Successfully Defended Homeowner From HOA Overreach

Ideally, living in a condo or townhome with a homeowners association (HOA) comes with certain assurances. For instance, if severe weather causes widespread roof damage, your HOA should investigate the extent of the damage before approving sweeping repairs. 

After an extreme weather event damaged roofs throughout our client’s community, the HOA issued a five-figure assessment to all homeowners. However, our client wasn’t sure their unit needed a new roof, so they sought a second opinion.  

The information from the independent inspection proved invaluable. Some units did not need new roofs, but the HOA’s community-wide assessment inflated repair costs. 

Instead of hearing our client’s concerns about this discovery during public board meetings, the HOA dismissed them and issued an ultimatum: Pay the inflated assessment or face a lawsuit that could end in foreclosure. 

Our client submitted a notice to have their property removed from the loss assessment claim, which resulted in the HOA taking the extraordinary step of filing a temporary restraining order against our client. 

As attorneys, we did not consider this a reasonable legal request. Civil protection orders are issued under circumstances in which a plaintiff fears a defendant’s actions “immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage” to another person. Colo. R. Civ. P. 65(b)

However, this HOA wanted to fix “damage” to a roof that, according to another inspector, did not exist. Thus, our client could not be causing harm by requesting the association remove its roof from the replacement queue. 

The governing body realized the fault in their argument after we challenged their premise. This resulted in the HOA agreeing to favorable terms in our client’s settlement. The lawsuit against our client was dismissed, and in the end, our client only had to pay a quarter of the assessment fee for the new roof.