A close friend of ours (non-ham)put up an "unauthorized" fence in his front
yard in CC&R Country here in Auburn, CA....I can attest his homeowners
Association (read: the Socialist Central Committee!) was VERY agressive in
forcing him to take it down since he didn't get prior approval from the
Architectual Committee (read: the Socialist Central Committee!)to put up any
fence. He went to court and lost because the judge said he was in violation
of his contractual agreement with the homeowners Association, was forced to
remove the fence he had paid to be installed and also had to cover all court
costs and the Associations's attorney's fees....ended up costing Joe about
$7k for his action.
Like I wrote in a previous email, most CC&R contracts stipulate the loser in
a legal action pays all court and attorney costs, so what is really perverse
about this is that the Association will use your yearly dues to initially
hire an attorney to sue you, then if you lose collect from you all those
fees once again.
I was hounded and "harrassed" in the 1980's by my homeowners Assocation to
remove my one and only vertical antenna, a 2m Ringo Ranger tacked to the
eaves of the roof. When they started talking lawsuit I removed the antenna,
put the house of for sale and said adios to these jerks!!!
Never again........JUST SAY NO TO CC&R'S.........I did!
Good luck to all fighting the good fight over CC&R's. I try to help as much
as time will permit, otherwise they will win and there goes a wonderful,
life-long hobby!
73........./k6sdw
>From: "Mike Lazaroff K3AIR" <K3AIR@arrl.net>
>As a ham, former real-estate agent, current county court employee and
>soon-to-be first year law student, I follow this issue closely. I don't
>personally know any hams who've been sued by homeowners associations, but I
>do know that some of those associations are quite aggressive in attacking
>anything they perceive to be CC&R violations. We had one case here
>recently
>in which a homeowners association used the "no uninspected or unregistered
>vehicles" CC&R to sue an occupant who had recently moved here
>(Pennsylvania)
>because she still had Ohio plates on her car several months after she
>bought
>her unit. Their position was that her car was not properly registered
>because she didn't register her car in PA within the grace period the state
>gives people who move in from other states. The court agreed with them and
>upheld a $500 fine the association levied against her.
>
>When I sold real estate, I advised all my ham clients to avoid CC&R
>developments like the plague if they had *any* intention of staying on the
>air. Until these homeowner association nazis are reigned in, it's still a
>good idea.
>
>73, Mike K3AIR
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "WYsixK" <wy6k@yahoo.com>
>
> > How many people here on this list have actually been sued by a
> > homeowner's association? Is this concern real in a legal sense but not
> > terribly probable? Or have there been lots of such actions against us
> > selfless, helpful, kind, always-there-in-an-emergency, gentle, good
> > hearted hams?
> >
> > Michael
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
|