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A RETIREE — who spent most of his life living in homeowner association communities — has created a reform group after ‘unreasonable’ fines were placed on him.
It was not until after Chuck Williams, 74, of Wilmington, North Carolina, moved to Leland, almost 200 miles from Charlotte, that he began to have serious issues with HOAs.
He had never had an issue in the past, always paying his dues and keeping his home up to code.
“Like every homeowner, you don’t agree with everything, but I got along fine,” he told Charlotte Magazine.
But in 2021, after Williams retired from his job as a manager at JCPenny, he and his wife moved to Leland to escape traffic in Wilmington.
As the couple settled into their new home, the developer transferred control of the HOA to a management company — and chaos ensued.
“And that,” he said, “is when the nightmare started.”
Williams claimed his new HOA fined members for minor violations that had not caused problems before.
“They were just unreasonable,” Williams recalled.
HOAs can fine property owners up to $100 a day for a slew of rules that include excessive noise, not storing trash cans up to code, parking on the street, and letting the grass grow too high.
In some cases, repeated fines and warnings can lead the HOA to foreclose on your home, if written into the contract.
TIME FOR CHANGE
Williams had had enough and began to look for a group of other fed-up homeowners so they could band together and share their experiences.
“I’ve had enough, You gotta fight back,” he said.
At 74, the North Carolina resident founded Citizens for HOA Reform which claimed to promote fair and transparent HOA governance across the state.
It truly is a David-and-Goliath battle and at the moment, we don’t even have a slingshot.
Chuck Williams
“We strive to promote transparency, accountability, and fairness in the governance of HOAs, and to ensure that all members have equal say in the decision-making process,” the organization’s mission statement affirmed on their website.
The group aims to “support legislative initiatives that advance HOA reform” to help others avoid problems like those that Williams faced.
Williams said he knows that it is hard for individuals to fight back on their own, so its better if homeowners under HOAs come together.
“It truly is a David-and-Goliath battle,” he said, “and at the moment, we don’t even have a slingshot.”
STRUGGLES IN NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina is governed by a number of regulations that give HOAs a significant amount of power.
The 1999 North Carolina Planned Community Act, for example, gives HOAs the right to foreclose on properties for problems the same banks can.
In some communities, homes can be taken by the HOA simply due to fines piling up for minor infractions.
State law does require HOAs to act in the best interest of the homeowner, but this requirement can be interpreted in different ways.
“One hat is the developer hat who is trying to develop and sell and make as much profit as possible in that community. The other hat that they’re wearing is a nonprofit hat, and you might be able to guess which hat they like better,” Charlotte attorney James Galvin, specializing in homeowner and HOA disputes, told WBTC in 2022.
He told the Observer that the relationship between HOAs and homeowners “mirrors the lack of social trust that exists in society in general.”
Williams said that HOAs have too much power and they are the ones who made him into an activist.
But he is not sure that he will be able to make a difference.
“It’s just the beginning,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever live long enough to see any meaningful change. But I think we’ve got the ball rolling.”
