Being sued by HOA. Need help!

[DaveInAZ]

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@CreditInspired wrote:

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And this is why I love HOAs. I hate living near someone who feel they can have 100 plastic flamingos in their front yard, or old cars with flat tires in the driveway, or overgrown weeds taller than an adult. Yep, I'll pay the fee gladly.  

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It would be nice if the OP @mrshulkisloislane would come back and let us know what's happening. But as we've drifted into a discussion of HOAs, here's why I HATE HOAs:

Around 1998 I bought a condo in Honolulu, where I was living & working in hotel management. The previous owner, who had died, had apparently done a number of alterations to the unit. Right after I moved in I got a letter from the HOA, I assumed it was a "welcome to the neighborhood". Nope, it was a demand that I undo all alterations and restore the unit to it's original condition. I asked around and found out the previous owner had been on the HOA Board, so I requested copies of the HOA Board meeting minutes for the past 5 years, paying the several hundred dollars they demanded. I found out the previous owner had discussed what he was planning on doing, even telling them he was getting a dumpster for the construction debris, and while they didn't take a vote to approve no one objected.So I sent a letter detailing that and telling them since they were aware and no one objected it was a tacit approval and I refused to undo anything.

They left me alone after that. A few years later my employer transferred me to Las Vegas, so I put the condo up for sale. A few days before closing the Escrow officer sent me copies of closing documents, and I noticed a $1700+ payment to the HOA, and when I asked was told it was a "bill" for legal fees. I had never been sent a bill for anything, and the monthly HOA fees had been paid by auto draft from my bank account. The Escrow lady told me when I refused to pay it that she couldn't close Escrow unless it was paid, and I knew that meant I would lose the sale. So I paid the SOBs, and I will never ever again own anything with a HOA.

[Anonymous]

They're definitely a double egde sword, the pros as Credit Inspired mentioned. I've lived next to people who felt that since they own, they could do anythng they want which can lower the value of your House. Or cause fire hazard, and the list goes on. The cons as Dave has mentioned can bite you in the backside later on. I'm sure some HOA's cane be underhanded if they choose to. 

Thing is even without HOA there are City codes that people are supposed to abide by and don't. Such as basic up keep. What bothers me about HOA, is that I don't want a commitee voting on whether I can paint my house, remodel my kitchen or change the brand of Toilet paper I use.

I'm fine with HOA for a Condo Highrise/resort living, but not so much for your typical neighborhood House.

[CreditInspired]

As DaveInAZ mentiond, we are straying off topic but one of the things I've realized--and I'm 100% at fault about this--I don't attend any of the HOA meetings where homeowners get to vote on the majority of decisions made. If we don't attend the meetings, then our voices are not heard.

Now granted, before I even decided to purchase, major things like painting one's house, adding a deck, and major renovation decisions are included in the condo docs so I could say yay or nay to living in an HOA community. I was a Realtor and you'd be amazed at how many buyers dont read these documents, and you really have to. One contract I backed out of would not allow wood floors to be installed. Those that already had wood floors were grandfathered in. I love wood floors so that was a no for me; and I would have been some kind of beligerent if I had purchased and found out after the fact. But I could only blame myself. 

[GApeachy]

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@mrshulkisloislane 

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Has anything happened yet?  Did you get legal advice?

Btw, I hate HOA's too so I chose a different property.  Later the neighbors wanted to form a HOA, making me President.......guess what I said?  My mom is in a HOA, she loves it and it's good for her situation and property values.

[mrshulkisloislane]

I consulted with a lawyer. He advised that I make them an offer to pif the portion I agree that I owe and a negotiated amount for the attorneys fees etc. Thet have to take my offer back to the hoa and present it to them and allow them to make a decision. He stated I could send that offer myself now and that if they don't accept or respond I can have him do it for me. He has experience negotiating with them. I sent the the offer to both the collection agency and the hoa aon Tuesday of this week.(just in case they decide not to share it with the hoa) They have yet to respond. I will give it until midweek next week. The lawyer did say that if I'm offering to pif the dues it doesn't make sense to still pursue a judgement. I told him and I'll share with you all I do feel that this has become a somewhat personal matter to the property manager of our hoa. I feel this is retaliation because I have complained about her to others within their office. I have been attempting to resolve this matter for some time now before the lawsuit came about and she was always unavailable or out of the office. I got fed up with chasing her and spoke with someone else there. That person somehow got her to call me back and respond to my emails. The tone in her email responses was terse and while she explained that she had simply been too busy to respond to me she didn't offer an apology. I see both sides of the hoa debate there are benefits to having one however there are times when they have gone overboard with enforcing the "rules". One reason I became delinquent is because I was withheld dues in the past. We have a community pool and I was there once with my young daughter. The then hoa president approached and asked me to see my pool pass. I showed him my gate key which is a coded card that opens the gate. He was looking for a green paper card that had supposedly been mailed to all homeowners and was needed in addition to the gate key card. I told him that I didn't receive said green card but gave him my address and name. I am one of the longest residents in my community having been here since it was being built. He insisted on seeing my license which i didn't have with me since I live walking distance from the pool. He became belligerent stood over me, I was seated on a lounge chair and yelled at me to leave. He said that I couldn't be there without said green card and that if I didn't leave he would call the police and have me removed. I told him I had every right to be there. That we pay annual dues to be able to use the community facilities and that he should call the police because he at this point was harassing me and frightening my child. I told him we hadn't received the card he wanted. I asked that he verify his information and step away from me. He left to get a notebook from his car. I phoned my husband and told him what was happening. When the hoa guy returned he had a notebook and shook it me and said my name and address had better be there or he was kicking me out (still yelling) my husband was still on the phone. He was on the way home from the store. He got there as guy was checking his list. Suddenly Mr. hoa was speaking in a different tone and had verified our names on the list and was calling the "office" to see why we hadn't gotten our green card. He called someone and said they hadn't sent the ones for my street yet but that they were on the way! My husband asked why he couldn't have done that to start with instead of harassing his wife and child. He so nicely explained that he simply wanted to help. My husband told him he could hear him yelling at me through the phone and advised that if he ever sees me at the pool or anywhere else he had better just keep on walking and stay away from me. We called the management company to complain about that incident and were told basically Mr. hoa was within his rights as he was the president and that if I didn't like it I could do the job for him. 😳 Sadly things got worse before they got better. However for four years we didn't pay. Once things improved we resumed payments. But because recent payment go toward older dues it appears we didn't pay the 4 most recent years. This management company came in after the fact and doesn't know that as there was severe mismanagement of funds previously which is why they were hired. In any case right now I simply want to get caught up and avoid an unnecessary lawsuit.
Thank all of you for your responses.

[GApeachy]

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@mrshulkisloislane wrote:
 there was severe mismanagement of funds previously which is why they were hired. 

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Did the "mismanagement" happen during the times you were paying the HOA fees?

[mrshulkisloislane]

Yes GApeachy.

[GApeachy]

Did they show how your/all members funds were allocated?  Do you have receipts?  (idk if their discrepancies could be due to any of that but....)

[mrshulkisloislane]

Not from back then. I did indeed skip 4 years however. The improper paint fee she's tacked on was this year that shouldn't be included.