Quail Valley HOA Conducts Predatory Inspections, Again in 2024

UPDATE Aug 23, 2024: Here's another family's testimony of HOA abuse from three years ago. We include it here as further evidence of a pattern of HOA abuse over recent years:
"I keep my house and yard meticulously. When we bought the house, there was a metal shed in the backyard. After 8 years or so it was rusting, and I filled out an AC (Architectural Change) form to replace it with a sturdy plastic shed. A week later, I got a warning from the HOA to remove my metal shed immediately. My backyard is fenced, so the inspector probably failed to notice, year after year, that we had a metal shed. Plus it had to be "grandfathered in," as the HOA did not object to it when be bought the house. So now, eight years later, when the HOA acted in bad faith, I threatened to notify my attorney. The HOA backed off. We are Hispanic."

UPDATE Aug 7, 2024: Gaithersburg homeowners protested HOA abuse and gathered to support neighbor Eric O. Segura at Maryland District Court in Rockville on the morning of August 7, 2024. (Photo #4) 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.

Here are three examples of the Quail Valley HOA inspector citing homeowners (its own members) in 2024 for "property violations" that are known to be fraudulent.

Fake Violation #1: "Please repair the broken window blinds in the windows at the front of your house." The HOA seems to believe that it has the right to look through the windows of your house and cite you for something it sees inside your home. A Maryland District Court disallowed this alleged "violation" in the case of Quail Valley HOA v. Hoan Nguyen, on which occasion the judge threw the book at Quail Valley HOA. This attempt to push a fake "violation" is not an error by the HOA, or a memory problem, or a failure to learn. It's a business model.

Fake Violation #2: "Please paint your shed to match the house color," read the alleged property violation in the spring of 2024. Mr. Ruiz states that the plastic shed in his back yard, behind a fence, has been this color for a decade. It's a plastic shed, not a wooden shed. The HOA has not cited it ever before.
There is no requirement that a PLASTIC shed match the house color in Quail Valley. I learned that 4 years ago when the Quail Valley HOA cited my (S.L.) plastic shed for being "the wrong color." So, at the height of the COVID pandemic, I stupidly ran to the paint store to buy some light blue paint when I didn't really need to. I stupidly trusted the HOA. A few months later, the HOA president at the time helpfully referred me to the architectural guidelines, which do NOT require that a plastic shed match the house color. Later, I described the problem in my complaint to the Commission on Common Ownership in 2021. I complained about excessive and predatory inspections during a national emergency. The HOA read my complaint at that time. That was four years ago. The HOA knows that plastic sheds do not need to be painted to match the house.
And so now, years later, we see the Quail Valley HOA targeting a Hispanic American homeowner with the very same fake violation. Earlier in the year, we witnessed the Quail Valley HOA board agreeing that inspections would be based on the (very practical) Homeowner's Maintenance Checklist. Everyone at the meeting heard that discussion. Apparently, that commitment has gone out the window. This attempt to enforce a fake "violation" is not an error by the HOA, or a memory problem, or a failure to learn. It's a business model.

Fake Violation #3: “Please prune the shrubs and trees on your property so that they are neat in appearance and do not block the main sidewalks or interfere with neighboring property.”
There is no obligation for the homeowner to do so, said the property manager at the HOA Community Meeting on June 10, 2024, and the board members agreed. The HOA removed this alleged violation from one family's records, but now maintains it against another family (both are Hispanic American), and denies the latter family their pool passes. It is now late July. Arbitrary enforcement, is a crime, right? The Gonzales family has been paying the monthly assessment on time for four years, and yet the Quail Valley HOA denies them access to the pool in 2024. The offending "shrubs and trees" are along the outside of the fence along the side and back of the house, and do not overhang any sidewalk.
If the HOA has some other concern about overhanging branches (e.g., it wants to give better clearance to the lawn mowing crew), then the HOA is free to trim the branches. These bushes might even be on HOA property. The HOA is punishing this Hispanic American family and lining them up for the debt machine. This effort to enforce a fake "violation" is not an error by the HOA, or a memory problem, or a failure to learn. It's a business model.

"Your Debt Is Our Profit"
The Quail Valley HOA board of directors has hired a property management company that is also a debt collector, which is legal according to Maryland's twisted HOA laws. The laws create a financial incentive for HOAs and their vendors to be abusive by, for example, citing vague and/or fraudulent alleged "property violations" against homeowners. When families don't respond, or can't respond, the result is called "making a profit." "Micro-charging" is one name for this business model. If just a few homeowners don't defend their homes effectively from these fake violations, that's enough to keep the profit-making train chugging down the tracks.
Micro-charging also brings in cash to help the HOA balance its budget. But if this board of directors cannot balance the budget after collecting $734,000 annually from its 592 member households, then this community needs to either (1) elect new board members who can guide the HOA to operate within its means, or (2) disband the association following the procedures in the bylaws. The common land can go to the county, and the pool can become a pool club.
Read and sign this petition calling for the reform of state laws. Stay tuned to the "Living on Cuckoo Court" blogs. Perhaps it's a coincidence that the three homeowners above, targeted by the HOA, are ethnic minorities. More examples of HOA bad practices will be forthcoming in these blogs.

Where is the Boundary that Curbs Reckless or Negligent HOA Governance?
The HOA boards of directors are shielded from legal actions from other homeowners to punish board members for unwise behaviors, much like the members of a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) are shielded from punishment for the bad actions of the LLC. But there are limits to that protection:

HOA “fraud or bad faith” can include not only conflicts of interest but also "dishonesty," "incompetence," "arbitrariness," and decisions "not supported by facts" (See the third from last paragraph here ).

We can add to that list any HOA actions that are not supported by the HOA’s own policies–or that violate county, state, or federal law. For the record: This author is not interested in suing individual board members. I am interested in creating, with my neighbors, an HOA that is transparent, accountable, and compassionate in its words (governing documents) and in its deeds (behaviors).

Community Access to Community Data
We verify the residents' testimonies given above by checking them against the printed violations they receive in the mail, and against the 51-page "Violation Report" for 2024. Homeowners in QV can obtain that report by paying $72.67 to the HOA for a printout. (This edition of the report is dated 6/25/2024. See photo.). I can lend my copy, which is in a 3-ring binder, to other members of the Quail Valley HOA community for them to look over. I believe in government transparency; the HOA should make the report available on paper, for free viewing, down at the Community Center. These are our homes. This is our community. Let's look at the data together and discuss what it means.

Steven Sellers Lapham is a 24-year resident of Quail Valley.
Family names above are pseudonyms. I am not a lawyer. Read four years of background, the blogs at tinyurl.com/CuckooCourt