# Another Homeowner's Association Horror Story



## imp (Aug 14, 2015)

We have these HOA deals all around here. One group of homes nearby has all it's landscaping provided by professionals, only tile roofs allowed, a community swimming pool and nice park. Still, it irks me what some folks encounter. imp

HOA threatens 'jail time' for family over color of backyard play set

Legal letters demand removal of the purple (!) swing set within weeks. The offenders: the Stout family of Lee's Summit, Missouri. The offense: the color of their 2-year-old play set. It's stained a shade of purple.

The Raintree Lake Property Owners Association first put the Stouts on notice last year that the family's play set did not comport with the Architectural Review Board Guidelines for Architectural Control. Mom Marla Stout tells Yahoo Homes: "After the set had been in place for 11 months, we got a letter saying that we were being fined $200 for not getting approval to put up a swing set. My husband and another friend who happens to be an HOA president are both engineers. The way they read the bylaws was that if you put a pre-fabricated set you didn't need approval. "Colors had to be harmonious with community. There are over 2,000 homes in Raintree. Pick a color, any color, it's here. We have swing sets in place with multicolored canopies, huge yellow slides, etc. Ours blends with the trees and is shaded by four large trees. _We honestly had no idea we'd done something wrong._"

So she and her husband, Jack, appealed the fine -- and the appeals committee that represents the board found in the Stouts' favor. "That should have ended the process," Stout said. But the Architectural Review Board and the HOA board "continued to push the issue about the color," she said. "We asked for suggestions and were told they couldn't give us those and nothing existed as far as approved or disapproved colors for swing sets. They simply approve or disapprove based on personal preference." Now the HOA is suing the family, demanding that the play set be removed entirely. A lawyer's letter threatened that the Stouts could be held in civil contempt -- "which would bring with it a daily fine or jail time until the swing set was removed" -- if they ignored "any anticipated court-ordered injunction." 


https://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/hoa-threatens--jail-time--for-family-over-color-of-backyard-play-set-

The Raintree Lake Property Owners Association first put the Stouts on notice last year that the family's play set did not comport with the Architectural Review Board Guidelines for Architectural Control. Mom Marla Stout tells Yahoo Homes: "After the set had been in place for 11 months, we got a letter saying that we were being fined $200 for not getting approval to put up a swing set. My husband and another friend who happens to be an HOA president are both engineers. The way they read the bylaws was that if you put a pre-fabricated set you didn't need approval. "Colors had to be harmonious with community. There are over 2,000 homes in Raintree. Pick a color, any color, it's here. We have swing sets in place with multicolored canopies, huge yellow slides, etc. Ours blends with the trees and is shaded by four large trees. _We honestly had no idea we'd done something wrong._"

So she and her husband, Jack, appealed the fine -- and the appeals committee that represents the board found in the Stouts' favor. "That should have ended the process," Stout said. But the Architectural Review Board and the HOA board "continued to push the issue about the color," she said. "We asked for suggestions and were told they couldn't give us those and nothing existed as far as approved or disapproved colors for swing sets. They simply approve or disapprove based on personal preference." Now the HOA is suing the family, demanding that the play set be removed entirely. A lawyer's letter threatened that the Stouts could be held in civil contempt -- "which would bring with it a daily fine or jail time until the swing set was removed" -- if they ignored "any anticipated court-ordered injunction."


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 14, 2015)

I listen to a local consumer radio show sometimes, and hear lots of bad stories about people who live in HOA communities.  I would never live in one.  Seems like a lot of them have corruption going on behind the scenes by those who run them.


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## Shalimar (Aug 14, 2015)

Wow, rectal-cranial inversion meets high chair tyranny? Wth?


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## imp (Aug 14, 2015)

*The Money!*



SeaBreeze said:


> I listen to a local consumer radio show sometimes, and hear lots of bad stories about people who live in HOA communities.  I would never live in one.  Seems like a lot of them have corruption going on behind the scenes by those who run them.



Huge amounts of dough are often involved. Before we moved here, we wintered two years in a rented condo. The complex had 107 units altogether. The HOA fee was $180 per month. That's $19,000 per MONTH collected, $230,000 per year. What did it buy the owners? Landscaping, and a full-time handy-man, two swimming pools, an electronic gate (Ha!). The owner of our unit had bought it for recreational use, lived in CA. He paid $180,000 for it; the current selling price was around $40,000 thanks to the recession! 

Some were in foreclosure. How do you suppose that works, regarding the HOA? Think the bank or lending institution having seized ownership continued to pay HOA fees? I've wondered about that. imp


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## Temperance (Aug 18, 2015)

Would never move into a community where there was a HOA.  Never heard of anyone pleased who was pleased with theirs.


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## imp (Aug 18, 2015)

Temperance said:


> Would never move into a community where there was a HOA.  Never heard of anyone pleased who was pleased with theirs.



Move into: as in owning, probably? The condo we rented, furnished, was wonderful! The absentee owner, of course, had to pay the HOA fees as part of his own "nut", if he did not own it outright, which we suspected he did.  imp


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## SifuPhil (Aug 19, 2015)

I would have painted the swing set with the tears of HOA victims.


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## Kitties (Aug 21, 2015)

Sounds like a nightmare.


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## tnthomas (Aug 21, 2015)

I would choose living in a cardboard box under a freeway overpass over living in a HOA community any day.


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