A Family Flees Quail Valley "to Escape the HOA Game of Gotcha”

Checks are ... Lost in Space?
We moved into Quail Valley in 2009 and really liked the neighborhood and our neighbors. We still do. The first inkling we had that something was amiss with the HOA was when we noticed, after several months, that our monthly assessment checks (the HOA "dues") weren’t being cashed. We called the HOA office to try to figure out what was going on. Their response was to impose a fine on us. We were “not paying the monthly assessment,” and the HOA demanded the amount in arrears, plus additional late fees! (NOTE 1)

Well, we figured out, on our own, that sending the checks to the local property management office was the wrong thing to do. We should have been mailing the checks to a PO Box in Atlanta. (NOTE 2) The HOA claimed that we were not mailing any checks to them at all. When we provided proof that the checks had been sent, suddenly the HOA found the missing checks at the local office. The “game of gotcha,” however, had only just begun.

We were now sending checks to the PO box, but we halted doing that when we saw the HOA had apparently given our file to a debt collector. We were two working adults, very busy with life, and now we had an angry HOA giving us confusing messages, damaging our credit rating, and saddling us with debt! What was going on? Calls to the office went unanswered.

We received notice of a lawsuit against us. We called the lawyers and arranged for a settlement, thus avoiding the need to go to court. We received a form to sign and return with the settlement’s first payment, which we did. The payment was not cashed. Much later, we received notice that the case had gone to the court, and since we had agreed to a settlement, we missed the court date. Because we were not present to defend ourselves, the judge had to ruled against us, as we were absent. We had to pay the whole debt, with fines and fees and court costs, etc. It took us years to pay that off, more than $1,700.

Metal Shed Headaches
Then there was the shed. When we bought the house, there was a metal shed in the back yard for the lawnmower and bikes and such. It was getting rusty. The HOA sent us a letter: Paint your shed, or we’ll fine you. We did. The next year we got a letter saying that metal sheds were not allowed at all. Why had they told us to paint it? And if a feature of the property is there when you purchase the house, isn’t it "grandfathered in"? Well, the shed was old anyway, and getting rusty, so we took it apart, unscrewing the 150 nuts and bolts, and hauled it all away. We let the HOA know we were buying a modern, plastic, non-rusting shed, and here’s the make and model number, the website URL for it, and a photo.

But now the HOA demanded that we provide a plat showing where the new shed would be located. We attended HOA meetings, trying to explain that it would be in the same spot as the old shed. There’s a plat in the stack of closing papers for the purchase of any home, but at that moment in our busy lives, it was not easy to locate that piece of paper. A surveyor will charge $500 or more to produce a plat of your property. We gave the HOA a drawing of the yard, showing where the shed would go, same place as the old shed. We showed up at more HOA board meetings, waiting an hour each time to plead our case. This tedious conversation went on and on for months, as if it were the most important thing in the world. The HOA threatened to fine us again. We felt harassed. They finally accepted my hand-drawing of the yard with the shed in place. If that was sufficient, why the push for a plat?

Car Registration Agitation
Then one day we got a warning. The HOA was threatening to tow our car. The registration sticker on the car was out of date. I had the new registration sticker on the kitchen table, so the car was registered, but I wasn't driving the car that week, and I had not put the sticker on it yet. The HOA could have sent a polite query in the mail, or called on the phone, but it now seemed clear, to us, that the HOA was targeting us for an aggressive game of “gotcha” month after month, and year after year.

We decided we’d had enough. Perhaps somebody makes a profit from this abuse. We are not alone in experiencing it. (Note 3) It seems to be SBP, standard business procedure, for this HOA.

Today, we have young children. This house was the only home they’ve known. Kids can walk from our court to Strawberry Knoll Elementary School without crossing a street. From our kitchen window, you can see the maple tree on the common lawn turn into a giant orange and red painting each fall. We made many improvements to this house. Several neighbors have become our friends. Yet we moved away from this idyllic location, in 2021, to get free of harassment by the Quail Valley HOA.

Our house is sold and we've moved. We wish all the best for the family moving in. We hope they’ll get a better welcome than we did.

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NOTES

1. As told to Steven Sellers Lapham, a 21-year resident of Quail Valley.

2. Quail Valley HOA has selected different vendors (property management company; debt collection attorney) since the first incident described in this article. Some of the current board members have been on the board for the duration described here. To what degree board members were or are aware of these events is not clear.

3. None of the situations described in this narrative are "unique." In other words, examples of payments not received, misplaced mail, confusing HOA messages to residents, cars suddenly towed, etc., have been related by other residents of this community, as noted in these chapters.

Read all of the Chapters of "Living on Cuckoo Court" at tinyurl.com/CuckooCourt. Read about condo and HOA "dysfunction, corruption, and abuse" all across America at IndependentAmericanCommunities.com.