Court ruling today

After 2 years of arguing and paying for legal council we finally made it to court. As many of you many recall..I live in Virginia. We are a small rural community/sub-division and our covenants were done in 1974. The lots are owned by the individual property owners and the Civic Association has the right-a-way over the roads. Our CCR's stated that each parcel will pay equally in the maintenance of the road and keeping the weeds and grass cut. In 2006, a new board decided that it needed to change the covenants because, they had been charging 31 lots road/administrative fees and 6 adjoining lots 1 user fee, and 5 adjoining lots 1 user fee. All of those lots have identical covenants. They also tried to change the Civic Association into a Mandatory Association, by a majority vote(required to change the covenants)..many other things were changed in the sweeping covenant change. There was no meeting to discuss the changes..and none were legally required. A letter sent out with the covenants told the property owners that a Judge had strongly recommended the change. It took a lot of work, calling repeatedly, frequent emails, and home visits to get the 29/50 vote(the vote is done by then lot owners). The new CCR's were filed at the courthouse, liens were placed on properties that refused to pay for all the administrative fees, etc. The original CCR's require nothing more than road payment. We tried for almost a year to work with the BOD...finally hired a very good attorney who works with HOA's/POA's. Today we went to circuit court. The ruling is: the 2006 covenant changes are null and void..it requires a 100% vote to change from a voluntary to a mandatory association. There is a declaration which is good for a voluntary association, but does not meet the requirements of a declaration for a mandatory association, which would place the association under the property owners of VA act. All 42 lots must pay an equal amount for road maintenance. The Civic Association does not have the power to place liens, but can take delinquent owners to court to try and collect. It only took 2 hours in court. So far $30,000, 2 years of constant frustration, but we'll all have clean deeds.
So there you have it..another court ruling in VA!
MaryN

Mary - so you are STILL a voluntary association?

What will happen when no one "volunteers" to pay any dues?

MaryN,
Congratulations.
Have you got any idea of your total group, how many are satisfied and not.

Would you do it again.

You must have a group that have formed some cohesiveness by volunteering to fix roads. etc. Did this closeness help your two year court case.

Elaborate a little if you can about anything you might have done differently.

Interesting question about what I would have done differently. We've been thinking about that a lot lately. Three years ago, when all of the rumblings started, I should have gathered all the paperwork, researched everything at the courthouse, and given it to an attorney who specialized in POA law. Then I would have paid him to attend our annual meeting and present his findings to the property owners. Had we paid him early on..the bill would have been nothing compared to the bill we have now. I also would have been more aggressive with fellow property owners, especially those that live off the sub-division and either have non developed property or a weekend/summer home here. Looking back..we were too cheap, too nice..and I think we have learned our lesson.

I can't explain how the owners come together to work on projects. It is always the same guys, about 5-6 guys that show up. They have fun working together. One or two of them have tractors and they will use any excuse to get them out and use them. Several of the homeowners have wood burning fire places and they use the wood from the trees. Currently there is enough money in our road fund to resurface the roads. We live in a rural area and our roads are not the same quality as you would find in the city.

In honesty, the community will never again be 100% united in friendship..but then I'm not sure it ever was. We have considered sending a letter to all the property owners explaining what happened..and decided we will make copies of the Judge's ruling and mail them to all the property owners. Truth be known, we have spent our time and money and "cleaned up" their deeds by removing the 2006 covenants. Had we not done this sooner or later they would have become an issue.

To anyone else going thru something like this..hang in there..it's not easy! In our case we knew it was the right thing to do.

MaryN

Mary - who is the "we" that owes this $$ to the lawyer?

I get worried when there are obligations - such as a road - and you depend on volunteers and a "bunch of guys" to do the work.

The Process (of mandatory) was wrong and has been corrected, but I think the aim (of making a mandatory association) is right, considering you have some real obligations to make, now, in 5 years, in 10 years, etc, etc.