it says admin only can see the info such as city, state and HOA?

There also is a letter from the HOA President to my neighbor that the President gave us and said, "now keep this, it is a very powerful letter, after the Board voted in our favor". And he told the Board members he had consulted with their, HOA attorney for a few hours about the issue, and that the neighbor could not do this. Then shortly there after I am guessing within 10 days Board does another vote reversing previous vote?

I Have yet to get the minutes as requested to prove this. But I am assuming they could vote again and change their mind again, when the Board hears our grievances, side of the story, as that second Board meeting should be set aside by a Judge if this went to court, as we were not allowed input on a meeting affecting our property. HOA Attorney told me this is a request that can be made to the judge as we were not able to have input.

Thanks...

If you just want to re-type the paragraph or so that speaks to this, I expect this would be sufficient. It would be great if some kind of mediation could take place. If it's the board doing the mediating, see if maybe they would be open to hiring a professional mediator. It could save all a lot of time and angst.All this seems at least somewhat in your favor. The part about which I remain concerned is whether the HOA can say something like, "It's been 20 years. Laches and so on. The homeowner here has no case." That you came on the scene less than a year ago does not seem all that relevant. You do have this attorney friend-of-a-friend who is quite interested. See what he will charge? I trust I am not telling you anything you do not already know. -- I think this paragraph all by itself is excellent. I think you should incorporate it into the appropriate part of that draft letter I posted. Also include photos in the draft letter as Exhibit A, Exhibit B, et cetera. You are accumulating documents that will become a dossier of evidence, in case you go to court.

-- .jpg files can be converted into pdf files easily on the net, hopefully small enough to attach here. Alternatively you could throw together a web site and post them there. But I am fine taking your word for it that what was done is way inharmonious; others at your neighborhood have not pulled an eyesore-stunt like this; and so on. Your chances may very well be better than I estimate, from afar. I make a lot of effort here to separate {an Owner's emotion and ego and feelings of being personally walked over} from {Okay, exactly which covenants and laws were violated here, so constructive suggestions can be made to guide the Owner to take steps toward a constructive solution? Or is the Owner all messed up, and there really are not covenant, statute or common law violations?}. I am not sure what I did, but try clicking on "My Account" at the home page and see if there's a way you can remove your state.

If you remove your state and post queries here, one of the first questions that will be asked is "In what state is your HOA/condo?"

Excellent. Because to me, this raises the question of why the Board/ACC found the deck et cetera non-compliant at first.Let me confirm: The attorney for your HOA told /you/ that you should have been allowed input into the ACC's decision-making, and in a formal way? If so, wow. The attorney is supposed to be on the HOA's side, just about regardless of what dumb decision the HOA/ACC makes. If your HOA's attorney is more in the category of, "I am not going to help the Board/ACC dig its grave deeper," then great.

You are welcome.

I read about what some Boards do to Owners who post in public their concerns; recall what was done to me; am 100% confident that at least one board where I once lived would get revenge for mere factual posts I made here; and feel no compunction about not posting my state.

Maybe one's lawful first and last names should be required along with their state?

Within a year I hope to post the latest tale of woe from one of my former condos/HOAs. I am not talking about mere hurt feelings. I am talking about upwards of $35,000 (cold hard documented cash; not some kind of estimate) and the HOA ensuring a loss of the Owner's income.

I appreciate that you think HOA/condo boards never do real and quantifiable harm to people.

Augustin,

Your responses never cease to amaze me! I have to read them several times, think about them very long and hard, as it is like they are a clue to another mystery that you have already solved. Again thanks so
much for your help, I rarely run across people by coincidence, it is obvious you are a man of great integrity, that enjoys helping people.

I saw one guy on this forum break down Board Members into 4 categories, well I break down people into three categories. Sheep, Shepherds, and Wolves. You are a Shepherd Augustin, remember this and continue to guide the Sheep and the Shepherds, and never hesitate to call-out or runoff the wolves. You know this already, I just want other's on this Forum to know they should follow your Lead when possible, and keep silent when not, but you are a tough act to follow.

I always search out your comments first, on any topic, as I know true Shepherds are rare.

Thanks again for your help, it is not the money that you saved me that is important, it is the knowledge and education you gave me that is invaluable. People like you are a rare find, similar to healers and seers of the old days. Few people in life get chosen to Shepherd. For some the gifts/talents/abilities are a blessing, and some they are or become a curse, I pray that yours my friend increase and always are used for good, and never become a burden or curse.

I do not know what you do for a living and do not care, but should you ever want to help a much, larger audience, I would give you 50% of the business, and with your skills it would probably only take a few hours a day. But, it is not HOA related, and I already know your answer, but I had to put it out there.

You know I have a thousand more HOA questions for you and the forum group here, but my problems are "crap" for the most part, I know it, except if I find out the thousands of sheep that live here are being fleeced. Well then my friend, I will make it my mission to run off the wolves. Pool/deck trees what ever, but evil be gone.

One second here. I am not at present persuaded the deck and other improvements made on your neighbor's lot are problems that are "crap." People go to court all the time over lesser land use issues. (Fences in general are a hot item in the courts, when it comes to covenant disputes.) With the Board going back and forth on this, so far I happen to think this is a big issue.

If the Articles/Certificate of Incorporation are really not on file with the state, this is a big deal. If your HOA attorney goes through the roof when he learns of Article X, section 2 in your Bylaws, and he might, then this is a big deal. (Your HOA attorney so far makes me smile, as he seems honest and one of those who is working for the best interests of the corporation and not doing whatever the board commands. HOATalk does see reports here that some HOA attorneys are human and competent. Off the top of my head, I can name two HOAs thousands of miles apart that have excellent HOA attorneys, based on what members here report about their, let me be blunt, wisdom. Huah!)

Thank you for the kind words. I am passing along some of the good luck I received over the decades. Plus learning is its own reward.

Augustin, yes it is important I am not giving up any of my grievances, rights or possible legal actions.
I know you were not calling my case "crap" but that is how a Judge or jury may view it if it is not framed in the right light, which is gross negligence by the Board that could cause harm to a third Party. Namely my disabled son or Children playing in the public park 200 feet away, or fishing behind this guys house, as the City Attorney has called what my neighbor did a "Attractive Nuisance".
My attorney says the neighbor can be held and now possibly the HOA liable civilly and criminally if anyone were to get hurt.

I saw a post where a noob like me wondered your credential's, I do not care about credentials, but yours are extensive, and impressive, I know this from doing some pro-se civil complaints in Federal Court myself. I think I have been in court now than more than most practicing attorney's, exclusive of trial attorney's.

As far as the Demand letter it in my opinion will not be convincing enough to do anything but inform my adversaries to create fake documents. But, I think what I am adding to it will bring fear to table, you gave me a great starting point and that is always the hardest for me. Two minds are better than one, then I will add my attorney's mind to it as well.

Also, let me clear up, the miscommunication I made, I consulted an HOA attorney online, I have yet to talk to the HOA attorney of our HOA, although the Pres did finally give me his Name and Phone # and permission to talk contact him, I think though it may be better to let my attorney talk with him, from previous experience. But I have yet to decide, may send him certified email informing him his client is in violation of producing requested documents, and I think I read somewhere there can be up to a $500 fine for not producing requested documents if you can prove a valid need for said documents? Is this correct? If they continue to deny documents, I will file in small claims court for said documents and will win this very easily, plus fees and time spent I would imagine, and hopefully get him fined for the withholding.

Other relevant facts in my opinion are Boards knowingly allowing the violation of CCR'S as a member of the Board is his neighbor, the board member not reporting the violations to the Board. Also, the Pres can not turn over ACC documents because they have never had any ACC meetings in five years? President only created an ACC only after I informed him of the importance of this committee, uphold the Bulk of the CCR's, The Board has now approved the violations like you said without drawings, and without making sure all safety and building codes will be followed, as the board I assume does not even know the safety violations/codes that apply to the pools or their ability for approving these structures without having the city inspect the pool, deck and fencing?

Also 21 Stat 21-1171 reasonable expectation of Privacy, Every person that loiters in the vicinity of any private dwelling house or place of residence with unlawful or willful intent to watch is in violation of this statute. My wife is not comfortable with a strange weird looking old man sitting on his raised deck looking into our bedroom and master bathroom windows.

I am going to demand reversal of the boards last decision as you advised, and mediation of all grievances per by-laws.

Another idea is to convince the board that all attractive nuisances visible from an owners lot that is attached to HOA public use land be abated, either by removal or making them not visible, it would protect the board, community and the homeowner, and solve my problem. Thus the last board meeting decision could stand but would be moot. But, if I went this direction would a clause like this be able to be added to the By-laws or would it have to be in the CCR's. As getting it in the By-laws is easy and getting it in the CCR's impossible.

Anyway, I right now I need to your opinion as to whether

FRANCES T. v. VILLAGE GREEN OWNERS ASS'N.

Would apply to the HOA where I live, if it does then I think I can make my case much stronger. And I believe that is where you are getting your "actions must be reasonable" if not which case does the reasonable come from?

Yes, I am not sure what entity our HOA is using, if any? But I do know the pres talked in a meeting about taking HO's to small claims court for past due dues, and I thought corporations has to be represented by an attorney in court?

thanks...

Just a few observations:

* The HOA attorney will not talk to a homeowner because of the potential adversarial relationship. It's a conflict of interest.

* It's almost impossible for homeowners to tell whether a board is dealing with violations of the CC&Rs or not. This is because it looks exactly the same when the board is ignoring something and when the homeowner is ignoring violation notices. If enforcement activity is kept confidential (which is often the case) outsiders can only guess.

* In general I don't believe boards should rescind previous decisions unless those decisions were clearly mistakes (violations of the law, something that increases the HOA's liability, etc.). Short of that, if a board does reverse a previous decision, it's likely to grandfather the violation and require the violation to be corrected at some point in the future based on some specific event (for example, if the violating item needs to be repaired or replaced). Grandfathering is especially likely to occur when owner of the violation had acted in good faith and spent a bunch of money on whatever.

So even a positive outcome in a case like this may not achieve the desired result, if the desired result is the immediate removal of the offending item. Ya pays yer money an' ya takes yer chances.

Cathy,

Thank you for your input, I do agree boards should not rescind decisions. But since this board has
already rescinded the first decision, that was approved by their attorney, and the reasons I have been given for their reversing their first decision is that no violations of the contract occurred, except the the neighbor running a gym business out of his garage.

The pool, hot tub, garage gym and giant raised deck and walking/jogging trail around the lake was all part of the neighbors retirement plan of creating his on YMCA at his home. He was just starting to build his client base. The BOD in their defense did not reverse the fact that he could not continue the business, and that the fence would be brought to regulation. So they have in fact enforced the contract
on these issues or at east written a letter. I do not call writing letters enforcing the contract.

As this President loves to write letter's, but never back them up, except for dues violations. This is obvious as I have another neighbor on the lake with a fence down for years, and another with a boat in his front driveway, and everyone building mainly storage buildings without approval that do not comply with CCR's, the list goes on of contract violations all over as it is a huge neighborhood.

I have no idea where the you guys believe he as acted in "Good Faith" He hired a neighbor contractor who has only lived here a year, this contractor at the very least knew HOA approval was needed even if the HO States oh well I did not know? So the fact he spent a bunch of money is irrelevant when you are acting actually intentionally violating the contract so that you can get grandfathered.

As her is my point, O.K. my neighbor did not have to go to the BOD and got away with building whatever. So, now I have the right to do the same and build my Sunroom, Green house and Storage building. As he was not held accountable so they cannot hold me accountable. To do so would be selective enforcement or maybe harassment, favoritism as he is friends with a member of the Board etc.

So I can let it go if everyone wants to admit that covenant 2 of the contract has been abandoned or in validated due to selective or nonenforcement. Enforcement is not sending the letter, but actually following up on the letter, and making people follow what the letter states. Not just hoping people will adhere to the letter, which 50% do, but the 50% that do not, get to do what they wish.

To your point that a home owner cannot know if the Board is or is not Enforcing the CCR's to some extent you are correct, but every HO has the right to know what the BOD is or is not doing, and that is why I have requested all documents related to enforcement, minutes and the ACC. As I do not want to go to court assuming, should they prove to me by providing OUR records, then we have no problems hear.
The BOD has the absolute right to approve or not approve whatever, and to even not enforce what ever, but HO's at some point all start saying I am going to do what I want. Why are we paying due's etc.

This is an excellent post that any HOA non-board member should read as the gospel truth. Attorney's
are high paid liars for their clients. They know they can tell any lie they want about a case, as they are never deposed or under oath on the stand. Thus they are not subject to perjury or being discredited for what they say.

Thanks for putting this out there, I learned this the hard way. That is why I stated I probably would not be talking to the HOA Attorney, also the HOA attorney can and will use your words against you, he can depose you and put you on the stand. Some of them could try and make you lose your temper so as to use it against you later.

O.K. that is interesting, but in my situation here, the covenants state that the BOD/ACC can not be held liable for any ACC action/decision or no decision. So what they did was make s decision against the deck/trees, then made a decision for the deck/trees. There are no physical specifications on these two items in the covenants, so that brings us to is the decision "reasonable"?

I think the answer to that question can only come through forcing the board to mediate this issue as the By-laws indicate they SHALL.