'HOA insists my sister and I are not a single-family household and one of us should move out. We've lived here all our lives.' UPDATED
"HOA insists my sister and I are not a single-family household and one of us should move out. We've lived here all our lives."
I'm 21 and my sister is 19. We've lived in this house our entire lives. Our parents bought this house 27 years ago. They joined the HOA about 15 years ago. My dad died 5 years ago, mom died 6 months ago. We are now the owners of this house.
We've been visited by the HOA multiple times, they're citing that we're not a single-family home anymore since our mom has died. They've told us that according to the terms, only a single family can be resident in the homes and being single family is defined as a person or couple and their legal unmarried children.
This meant that my mom could live with me and my sister as it was a single family according to the definition, but me and my sister living here after our mom's death means we are two families of single adults. They want one of us to move out so that this place becomes a single family home again.
They've visited us FOUR times now asking us to leave. They say they don't like to sue our of respect for our parents but they will do that if we continue to refuse to comply by the community rules. Can they kick one of us out of our own house? What should we expect and how can we fight this?
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
Sounds like someone in your neighborhood wants to force you out so they can buy your house.
I call BS on their part.
Do you have a copy of the HOA regs and have you read through them to verify that what they are saying is actually true?
Tgliko (OP)
I couldn't find a copy in our documents. I have asked them everytime to send us a copy of the terms and they always say they will, but nothing has come!
First of all, I am incredibly sorry for your losses.
Part of me wants to tell you and your sister to comply with the HOA, and make an agreement with the HOA to move out of the home contingent on the sale of the home, then put the home on the market......for one billion dollars.
Nearly three months later, the OP returned with an update.
So I first confirmed that they are from the HOA, not just some people harassing us for the fun of it. We also got the CC&R of the HOA, which included a clause about single family and it's weird definition.
If included partners, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, step parents, step children, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, children of uncles and aunts, children of nieces and nephews, BUT NO SIBLINGS.
It even had a clause that said co-owners are not allowed to live there unless they are a single family based on the definition. We also received a letter from them telling us of our violation and demanding us to comply.
So my sister and I went around the neighborhood and gave copies of the terms and the letter we received to everyone and told them "imagine you died tomorrow, do you want them to kick out your kids? Because they're doing it to us. They will do it to your kids as well. Help us stop them."
We gathered signatures and had almost everyone contact the president and demand that this should stop. Within two weeks, we received a letter that says this has been a mistake with an apology.
We learned that this HOA is horrible to everyone, not just us. So there are now people preparing to run for the HOA board to replace the current members and they're promising to have a referendum about whether the HOA should be dissolved or not, because it really is doing nothing of substance except being a pain in the butt of everyone.
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
wonder what the HOA had in mind for an endgame here, cuz this looks suspiciously like playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes territory.
It feels like the HOA president or members wanted the house for themselves.
This. It is relatively common. They knew the kids wouldn't be able to just up and move out, and so they'd start accumulating fines that they couldn't possibly hope to pay, and the HOA would eventually seize and auction the house off and whoever was really behind all this BS would buy it for a song and dance and rent it out.
How miserable do these HOA monsters have to be?
“Hello people who have lived in this house your entire lives, your parents are dead now, you gotta go.”
What strain of crack were those HOA (the a stands for AH) monsters thinking trying to kick out two young adults who just lost their parents?