Social Dues

I live in a neighborhood that is still controlled by the developer even though we have been told for 7 years that it would be turned over to the "neighbors" to form a HOA. Our CC&R's are enforced and determined by the developer and an outside agency of which the developer is a board member. No meetings are held and there is no disclosure of neighborhood expenses to the homeowners. They raise our HOA fees whenever they want to. While that seems very inappropriate and probably illegal that is not my issues. My issue is that when we purchased our property to build our home we were told that the social dues to use the pool and clubhouse facility was optional. Membership to the "Country Club" golf course is also optional and unless you belong to the golf club you cannot play on the course without a member. Our neighborhood is considered a golf community but you have to pay $10,000 a year to belong and $60 a month to swim in a pool that has no formal life guards, is over crowded and in ill-repair. The play ground have 3 pieces of equipment. We were also told when we purchased our lot that the property that adjoins our 1 acres was to be a "park-like" setting which already contained a lake and the developer intended to add another pool, clubhouse, walking trail and playground. There are more than 400 homes in my neighborhood and we have 1 small 25 yard - not meter pool. Within 1 year the lake was filled in and the property adjacent to us was being developed for houses that were 1/2 the value of our home. Up the street they put in a Ball Homes development with $150-$180 starter homes. The only 3 sections that are required to pay social dues are: the original part of the neighborhood containing about 100 homes values from $250-$350,000, the estate section with 20-25 Million $ homes, and our section with 25-30 $350-$500,000 homes. For the remainder of our neighborhodd the $60 per month social dues are optional. You can still go to the pool if you live in these areas without paying the social dues - just pay $5 at the gate per person !! My son has asthma. They allow smoking at the pool and clubhouse. I informed the HOA about my son's condition and provided them with documentation from his doctor. I asked for an exemption because of his conditon with the understanding that if they made the facilies non-smoking we would like the "option" to start paying social dues like 3/4 of our neighborhood. The HOA ignored my letters, emails and phone calls. I tried from 2003 to 2007 to reach them. I refused to pay my social dues until they responded to my requests. We never used the facilities or the pool. In the Fall of 2007 they filed a Foreclosure notice against us. We never received proper notice as required by our CC&R's because the notices and letters went to the wrong address - we discovered that after we hired an attorney and countersued them. Now 2 years later and $4000 in attorneys fees we are no closer to resolution than we were when we moved here. Today our attorney filed a motion to withdraw from counsel because he decided that he did not want to litigate this matter for us and the HOA attorney refused to go to mediation. We feel like we have an excellent arguement for exemption as well as financial discrimination not to mention the unethical and probably illegal way in which our HOA is run. I need suggestions and validation that my claims have merit and should be pursued. I would welcome any advice or direction. We have only 30 days to find a new attorney or pay the lein and sell our home.

Your post was so difficult to read, I am not sure I fully understand the situation. The facts are unclear. It would have been helpful for you to divide your missive it into paragraphs.

Unfortunately, I, personally, cannot offer you the validation you seek. It is never a good idea to refuse to pay assessments, fees or dues regardless of reason. Also, you should understand that real estate transactions are one of the few contracts in commercial law that must be in writing to be valid. What you were told orally at the time of purchase does not carry much, if any, evidentiary weight in court. About the only issue that could impact your position is the incorrect mailing address used to deliver notices. However, that is subject to discovery.

Also, it seems odd to me that an attorney would withdraw from the case on the grounds that he does not want to litigate for you. Most judges would not be very kind to an attorney who offered such a explanation unless there was a significant difference of opinion between the attorney and client.

Simply based on what you have posted here, I would urge you to consider paying back assessments, attorney fees court costs in order to settle out of court.

My first question to you is this:

Did the attorney you hired originally give you any indication of his background/experience with HOAs?

It's very important in this area to be sure your attorney has some background in HOAs, since, for the most part, Louisville (and most of Kentucky) is behind the curve when it comes to HOA legislation and HOA lawsuits.

Also, there is a resource in Louisville for Neighborhoods, in fact, it's called the Department of Neighborhoods, which is a Metro Louisville department.

You can find it on the Metro Louisville website.

Contact them to see if they can point you to a resource that can supply you with the names of attorneys that specialize or have a background in HOAs.

They also have access to a FREE resource for conflict resolution, which may be beneficial. If nothing else, they, too, (the conflict resolution people) might be able to connect you with someone who can help you.

It took us 10 years and 4 attorneys before we found one who had background and expertise in HOA issues here in Kentucky.

The problem will be that, unfortunately, whether there are any other areas that pay the social fees or not is moot and is not relevant to your request for an exemption.

You knew at purchase that some areas would be levied the social fee.

Also, inability or non-use because of inability of some kind, by itself, does not protect you from having to pay the fee, as it was something that you were aware of (the fee) and agreed to when you purchased your home.

Now, that doesn't mean you have no recourse, it just means it will probably be an uphill climb for that one.

Finally, you are correct that Kentucky does not have any real HOA statutes. Most of the law covering HOAs in Kentucky stems from contract and/or corporate law. It doesn't address some of the more unique aspects of HOA issues.