removal of member

We have 21 famalies in a developement in the woods in New Hampshire and one family wants to be removed from the association. I support this request because their right of way to the private road we share runs along mine and my neighbors property line but so far they have not developed this tract because they have a corner lot and their driveway is on the public road. It will be good for me and my neighbor if they do not develop this land for any reason but they have every right to because the right of way was instated in the deed and they pay maintenance fees on the road and common areas (ie: cul de sac and entry way). Currently this family does not use the private road but they have mentioned that they may use their right of way if they are going to have to keep paying for a road that they never use and that would bother me and my other neighbor. This whole problem stems from the transfer of ownership of the road and common areas from the developer to the home owners. We are all new at this and did not uphold a prior deal that the family in question had with the developer for the last eight years. This family has only been paying half of the fees for road maintenance because they do not contribute to the wear and tear on the road. The father of the family was unable to attend our first meeting due to a previously planned vacation and the short notice for the meetings conviening. He has since requested to be heard and maybe have a vote to see if the association will live up to the old deal. No one will hear him out and they want him to pay full price. Can someone please give me some ideas of how to handle this? We all need to live here and our kids go to school with each other. I would just like everyone to have some input so we all can at least be treated fairly. Thank you.

And don't assume his right of way will go away if he is removed from the HOA. In the city I grew up in they were building a street and for some reason or another it wasn't built completely through to my street and the city allowed someone to purchase the lot where the street would have come out. The city's maintenance only cared for about half of the block; the rest of the street being turned into a private drive with three homes on it ending abut 50 feet from the back of Mr. X's garage.

Well when he retired and he and his wife became snowbirds they bought a large travel trailer. After fighting to back it down his driveway which came out on my street, he discovered he had a right of way to the old uncompleted street. Out came the neighbor's bushes which marked the property boundary and Mr. X had a new way into his property with the trailer. Seek legal advice to make sure your rights are protected or the next owner, member of the HOA or not, could possibly still legally use the right of way.

To remove the land from the HOA will require an amendment to the Covenants. But given you are a 21 unit division I would not think that too hard to accomplish. And assuming that your description is right then it might indeed be better for everyone involved to go ahead and remove them from membership.

But you should not try and do this without legal representation. You want to ensure that things are done right and that nobody gets a raw deal. You will want the family leaving the association to give up any and every claim against the association and to give up their right of way. (This can be done, it just doesn't happen automatically.)

The thing is that things like this happen and the developers often look for the easy way out instead of the right way out. In this case the easy way out was to only charge them half or some such thing. But there is most likely a violation of the covenants and could lead to trouble down the road.

If the house has no real connection to the neighborhood then the best thing is to drop them from the association. But this will take an amendment and has to be passed by the percentage specified in your documents.

If your neighborhood is typical it takes 2/3s of the 21 homes (keep them in the count for this) to pass the amendment. Thus you might need a total of 14 to get this taken care of. If this is the case, then the way I see it is that you need about $2000 and 11 people to agree with you. (The money is a wild guess at a cost to get the amendment in proper legal order.)

Meanwhile start working on how to word the amendment and why it is beneficial to the whole not just the three. Point out that the member could likely force the HOA to develop the connection to his/her property and then also pay for the maintenance thereof.