Abandoned Covenants

Our neighborhood is 23 years old and the covenants for the neighborhood have never been enforced. In the twenty three years, there was no record of a citation or violation until 2023 when several homes were cited for trash cans in the front driveway, bags of mulch stacked in the front driveway, and pie pans being placed in the front of the homes to scare off deer. All situations were very easy to remedy at no cost. As a result of these citations, the HOA did not issue anymore citations because homeowners got very upset about the citations. This summer, after a new board took over, and began selectively issuing citations to certain homeowners while ignoring the same citations present on other properties. For ex. we were cited for overgrown vegetation on our property while the homeowners contiguous to us with dead trees and more vegetation were not cited. In trying to do the right thing, we contacted and received several estimates from landscapers and all of them are in excess of $5000. These covenants have never been enforced and we literally had to cut back 10 yards of brush to access the water utility box on our property when we bought our house. Further complicating things is the fact that not only does the HOA selectively apply the convenants to certain homeowners and not others, they refuse to address the maintenance and covenants related to the common area like our pool, tennis courts, and community clubhouse. Our pool has four dry rotten pool chais, no tables, 3 dry rotten umbrellas, and a disgustingly dirty pool deck. Our tennis court has a rotten net with a court deeply stained and soiled with mud and debris . Our clubhouse has significant water damage and chlorine damage from a leak that was never remediated nor reported to our insurance company. The floors, base mold, and drywall have been ruined and nothing has been reported to insurance. Finally, our neighborhood has irrigation and sprinklers for the yards that hasn't been turned on because they have not paid the person who is in charge of insuring that they work. Meanwhile the board wants homeowners to be held accountable for landscaping and weed clearing in excess of $5000 when these covenants have not been cited in years and when their duties have been disregarded. As a homeowner, what recourse do we have?

For the first 17 years of the community, the dues were never raised and no citations were ever given. Not once. In regards to the Selective Enforcement, we were told that the HOA "has to start somewhere" given that the covenants haven't been enforced for 20 years so they started with us, which is the JD definition of selective enforcement. Our dues are over $4000 a year. When the community was started the builder was extremely generous. He built an amazing pool, a 2800 sq ft. clubhouse and tennis court for a neighborhood with less than 25 homes then GAVE it to the HOA along with $25k for a reserve fund. The HOA never raised dues and never issued assessments for 17 years. They pirated the reserve fund and ran it down to zero to cover shortfalls when the dues weren't enough. In the last 6 years they've had to issue assessment after assessment because nothing was ever maintained. What is particularly concerning is the fact that 1. our water system and sewer system is private and 24 years old. Given the fact there is less than $10,000 in reserve, a major issue would result in a large assessment for our small community. 2. we have the world's best mowing contract that pays for 22 yards ranging in size from an acre to two tenths of an acre and over three acres of commons area to be mowed, trimmed, edged, blown, aerated, fertilized, and weed treated for a cost of $110 a month or $23,000 a year divided 22 ways. When some neighbors wanted a different service, the lowest comparable bid was $78,000 and that was without aeration, fertilization, and weed treatment(pre emergent).

We did one (when I served as President for a year) and the community wanted to hear nothing of building a reserve or a voluntary dues increase to improve conditions. We pursued things like renting our clubhouse out to the community of $650k condos and $1 million homes below us for events to defer some of our costs and they would hear nothing of it. Neighbors began saying we wanted to fund a reserve so we could steal the money. Our neighborhood currently operates on a zero-based budget. The new board has at least raised dues recently based on inflation, but it's not nearly enough.

Yeesh! I hate to say this, but it sounds like y’all are only a step or two away from receivership :/

I agree with Tim that a) somebody needs to take charge, and b) the first thing you should do is get a Reserve Study (or something) that indicates what all needs to be fixed. And again agreeing with Tim c) y’all have more pressing needs than violation enforcement.

Bill

I was told today that this information was relative: The berm and the fence were built as part of the planned community prior to the construction of the homes. The berm and landscaping were maintained by the HOA for the first several years of the community. The fence completely surrounds 13 homes. To get to the side of the fence that is in need of vegetation removal, a homeowner would need to get in his car and travel 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile

" To get to the side of the fence that is in need of vegetation removal, a homeowner would need to get in his car and travel 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile"

or they could just walk 10 minutes. seriously. not a big deal.

join the board is your best bet. Most CCR's state that violation enforcement is not a duty, but taking care of common elements is a duty and therefore that is a higher priority.

rent a skid steer, will take a few hrs max to clear that out. cost around $500 to $700.