A big legal fight could be brewing in unincorporated St. Louis County, Missouri over a family’s desire to keep a garden and some pet chickens in their back yard. The family lives on a 1/5 acre lot in a subdivision of about 500 homes. They say they’re being ordered by the HOA to get rid of their chickens because of complaints by another homeowner.
The HOA refuses to tell the family who’s complaining and why. They’ve just ordered the birds be removed. The family, one of whom blogs under the name “Garden Gal,” could potentially be facing a lawsuit that could eventually cost them their home.
Many Homeowners Associations don’t take kindly to pets and homeowners regularly lose battles to keep pets as insignificant as aquarium fish (Chicago).
But pay close attention to this point: Suing a homeowner over something as trivial as a pet can be expensive and can cost all members of the HOA significant assessments. What an HOA really wants to do is force a beleagured homeowner to file a countersuit, because only then does the HOA’s insurance policy kick in! So an HOA will use some of the most outrageous behavior possible to encourage a lawsuit. Then the homeowner who sues ends up paying the legal fees for both sides…and still loses the case.
In any event, stay in touch with Garden Gal’s link below. And watch for developments
http://www.urbanfarmliving.com/
Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association (to be published in October)
I remember those wonderful times of youth, when Mom sent me and Brother Greg to the back yard to plant some tomato seeds. How fun it was to water our tiny plants each morning and each evening race down to the flower patch to see which one of us possessed the the “Magic Touch,” that mysterious “Green Thumb” most of us only wish we had.
One summer it was grapevines we planted. They climbed right up a trellis on the side of the house. From our perch in the big bay windows we could all see the growth, although we never seemed to get any mature grapes.
These days I’ve discovered that planting a home garden is something akin to murdering small puppies or trying to set an arson fire in Dad’s lawn mower.
Yes, those innocent days are gone and most of our kids will never know how idyllic a childhood they could have had. Yes, here come the HOA Nazis to warn us that if the garden isn’t torn out by evening, our parents will be fined 50 dollars a day.
Knowing my parents, they would have fought for our rights as kids to have their own patch of garden. But we loved our parents and we would never have willingly brought on all this stress.
I’m sad to say those little green vines were all ripped out by evening, the dying roots were given a solemn burial in the trash can.
A former doctor is now facing a second murder charge after the death of a man he wounded Thursday night.
The second man, 69-year-old Marvin Fisher, died Sunday. He was a member of the HOA board of directors and a past president. The other victim who was killed instantly Thursday night was the current HOA president, David Merritt. The suspect, 51 year old Mahmoud Hindi had a longstanding dispute with the Homeowners Association. The HOA had repeatedly demanded he remove a fence and a driveway which were not built according to rules and regulations of the community.
Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association
Painful news from Louisville, Kentucky, after an angry homeowner opened fire in his HOA board meeting Thursday night. One man was killed and another critically injured.
The suspect, 55 year old Mahmoud Hindi had repeated conflicts with the board over a driveway and a fence that had not been approved by the board. It’s not the first time people have been killed during an HOA meeting. Sadly, it probably won’t be the last. The escalating level of conflict in America’s HOA system can only point to more violence.
Hindi is in jail facing charges of first-degree murder and seven counts of assault and wanton endangerment.
