HOA Denies Community Pool Passes to a Hispanic Family for Six Years

UPDATE AUG. 7, 2024: Gaithersburg homeowners protested HOA abuse and gathered to support neighbor Eric O. Segura at Maryland District Court in Rockville this morning. (PHOTO #9) Mr. Segura defended himself against the Quail Valley HOA, which was suing him for having a bare patch on his lawn. Following the protest, the plaintiffs dropped their fine for the alleged property violation against Mr. Segura.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Join us in courtroom 413 to support Mr. Eric Olea Segura, a model citizen and leader in this community, on Wednesday August 7, 2024 at 9:00am ET at the District Court of Maryland, 191 East Jefferson Street, Rockville, MD 20850. Case # 06-01-0011083-2021. PRESS CONFERENCE AT 8:00 AM ON THE COURT HOUSE STEPS. RAIN OR SHINE.

PREAMBLE. My neighbor Barbara on Purple Martin Lane just now volunteered yet another brief testimony, which echoes Eric's story, below. "Last week the HOA tried to deny us pool passes because we have bare spots on our sloping front lawn. The soil here is clay. We’ve been working at it for years, getting the grass to grow. We even installed sod one year. There are five children in my home this summer, clamoring to get into the pool. I've worked as a Realtor, so I know how to argue with rude HOA staffers. We got our pool passes." ** *** **

The Quail Valley HOA in Montgomery County, Maryland has denied Eric Segura and his wife and children entry to the community pool for six years. They’ve lived in this townhome on Bluebird Terrace for more than a decade and have always paid the HOA assessment, currently $104.50 each month. Their house and yard are well kept. You’d think this Hispanic American family could enjoy all the privileges and benefits this HOA offers to its members, including use of the outdoor pool over the summer months. But they can’t. (Photo A)

Vaguely worded "property violations" that baffle homeowners are a gold mine for the HOA. In 2019, Eric received notice of two alleged “property violations” from the HOA: “dead/bare grass” and “repair stoop/ stairs/ walkway.” These “violations” are the source of the HOA’s charges against Eric’s account, which had risen to $13,643 by June 2023. (Letter, Photo B) The HOA's citations are absurd and invalid, respectively. A patch of dead grass appeared where cable wires were buried across the front yard–at the behest of the HOA itself. There’s nothing observably wrong or different about Eric’s front stoop, steps, or walkway, which are identical to the stoop, steps, and walkway of the house next door.

Eric refused to pay this erroneous and unjust charge. Instead, he tried to reason with the HOA board members. He wrote emails, sent photos of his property, and attended HOA board meetings to plead his case, again and again, over months and years. Instead of working with him to resolve the matter, the Quail Valley HOA attacked. Eric now owes $5,148 for a grassless spot on his lawn and an undefined “problem” with his stoop, steps, or walkway–and mostly for the fines and fees of the sort that debt collectors and attorneys pile on and “accelerate.”

As it prepares its suit against Eric, the HOA reduced charges from $13,643 to $5,158. Perhaps this was the HOA's attempt to appear “kindly” and “forgiving.” The HOA warns that his home is "subject to a lien." (Photo C) So much for "kindly." How about: "I'll twist your arm a little less."

The County Commission: Mediation Denied?
In 2022, Eric felt he had “exhausted all remedies” in his “good faith” efforts to reason with the board members and halt the HOA’s pummeling. He filled out the complaint form provided by county’s Commission on Common Ownership Communities (CCOC), which is charged with mediating disputes between homeowners and HOAs. It aims to be an alternative to HOA-vs-homeowner litigation. “The CCOC strongly encourages mediation as the faster and simpler way to resolve complaints.” (p. 122, CCOC Manual). The CCOC cashed Eric’s $50.00 money order (the fee for submitting a complaint form), but–month after month–offered no mediation. Eric called to inquire. The CCOC offered no status update, and did not return calls. Eric can find no record that the CCOC ever reached out to him over 23 months. Finally, on June 6, 2024, the CCOC wrote to his neighbor, “Please be advised that the complaint filed by [Eric] against Quail Valley Homeowners Association (2023-011) is closed. We regret that our office cannot be of further assistance to [Eric] in this regard.” The CCOC sent that note to the author, who was inquiring on Eric's behalf, not to Eric himself.

Lawsuit During Mediation. Really?
Most strangely, the HOA targeted Eric with legal proceedings during the period he was waiting–in good faith–to hear from the CCOC. The whole idea here is to prevent the need for any legal proceeding. Maryland's corrupt HOA laws apparently allow the HOA to mount a legal attack against the homeowner during mediation (see the last sentence on p. 1, Complaint Form, which is weird), but it is unfair and cruel. It’s a bait-and-switch situation. A “Catch-22.” Even as you strive to participate in mediation, the powerful can punish you. This disables the HOA homeowner and makes a mockery of the CCOC process.

Please fasten your seatbelt for this rollercoaster ride. The HOA filed a civil action against Eric, and a hearing was scheduled in the Maryland Circuit Court (Quail Valley HOA v. Eric Segura) in 2023, then dismissed, much to Eric’s relief, after he’d applied for CCOC mediation. But then the HOA filed a motion to “vacate the dismissal,” and a hearing was scheduled for June 5, 2024. That hearing was cancelled the night before, and postponed until August 7, 2024. As stated above, Eric learned the very next day that the CCOC would not hold a mediation. So, to summarize this sorry tale, another summer swim season will have (again) passed by with no pool passes for this family. The CCOC offered no help, only a two-year delay. The HOA is taking its own member, the homeowner, to civil court for a charge of $5,148 for dead grass and a fantasy “property violation,” something about the front steps that the HOA has failed to describe. Will monthly “late fees” continue to pile up? Is this justice, or a pummeling of the homeowner for profit?

A Clear Pattern of Abuse: Five Examples of Many
We have been to this rodeo before. It took multiple hearings over years, wasting the time of the Maryland District Court, to finally (in 2021) end the HOA’s financial attack on one immigrant family. In that case, the HOA alleged that Huan Nguyen, the homeowner, owed $21,000. The court ruled that he owed zero dollars. Huan, who is Vietnamese American, finally had to send his own “cease and desist” letters to the HOA board, its property manager/debt collector, and the HOA attorney to get them all to obey the court’s final order, to stop sending him threats, which were appearing again in his mailbox, about vague “property violations.”

Nelson Reyes's front yard on the corner lot of his single-family home at the entrance to the community is a showcase of well-maintained and attractive small trees and flowers (as documented in the 2024 photo above, the photo caption of 2023, and article of 2021). Back in 2020, the HOA wrongly sold Nelson “out-of-community” pool passes. His house is within the bounds of the HOA, which collected assessments from previous owners for decades. Then the HOA attacked Nelson with a bill of $5,000 for spurious property violations like “rusty brads on mailbox,” and “stains on concrete,” damaging his credit rating and threatening to place a lien on his house. The HOA has denied his family access to community pool since 2001. "We have lived in fear of the HOA for four years," said Nelson.

The HOA seems to target specific families for perpetual fines. Rita, a Caribbean American and a nurse, writes in June 2024, “I can’t believe [the HOA] never denied or responded to my email. I emailed them the second time. They know [the charge against me is] an error, but never acknowledged. I am still waiting for them to respond if they ever do.” She has paid fines and fees, exceeding $2,000, for reserving her own parking space with a traffic cone.

Ishmael’s family seemed to “inherit” the role of an HOA "soft target" for fines and fees when they bought a townhouse, whose elderly owner, a widowed nurse, had been similarly targeted for years.

Fighting the HOA consumes lots and lots of time. For six years, the HOA cited a Montgomery County commissioner for the "crime" of treating her concrete steps and stoop with a protective sealant recommended by Home Depot. She's a Caribbean American. She fought back, devoting time to show up at multiple Community Meetings on Monday evenings, over the years, and finally the harassment stopped.

Hello? A Public Advocate for HOA Homeowners?
These HOA attacks are very traumatic for families, who are isolated and alone. Nobody reimburses them for legal representation as they try to defend themselves, for the time and effort they spend on these matters, for the stress they experience over years. Not even when they win in court.

There is hope. Increasingly aware of the CCOC’s inaction, homeowners are filing complaints with the Office of Consumer Protection of the Maryland Attorney General, where Etta Nicol, an American citizen and immigrant from Liberia, recently found relief from a cycle of HOA-manufactured debt. (Photos D and E) State Delegate Leslie Lopez has met with Quail Valley HOA homeowners. But reforming state laws requires a multi-year campaign, during which many well-organized advocates fight for their cause. Meanwhile, families suffer.

Changes in the Wind
Under Maryland law, HOAs (and their vendors) have strong financial incentives to create fanciful “property violations” for profit. Our Quail Valley HOA board of directors has chosen a property management company that is also a licensed debt collection company. They are one and the same. The HOA thus becomes a machine that manufactures home–owner debt as a matter of routine. That's just normal business. This is a perverse and corrupt system that financially rewards HOA “worst practices,” causes financial harm to home-owning families, and creates hostile relations between HOA board members and residents. Little wonder that buyers of new homes are increasingly wary of HOA communities.

The website IndependentAmericanCommunities.com, which reports on this issue nationally, describes long-overdue reforms in the HOA laws in Arizona, Florida, and California:

[The new Arizona 2024] law vastly reduces the perverse incentives of HOA collection attorneys. It prevents attorneys from generating excessive revenue by charging back legal fees to the delinquent owner. This abusive practice inevitably pushes the homeowner toward foreclosure. No longer can HOA attorneys hold homeowners hostage to avoid losing their home. Instead, HOA attorneys must ask the court to award them reasonable fees before trying to collect them.

Discussions about reform in Maryland are picking up. We hope HOA board members, CCOC commissioners, county councilors, the county executive, state elected officials–and journalists–will all start to pay attention these injustices, and awaken to their responsibilities. Eric holds onto hope that this family will awaken from its HOA-generated nightmare. But even if, on August 7th, the judge rules that the HOA’s charge against the Segura's (a debt of $5,148) is totally invalid, then the family will receive no compensation for what they have lost. They will have been punished before trial, denied access to the community pool for six years.

Record heat is predicted for the summer of 2024.

Steven Sellers Lapham is a 24-year resident of Quail Valley. He is not a lawyer.
If you spot an error of fact in this article, or to give feedback, you may contact him at MuskratMusic@gmail.com. The series, “Living on Cuckoo Court,” can be found at
tinyurl.com/CuckooCourt.