![\"DSC_0625\"](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC_0625-771x510.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSouthhall resident Kay Metzner, 56, had no interest in getting more involved with her neighborhood Homeowner\u2019s Association. But in 2010, when the HOA decided to replace a wooden fence with an aluminum version, she thought she had no choice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prices were just to me outrageous, when you consider there are 424 homes,\u201dshe said.<\/p>\n
The HOA had decided to replace the fence because after more than 25 years of wear and tear, it was getting too expensive to maintain. Members decided an aluminum version was a better option, though the cost would raise everybody\u2019s HOA fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wooden fence would have to be replaced periodically, because the materials that one might use with a wooden fence now were not as good as the materials used when that fence was first installed,\u201d\u00a0said Keith Randleman, president of the HOA.<\/p>\n
He added later,\u00a0\u201cWe had the choice of installing a fence that would last for 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Metzner vocally opposed the fence, even going so far as to collect signatures from more than half the homeowners in the neighborhood, she said. But\u00a0Randlemandisputes that and says Metzner never presented him with a petition.<\/p>\n
Metzner claims she stood up in a community meeting announcing she had the petition and was ignored.<\/p>\n
The HOA went ahead with its plans; the wooden fence came down, the aluminum fence went up, and immediately, there were problems, Metzner said.<\/p>\n
The wooden fence gave homeowners a measure of privacy from cars and passers-by on New Hope Road, but the aluminum fence changed all that, she said. Worse, the noise from passing traffic became a nuisance which the wooden fence had once blocked.<\/p>\n
Randleman\u00a0disagrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was never an issue,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cI think that it\u2019s fair to say that we were certainly on opposite sides of the issue. But I think that we presented all the information we could to the community regarding the options of replacing that fence. We did the best we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he said the decision has turned out to be the correct one. Any concerns residents had when the fence went up were addressed, he said, adding that now people appreciate it.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Metzner didn\u2019t like the HOA’s decision. She had once been on the board and didn\u2019t enjoy it, but she said she couldn\u2019t sit by any longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt they were going in the wrong direction; they were being too frivolous with their money.\u201d<\/p>\n
A State Inundated
\n<\/b>Similar conflicts play out in neighborhoods across Raleigh and the rest of North Carolina.<\/p>\n
John Stone is president and CEO of Community Association Services, an HOA management company that works with 210 HOAs around the state\u00a0\u2014\u00a0most of them in Raleigh. He said North Carolina has a little more than\u00a018,000 HOAs\u00a0and that a little over 50 percent of the state lives in one.<\/p>\n
CAS performs the business functions for its HOAs, about 99 percent of which have been formed into corporations. CAS collects dues, creates corporate financial reports and files state and federal taxes for the HOAs.<\/p>\n
While residents sometimes complain that HOAs have too much control, Stone said they represent the best of American values.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re the purest form of democracy there is,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
HOAs are made up of neighborhood residents elected to the governing board, and they usually perform a few main functions. One\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the one that often ends up creating conflict\u00a0\u2014\u00a0is to protect the covenants established by developers when the neighborhoods are created.<\/p>\n
Adam Gartenberg, president of the Alyson Pond HOA, said the covenants are there to tell people what they can and cannot do on their property. For instance, they might prohibit satellite dishes in the front yard or dictate what kinds of fences a homeowner can have.<\/p>\n
If a homeowner doesn\u2019t want those kinds of rules and regulations, he said they can just choose to live somewhere without an HOA.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople that want to have the freedom, they want to paint their house purple with pink shutters\u00a0\u2026\u00a0they can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said complaints are rare.<\/p>\n
Occasionally there will be homeowners who are not taking care of their yards for a month or two. He can think of one or two examples in the past seven years in his neighborhood. Or perhaps homeowners make changes to their homes that upset their neighbors. He can only think of three examples in the past seven or eight years for that.<\/p>\n
Alyson Pond has more than 200 homeowners, and given that number, actual problems are exceedingly rare, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of opportunity for things to happen, and by and large, it doesn\u2019t,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
Who Sets the Rules?
\n<\/b>The rules governing how HOAs behave are laid out by state law.<\/p>\n
The North Carolina Planned Communities Act explains everything from how an HOA can be created to what powers it can have, including maintenance, improvement of common areas (as in Metzner\u2019s case), fines for violations of rules and the hiring of management companies. In addition to the state laws, HOAs have their own bylaws\u00a0\u2014\u00a0created by the neighborhood developers\u00a0\u2014\u00a0that govern them.<\/p>\n
But not all HOAs are created equal. While Southhall and Alyson Pond both give their HOAs the powers to police covenant violations and make improvements, the Stonehenge neighborhood in North Raleigh limits its HOA.<\/p>\n
Diane Lahti is a member of the board. She said the neighborhood was built in the 1970s and the developers kept the ability to enforce the covenants. Since the neighborhood doesn\u2019t have any common areas, the HOA mainly promotes social activities like a pool party, plant swap, children\u2019s parties and the creation of a list-serve.<\/p>\n
She said from time to time, people come to the board with complaints about their neighbors, in which case the HOA sends out a letter informing the homeowner that someone has a complaint. If action is needed, the HOA refers people to the developer.<\/p>\n
But Stonehenge\u2019s HOA is a marked contrast to many in that it\u2019s voluntary. In many neighborhoods, homeowners have no choice but to belong and pay dues. And failure to pay those dues can have serious consequences.<\/p>\n
A Grave Penalty
\n<\/b>What many homeowners may not realize is that HOAs can have the power of foreclosure. If a member fails to pay his or her dues and doesn\u2019t rectify the situation, the HOA can actually foreclose on the house, leaving the owner homeless.<\/p>\n
Victor Boone, senior managing attorney at Legal Aid of North Carolina, said those are the complaints Legal Aid hears most often in reference to HOAs.<\/p>\n
The resident will begin to get warning letters. If the warnings are ignored and the HOA lawyers come into the picture, things can escalate quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where the problem really starts for them, because the attorney fees can be really substantial,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
Legal fees are capped at $1,200 by the state. However, that only applies to uncontested foreclosures. If the homeowner fights the proceedings, the cap is lifted and fees can skyrocket.<\/p>\n
Even if they are capped, $200 worth of unpaid dues could end up costing the homeowner an additional $1,200 in legal fees, Boone said. And people don\u2019t always realize the seriousness of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will put off paying those dues because they don\u2019t realize that their house can be foreclosed on,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
And if homeowners can\u2019t afford the legal fees on top of the dues, then they may end up losing their house.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe abuses are terrible, and the circumstances that people find themselves in are really deplorable circumstances,\u201d\u00a0said Al Ripley, director\u00a0of the Consumer & Housing Project for the NC Justice Center.<\/p>\n
He admits that not all HOAs resort to foreclosure. Some will go to great lengths to make sure people don\u2019t lose their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got some HOAs that are run very well with well-intentioned, responsible, reasonable people who see foreclosure as a last resort,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
But there are others that are run badly, full of unprofessional members who abuse their authority, he said.<\/p>\n
Hope Carmichael\u00a0is an attorney with Jordan Price\u00a0<\/b>Wall Gray Jones & Carlton\u00a0who represents many HOAs.<\/p>\n
She said actually getting to a foreclosure is relatively rare in her experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our practice, about 90 percent of the collection files are paid in full before they get to foreclosure,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n
And even then, she said HOAs do everything possible to avoid it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis only happens after scads and scads of communications with the homeowner begging them to get on a payment plan to work with the HOA,\u201d\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u201cThe HOA is not in the business of owning property and renting property. They would much rather work with people to stay in the property.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds that the HOA only has one source of revenue: its members. If someone doesn\u2019t pay, all the other members have to make up for it.<\/p>\n
Ripley acknowledged that it’s difficult to tell how often HOAs actually take a homeowner all the way to foreclosure. The courts don\u2019t have a way of tracking foreclosures in a way that shows how many were instigated by HOAs. But he said in his office, he sees it a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens enough that it\u2019s a serious concern,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0If You Can\u2019t Beat \u2018Em, Join \u2018Em
\n<\/b>There is no higher authority to turn to if a homeowner has a problem with an HOA. HOAs have their own procedures to handle complaints, but if a resident isn\u2019t satisfied, then legal help is the only recourse.<\/p>\n
But Metzner discovered another way to influence the HOA: join the board.<\/p>\n
After the situation with the fence, she ran for the board and became a member. At first, she didn\u2019t get along great with her fellow members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the one vote that was against everybody else,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n
But after a few years, the ice has melted somewhat. She said the board has had an opportunity to bond, and they now share a more common outlook. However, she added that there are still things they disagree on.<\/p>\n
As for the fence, by the time she got on the board, it was too late to do anything about it. And it\u2019s still standing.<\/p>\n
![\"Kay](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC_0618-771x510.jpg\")
Alex Granados \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p>
Kay Metzner stands proudly outside her Southall neighborhood<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is estimated that more than 50 percent of North Carolina residents live under a Homeowner’s Association, which can lead to conflicts over everything from unpaid dues to common area improvements. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1503508,"featured_media":22049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1503508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}