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A couple has claimed that their homeowners association is pushing them out of their neighborhood due to a pride flag on their lawn.
Jared Deluca, a realtor in Queen Creek, Arizona, claimed that his homeowners association does not want him or his husband, Tim, to be a part of their community after receiving seven fines and two official letters.
“All of this [referring to the official letter], over a pride flag,” Deluca (@jdeluca.realtor) alleged in a TikTok video from October 2023.
“I am fairly convinced that they are trying to legally push us out of our home”
Deluca explained that he was invited to be part of their homeowner’s association architectural committee in 2022.
He noted that he was not required to sign anything when he joined.
Deluca was part of the committee for a year without any issues, before claiming to be unfairly treated by their HOA.
“We got fined twice in the month of February,” he explained.
“We got fined twice in the month of March.”
In the spring of 2023, the Delucas approached their HOA asking how they could amend the rules, regulations, and design guidelines to include all flags associated with protected groups under fair housing, which includes sexual orientation.
But he says that their HOA was unaware of the process to have the guidelines amended.
The Deluca’s put together a package of information and presented it to their HOA. Later, they allegedly learned their proposal had been unanimously voted down with no explanation.
They were allegedly fined again in June, which confused the couple because it was Pride month.
Deluca noted that based on the rules, they were allowed to have flags up to celebrate holidays.
They were allegedly fined again in July.
Then, in August, the realtor said he was asked to sign a code of conduct, which he found interesting because he was originally asked to be a part of the architectural committee “on nothing more than a handshake.”
The code of conduct reportedly included clauses such as not speaking negatively to the media about the HOA or posting anything negative on social media.
Deluca refused to sign, and that was when he received the first certified letter from an attorney.
“The HOA decided to stick an attorney after us to scare us, and they threatened that if we failed to comply, there would be legal action,” Deluca explained.
He reached out to the attorney explaining that the photos from the fine they received included pictures of their pride flag with an unapproved gazebo in the corner.
Deluca explained that they didn’t get approval for the gazebo from the architectural committee on purpose.
“When the attorney told us this was a slippery slope, we were like, f**k yeah, it is because here’s proof that you’re targeting our pride flag,” he said passionately.
In October 2023, he allegedly received his second certified letter from the homeowners association notifying him that he had been fired from the architectural committee with no explanation.
“We have been dealing with this for a year, and there have been times where we have brought our flag down to comply, though now they’re telling us to completely remove the pride flag from our property,” he explained.
“I have that in writing, in a certified letter.”
Deluca said he believed the real issue wasn’t that the association minded that there was a gay married couple in the neighborhood, but rather that they did not want to be visually reminded of it.
“At this point, I am pretty convinced that the [board] is trying to push the Deluca’s out of their home because at the end of the day, they don’t want us in our neighborhood, and they have repeatedly taken the steps to prove that,” he said.
He also said that they “pick and choose” what they enforce because he found three violations at the home of the HOA board president, but doesn’t believe he is receiving official letters.
As of this year, the saga is coming to a sad end.
In January, Deluca posted a video saying that, due to a bad year in real estate and the issues they have experienced with their homeowner association, he and his husband have decided to move.
Then, on Saturday, Deluca went outside to check the wall around his home, after a neighbor informed him of an issue.
Someone had vandalized his property with homophobic language.
Deluca said that he was not going to call the police because “they’re not even going to do anything.”
The U.S. Sun had reached out to Deluca and the homeowners association for comment.
