HOA Nut House

(this post is actually related to my original Post "Backetball Hoopla..." I felt it deserves a post of its own.)

I would like advice from other homeowners who have tried (and ideally, been successful) stopping their HOA baords from simply "making up" rules, interpretations, etc. during board meetings and hearings that simply don't exist in the CCRs, bylawas and ammendments. I've been in corp. business for 21 years, negotiating & interpreting contracts for about 15 of those years, and NEVER have I seen such blatent "personal interpretation" of an otherwise 1-sided contract called the CCRs(favoring the HOA)!

At our hearing this past week, our board had pulled these 'stunts' in leiu of pointing to any written rules regarding hearings, surveys, etc.
1. at our violation hearings, they stated we each had 5 minutes to plead our case & a timer was set, but failed to Show where in the documentation (CCRs, bylaws, ammendments)the "5 minute timer rule" (5 minutes for a homeowner to plead their case) was written & approved.
2. They threw-out and called "illegal" a signed petition to rescind their recent "rule" (see below): We surveyed the neighborhood (72% of homes polled) and proved that 77% of owners were in favor of rescinding the rule AND allowing kids to have basketball goals & play with sports equipment in front of their homes (on the street). As I prsented this data, I was told "there is a procedure for rescinding a rule, and a petition is not it." by one board memeber but they could not point to it in any documentation.
3.In a letter to all homwoners prior to 6 families petitioing the neighborhood, we quaoted the board president (in the prior board meeting) on the # of persons that had complaied about the boackboards (11 persons from 134 homes in the past year). When I was called-in for my heaing he claimed that "I had illegally used his personal information".
4.They argued that they had a right to review ALL correspondance to homeowners,a right to review and change wording about anything being sent to the homes. However, again, there's nothing documented in this regard. In the prior baord meeting, we did have a discussion about how to get a section of the CCRs changed (2/3 approval of all homeowners, which is documented in the CCRs) AND at that time they added "we have a right to review and approve the new wording before a vote is taken" (not in the CCRs!).

In comparison to a corporate contract, our CCRs are so poorley written, they couldn't be used in buiness to effectively negotiate anything without a severe overhaul.

Background
Our board this past week held "homeowner vs. board" 5 minute hearings for 5 of 6 of us who are in voilation of their new "No sports equipment in front of the house, Only in the Back yard" (yes, they BANNED ALL kids play equipment from the front of the house: skaeboards, skate ramps,basketball hoops, EVERYTHING, claiming the needed to make a rule that enforced this section of our CCRs: "9.4: No basketball baackbaords of any kind shall be erected or attached, by permanent or temporary method to any dwelling unit unless approved by the architectual control committee."

Practice of the past arch. committee has been to coerce homeowners to put backboards only in their back yards. When the new ach. committee found a few in front of our houses (freestanding portabales) guess what? - we were surpired eith the new rule (above), violation notices & hearings!