[Towertalk] ABC Home Owners Assoc Expose

[Jim Lux]

Perhaps not exactly suing myself, but, several scenarios present themseves:

1) I go to court, win, and, get awarded "costs" (presuming there is a
"prevailing party pays costs" clause).. who pays those costs?  The HOA,
which will then assess all the homeowners pro rata, etc... So, I wind up
partially paying myself (granted, I am ahead 99%, but it's the principle
that is galling)..

2) I go to court, win, but still pay my own costs (no "prevailing party pays
costs" clause)... I'm out the legal cost... and, I still get assessed some
share of the judgement...(although, it might just be injunctive relief...and
hence, negligible cost).. and, of course, since I'm a member of the HOA, I
am also partially paying the costs on the defendants side...

3) I go to court, lose, and pay both sides costs (ouch!) because there is a
prevailing party clause...

4) I go to court, lose, pay my costs, and some prorata share of the HOAs
cost (as part of a special assessement...)

In any of the scenarios, I have probably earned the undying enmity of my
neighbors to stand on principle...


The only people who come out ahead in these situations are the attorneys for
both sides.  If they did a good (in the abstract) job, they would have
helped to mediate a reasonable adjustment early on, and saved all the later
costs.  If the attorney advising the HOA did their job well, we would never
have wound up litigating in the first place.


By the way, a trap for the HOA unwary... just because the HOA no longer
exists (say from bankruptcy) doesn't mean that the CC&Rs aren't valid any
more.  Any homeowner can then attempt to enforce them singlehandedly, and
woe to you if the homeowner has inexpensive legal services available... Even
if it's without merit, you've still got to deal with the legal cost and
hassle...


I think the overall approach is to come up with reasonable accommodation...
As much as I'd like it, a 120 foot tower is unreasonable on my 5000 square
foot lot...  An innocuous 30 foot vertical isn't (in my admittedly biased
opinion), but to the hoa, ALL antennas are EVIL..  (so far... I am slowly
agitating for substantial revisions to the CC&Rs, now that the last unit has
sold in the tract....)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stu Greene" <wa2moe@firstinter.net>
To: "Jim Lux" <jimlux@earthlink.net>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Towertalk] ABC Home Owners Assoc Expose


> At 03:46 PM 4/20/02 -0700, Jim Lux wrote:
>
> >Asking for uniform enforcement would be a fool's errand, for you see,
> >assuming I went to court to force the issue, I would be suing myself,
> >being a member of the association and ultimately (partially) liable for
> >the costs.
>
> What law school taught you this nonsense?
>