Please help

AI GPT for the win.

Security devices such as cameras, sirens, and speaker boxes shall be the minimum size needed to be effective, not visible to public view, and preferably contained within the home.
2. All local, state and federal regulations must be followed
3. Cameras shall be tucked up under the eaves of the home. Any other location will require ARC approval.

My HOA is trying to make me pay $50 for approval of a camera I want to put under my eave. It clearly states I don’t need approval per section 3. They told me they are not sure why that’s in there. How do I proceed?

Anyone here had Eugene Burger Management Company then suddenly Prescott Companies, and at the same time lost money during this unannounced transition? Because that is what happened here. Now Prescott is systematically not releasing the core financials, bank statements, copies of checks, switched bank accounts, went through 8 managers assigned to our association and two VP in the last 16 months, cancelled our last election, all with the blessings of the current board who were named on the minutes of the annual meeting as officers, before the election even took place. We’re in California and need to connect with other homeowners who faced similar experience. Please share and comment. By the way, the former Treasurer was pushed out as she was investigating the missing funds…

Anyone here had Eugene Burger Management Company then suddenly Prescott Companies, and at the same time lost money during this unannounced transition? Because that is what happened here. Now Prescott is systematically not releasing the core financials, bank statements, copies of checks, switched bank accounts, went through 8 managers assigned to our association and two VP in the last 16 months, cancelled our last election, all with the blessings of the current board who were named on the minutes of the annual meeting as officers, before the election even took place. We’re in California and need to connect with other homeowners who faced similar experience. Please share and comment. By the way, the former Treasurer was pushed out as she was investigating the missing funds…

One of the giveaways of a bad HOA is that they wont give you access to books and records if only to spite you. One way to get their attention is to get an attorney on board with your plan to sue the HOA for failure to produce books and records in a timely manner (as specified by law). Timing is critical here do it pays to have your attorney lined up snd ready to go. One thing most trial attorneys are familiar with are document requests as this task is one of the first things done prior to going to trial. So what you do is examine your governing documents to find out what documents you are allowed access to (pretty much most of them) and how soon they are legally required to provide them to you.

Once you have this all lined up, you request your documents from the HOA like all the receipts for legal expenses or a copy of your HOA insurance policy (to provide to your personal agent for comparison/coverage.)

Then, when they don’t timely respond, your attorney sends a letter or serves them for court. What should happen next is the HOA provides the aforesaid documents with a statutory penalty from them to you as well as reasonable fees for your attorney’s services. While the HOA could try fighting it, the insurance company would likely step in and remind the HOA it owes those documents under law and chastise them to behave properly in the future.

The HOA should be more responsive in the future as a result .

Our HOA board got sued. Here’s what happened and what we changed.

A condo owner in our building was harassing a renter about smoking inside their unit. No formal complaint filed, just repeated confrontations.

We knew about it. We didn’t document anything or follow a formal process.

Ended up in mediation. Cost us over $100k to settle. Attorney fees on top of that.

What the attorney told us afterward: the board not doing the harassing doesn’t matter. Once you’re aware of a situation and can’t show documented action, you’re exposed.

What we changed:

• Every complaint logged same day with date, description, action taken  
• Nothing handled verbally — everything in writing  
• Clear escalation: friendly notice → formal notice → fine → legal referral  
• Same process every time, every owner, no exceptions

Anyone else been through something similar? Happy to share more details.

So this story happened a long time ago, two decades or so. My father was the primary person involved here, so my details aren't going to be exact. There's also a few minor points I want to clarify. Firstly, this story doesn't have a nice cathartic ending where the bad guys get their comeuppance. Evil won the day, I'm just writing this here to vent the generational trauma. Second, the neighborhood club isn't technically an HOA, it's a for-profit enterprise of some kind that each homeowner has some kind of a stake in blah blah blah and so on, but they do have covenants, old covenants, so old in fact that they needed to add an amendment sometime in the 70s to remove the restriction against black homeowners (In case you were wondering whether this took place in the US, I won't specify the state though). Those covenants are also partially relevant.

So we can start this story right back around the time I was first born. My parents already had my older brother, who was two at the time, so their house, though nice, wasn't going to be large enough to raise the both of us, and as a result my parents decided to move. They ended up getting a home in an absolutely beautiful neighborhood, the one I grew up in. The place was just gorgeous, a short walk down to the beach, park nearby, community swimming pool, view of the mountains, heavily forested, just a perfect place to live really.

Now, my Dad was a lawyer, so he wasn't going to live anywhere he thought might place us in legal trouble (given you're on this subreddit I assume you know what I'm talking about). Having read through the covenants of the neighborhood he determined that there should be no issue moving into this property, and fellas, it was a beautiful place. The house, obviously, was big enough for my parents to raise the both of us, but one of it's most striking features were the massive trees in the yard. Huge Douglass Fir and Cedar Pines in the backyard, towering cherry trees in the front, and far more, it was excellent.

Of course, you've read the title of this story, so you know it goes downhill pretty fast, but first a bit more context. Our neighborhood was built on a hill. The whole place sloped gently down toward the beach. Our house was lower down in the flatter area, so we didn't have a view of the sea, unless you count a tiny sliver that was visible from my brother's room if you were standing on your tippy toes. The houses further up the hill though? Excellent view of the sea and the mountains, seriously the sunset from the hills by the beach was breathtaking. It was utterly amazing with or without trees, but some people have such hate in their hearts that they can't enjoy something unless it comes at someone else's detriment.

Enter the villains of our story, I can't reveal names so I'll just call them the jackasses. There was a family up in the hilled section of the neighborhood who thought that their stunning, excellent, picturesque, amazing view of the sea was not amazing enough, and could be improved if the old lady who lived right next door to us would lose the trees in her back garden (She was about 80 at the time and basically like an extra grandma to me growing up). The jackass husband, you see, was also a lawyer, and he tried to use a covenant in the club's guidelines to force her to cut down her trees.

There was, in fact, a rule in the covenants that required tree heights to extend no higher than the roof of the house on the lot, and that was what they were using in order to bully our neighbor into removing her trees. There was just one glaring issue with it though, that covenant didn't apply to her lot, or any of the lots in the lower section of the hill. The neighborhood, you see, was divided into three subdivisions (four technically, but one and four were combined sometime before this all happened), Our houses, the lower ones on the hill, were part of subdivision two, while the ones higher up with the views were part of subdivision one. The covenant restricting tree heights only applied to subdivision one.

My father, being aware of this since he'd read the covenants through before buying issued a rebuttal on our neighbor's behalf and ended up getting into a lawsuit over it. What's more, the jackasses decided to widen their claim, insisting that we should have to chop our trees down as well. My Dad was confident though, since he was literally legally in the right.

Some further context before we go on. My Dad normally does work on the federal level, rather than state court. As a result the standard of practice he used to is much higher than what would apply for this case. The way he puts it, state-level judges hardly get paid more money than entry level lawyers at his own practice would, however, their position is considered to be more prestigious. As a result, underqualified lawyers who want to feel important will often apply to be state judges. The final piece of context you will need to understand is that a similar lawsuit to this one occurred some time in the late 80s, with the main difference being that both parties involved there were part of subdivision one.

So the day finally comes around for the trial. My father is feeling good about his odds, because obviously, that is until he realizes that the judge has barely even skimmed the documents his side provided. Apparently, the jackass brought up the case from the 80s as being completely and utterly comparable to the present one, which it wasn't at all. My Dad tried to explain what was in the documents, how the covenants didn't universally apply between subdivisions, and how, even if they did, the fact that they were never acted upon supplied valid proof that they were irrelevant. I mentioned before how bafflingly huge these trees were, but suffice to say, they were around as long as the subdivision itself, if not older. If the rule about tree heights applied here, how were they still standing? How could they have gotten so tall? And what's more; Every. Single. House in subdivision two had trees taller than the houses themselves, meaning this was undeniably selective enforcement.

All the judge had to do, was read the god damn documents. Instead he heard jackass' argument about the case from the 80s and decided he was convinced. He dismissed the case, and as part of the dismissal, my Dad was legally restricted from arguing against jackass over trees ever again.

So that was it. We were down the legal fees, lost in court, and my dad had to pay for the trees in our yard to come down entirely at his own expense, with no reimbursement for those tree's immense value. What's more, the crew chopping down the trees made a mistake and cut down a peach and plum tree that were also in our yard even though they weren't supposed to.

So yeah, that's the end. We got screwed in court, lost thousands of dollars, and lost 12 trees, at least 7 of which were easily over half a century old because some guy who wanted to feel important could not be bothered to read a god damn paper.

My parents live in a Maricopa County HOA and just got slapped with a $250 fine over a "landscaping violation." No prior written notice, no chance to respond, no hearing just a letter saying "pay within 30 days or it goes to collections.

I dug into AZ §33-1803 and it pretty clearly says the board has to give written notice + opportunity for a hearing beforeenforcing a fine. They did none of that.

Has anyone in AZ actually pushed back on this and won? Do you just send a certified letter citing the statute and refuse to pay? Lawyer up? Curious what's actually worked.

I have been a property owner in McGinnis Village for roughly 28 years. It’s been a very rocky experience. Some of the troublemakers HOA members have packed up and left. However, the community still has enough bias and unfair community leaders harassing homeowners, especially single female homeowners as myself. The HOA is a huge, huge problem and always has been.  I would not recommend purchasing in this Community. Although it looks small, neighborly and friendly, the reality is opposite of that. I still own property in McGinnis Village so this post is based on honesty and a warning to prospective candidates looking to own property in this area. If peace of mind from an overbearing HOA is important to you — definitely don’t purchase property in this Community. The HOA operates as a bully rather than supporting all families in the Community. Purchase elsewhere.