Which Red Fence is the "Muslim Family's Fence"? Ask the HOA Inspector

UPDATE, JULY 9, 2024. This family reports that they received their pool passes today from the HOA. That is good news for this family, although the HOA is not reimbursing them for the month of June when their pool passes were denied. Perhaps the reporting below helped move things along. *** We note with concern, however, that the HOA inspector cited at least 28 fences as somehow "violating" HOA "standards" during the spring 2024 property inspections. Did the inspector actually discover 28 NEW fences in this community with NEW red paint on them? That seems very unlikely. But if just three (one percent) of these homeowners fail to "defend their fences" quickly (by coming before the HOA board of directors in hopes of resolving the matter on a Monday night, once a month, at 9pm), then they become three new soft targets for fines and fees. Here in Quail Valley, we're again detecting the aroma of a tried-and-true "cash cow" for HOA industry players: YOUR FENCE. This is an old story. See an example from April 6, 2021. Read "Good Fences Make Good Profits" (August 17, 2021). It's a nationwide problem for homeowners trapped in HOAs. Stay tuned for more adventures. -S.S.L.

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PROPERTY VIOLATION: “Unapproved Paint - Your fence has been painted which is not permitted.” (From an HOA letter to the homeowner, sent in 2023 and again in 2024.)

This alleged "property violation" is wrong on the face of it. Some earth-tone paints and stains are indeed permitted in Quail Valley HOA, although red is not allowed when you install a new fence, according to the community's architectural guidelines (p. 22). This is not a new fence.

See the photos (above) of ten backyard fences, all painted with various shades of rustic red paint or stain.

QUESTION: Which one of the 10 fences is cited as a violation?
ANSWER: The fence that’s owned by a Muslim American family.

Scroll through the photos and see if you can pick out which one that is. A quick survey shows that none of these other homeowners are being cited for their red-painted fences, to my knowledge. By the way, the red paint on this particular "Muslim family" wooden fence must be “grandfathered in” because it was present when the family purchased the property. The whole HOA action is wrong and unfair. It violates the HOA's own stated rules. It is also an error of fact. Again, this is not a new fence.

It's puzzling. The HOA board members agreed at its public meeting months ago that this red fence is not a problem at all. And yet the violation arrives, again, in the mail, like a jackhammer. Once again, the parents have to scramble to prevent an attack on their finances, the threat of the HOA placing a lien on their home for their allegedly “failure” to “solve” the “problem.”

Delay benefits the aggressor in this scenario, since an uncorrected violation initiates a cycle of debt (up to $325 per violation, but the legal fines and fees of debt collection can balloon into the tens of thousands of dollars against the homeowner). Our property management is also our debt collector, which is perfectly legal (under the corrupt Maryland laws that govern HOAs). Ah, well, maybe this situation is not so puzzling after all.

The HOA denies pool passes to any family that has an outstanding debt or "property violation." Will the HOA continue to drag out this abuse, and start imposing debt upon this family for this non-problem? Will they be denied access to the community pool?

There are many, many people in this community who have experienced the HOA using alleged "problems" with their fence as a bludgeon to try to extract money from them. If you don't defend yourself quickly and skillfully, you are placed on a treadmill of debt.

Let's treat each other with respect. There is a better way to build a community.

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Steven Sellers Lapham is a 24-year resident of Quail Valley.
P.S. I hope to post a "happy ending, a speedy reasonable outcome to this one family's situation, here at this blog posting, just as soon as this matter is resolved, now entering its second year of absurdity. Read background, the blogs at tinyurl.com/CuckooCourt

UPDATE 6/22/2022. A homeowner writes, "I had to fight about my red fence for years. I still live in fear that every year that they will say it is in violation. I thought they finally stopped harassing people about this. -J.N."

UPDATE: 6/21/2022. A board member writes, "Your claim of no other family being cited for a similar issue [with their fence] is sadly not true. You don't have access to that information. ... It requires the vote of the whole board [to close out a citation]."
RESPONSE: This is very interesting. We are confirming several facts.
(1) The HOA board of directors has to discuss and adjudicate each and every wrong violation before the homeowner is released from the HOA's financial attacks and allowed to use the community pool. That is an absurd waste of the board's time, but a very useful method for intimidating the residents. It is also profitable for the property management who is also the debt collector. It is also Unconstitutional: Punishment without trial. Once the HOA inspector makes an accusation, the punishment process begins automatically and will continue unless the homeowner aggressively defends herself. She is guilty until proven innocent.
(2) Actually, we can access the record of property violations, and I've requested, in an email to property management, a paper copy of it. Recall that I paid $70 to obtain a printout from the HOA of the 2020 property inspections, and I reported some of my findings, "An HOA is AWOL on Safety, Again." There is no legal requirement for the record of this year's property violations–names, addresses, and citation–to be kept secret. It's only that the HOA wants it to be secret. A bully method is to keep residents isolated from one another and kept ignorant of useful information. I have another request to make of the HOA board: Please make the community full 2024 inspection report available in a three-ring binder at the Community Center, open for all to read. That would help us see what is going on, to get to know one another, and to fight against this abusive system.

If there is a violation on any property (e.g., a loose gutter), then we can all see it with our eyes. So let us read about it too, and discuss it among ourselves and with the homeowner at their doorstep and on the sidewalk. The grandmother (with the loose gutter along the roof) is getting no help from the HOA under current practices, only threatening letters and a demand to show up next month at 9:00pm on a Monday night for a hearing. The HOA will place a lien on her home if she doesn't hop to it. That's not the "community" we want to live in. Opening this report to public inspection is good management practice and perfectly legal.
(3) I am aware that the Quail Valley HOA routinely uses fence boards to "bludgeon"–to intimidate and extract money from–HOA residents of every race, religion, and creed. I use the phrase "Muslim family fence" in the title of this article because this family is Muslim, and they (and we all) experience bullying and abuse as individual human beings. The result of these abusive HOA policies and practices (and corrupt state laws that uphold them) is discrimination by race and by class in Quail Valley HOA. If you were captain of the debate team at college, you do okay. If English is your second language and you work evenings, unable to attend a hearing on Zoom at 9:00 pm on a Monday night to defend yourself, then you don't fare well.

Also worth remembering is that the HOA attacked this same family for planting a lovely food garden alongside their end unit. Such attacks are now illegal in the state of Maryland. No ACC form is required. You are free to go ahead and plant plants other than grass, everybody, in your front yard if you wish. It's the law of the land.

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Steven Sellers Lapham is a 24-year resident of Quail Valley HOA. Read the collection of blogs at tinyurl.com/cuckoocourt

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