Ronald was furious. He started sending emails to the other board members calling the decision a witch hunt. He accused the property manager of being biased and he accused me of conspiring with the committee. He demanded a full board vote to overwrite the committee’s decision and the board met the following month. I was not there but I heard about it from my good neighbor who attended as a homeowner. And apparently Ronald stood up and gave this long speech about how the HOA was supposed to protect homeowners and not attack them.
And he said the balcony added value to the neighborhood. And he said that I was the problem, not him. He demanded the board overrule the committee. The board president, who from everything I’ve heard is a reasonable guy who just wants to run a clean neighborhood, told Ronald that the committee followed the process correctly, that the violation was clear, and that the board was not going to override it. He also told Ronald that several homeowners had complained about Ronald using his board position to try to influence the outcome of his own violation and that the board was going to discuss whether Ronald should continue serving.
Ronald apparently lost it. He started yelling about how he had built this neighborhood up, how nobody appreciated what he did, and how he was going to sue the HOA if they forced him to tear down his balcony. The board president asked him to sit down, but he didn’t. Two other board members told him he was out of line, but he kept going. The board voted to remove Ronald from his position because the bylaws allow removal of a board member for conduct detrimental to the association.
And apparently trying to use your board seat to dodge consequences for building an illegal structure over your neighbor’s yard qualifies for exactly that. Ronald stormed out of the meeting. That should have been the end of it. But Ronald was not yet done. He hired a lawyer just like he had promised. About 2 weeks after being removed from the board, I got a letter from an attorney’s office. The letter basically said that Ronald disputed the property line, disputed the HOA’s authority to order removal, and was asserting that the balcony was within his legal rights to build.
And the letter also said that if I continue to harass Ronald or interfere with his property, they would pursue legal action against me. I read the letter twice, laughed once, and then called my own attorney. My guy is a property lawyer at used when I bought the house, and he called me back the next day. This is not a complicated case, he said. The survey is clear. The county already cited him and the HOA already ruled against him.
If he wants to fight this in court, he’s going to lose and he’s going to pay for it. Well, Ronald filed a lawsuit. He actually did it. He sued me for torvious interference with property rights. And he sued the HOA for overreach and selective enforcement. And by the way, guys, is that the first story in the history of my channel where an HOA gets sued and we are actually on the side of the HOA? I guess there’s a first for everything.
Either way, his argument was that the airspace above my property at the height of his balcony was not legally part of my property and that the HOA had unfairly targeted him because of personal bias. My attorney filed a counter claim for trespass property damage for the garden bed and the tree trimming Ronald had done to make room for the structure and requested a court order for removal of the encroaching structure. Their HOA’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss Ronald’s claim against them, citing the clear CCNR violation and the documented process they followed.
The whole thing took about 4 months to work through the court system. During that time, the balcony stayed up because Ronald argued he shouldn’t have to remove it while the case was pending. The county disagreed and fined him for every week the unpermitted structure remained. But Ronald paid the fines because I think he genuinely believed he was going to win. But he didn’t win. The judge reviewed the survey, the county records, the Hway documentation, and the photos.
And Ronald’s attorney tried to argue the airspace theory once again that a structure at second story height doesn’t constitute a property encroachment. And the judge asked about the support post that was physically in the ground on my property. And Ronald’s attorney said it was incidental contact with my lot. The judge actually paused and asked him to repeat that incidental contact, a concrete footing and a structural post supporting a deck. Incidental. My attorney presented a survey, the county inspector’s findings, photos of the destroyed garden bed, and the timeline showing that construction happened while I was out of state, with no notice or consent.
He also presented the HOS violation history, showing that Ronald had never submitted an architectural review, which was required of all homeowners, regardless of board membership, and the judge ruled in my favor on every account. The balcony constituted a trespass on my property. The construction caused actual property damage, and the HOA had followed proper procedure. Ronald’s claims against me and the HOA were dismissed, and the judge ordered removal of any structure encroaching on my property within 30 days and awarded me damages for the garden bed, the damaged fence section, and my legal fees.
