Well-kept streets, good trees, the kind of neighborhood where people wave from driveways and leave tomatoes on porches in late August. Margaret Chen ran for HOA board president about 18 months before she cut my power. She ran unopposed. Her platform was two words, property values.
Nobody thought the role would matter enough to contest it. That was the first mistake the neighborhood made. Within 6 months of taking office, Margaret had introduced 14 new community standards. I kept the list.
Grass height, maximum 3 and 1/2 inches measured. Mailbox color, approved palette only posted on the HOA website. Roof moss grounds for mandatory remediation. Parking angle, parallel to the curb within 6 inches.
Holiday decorations installation no earlier than 45 days before the relevant holiday. Removal no later than 15 days after. Garden ornaments no taller than 24 inches. The two board members Margaret brought in with her, both from her church, both elected in the same uncontested vote, approved every measure without revision, without question, and in one case without appearing to have read it first.
Nobody filed a formal complaint. Complaining put you on a list. Mrs. Eleanor Patterson lived three doors down from me. 74 years old, widowed, retired school teacher.
She'd lived in Ridgecrest Meadows for 11 years. She had a small garden along the left side of her fence. Pink roses planted the spring after her husband died. 11 years without anyone saying a word about them.
8 months into Margaret's administration, she received a fine notice, $900. Non-approved flowering species within the HOA perimeter boundary. The CC&Rs, as reinterpreted by Margaret's board, required pre-approval for any flowering plant visible from the street. Mrs. Patterson had not applied for approval.
She didn't know she needed to. When she called the HOA office to explain that the roses had been there for 11 years. The person who answered told her to put it in writing. She did.
Margaret's written response, the prior administration's failure to enforce the rule, did not grandfather in the violation. Pay the fine or the HOA would move to place a lien on her property. I watched Mrs. Patterson stand in her driveway that afternoon holding the letter reading it a second time as if the words might arrange themselves differently. She was 74 years old and the threat of losing her home over a row of flowers was not abstract to her.
I started keeping records that week. My other neighbor Tom Garza was 60, retired electrician. Built like someone who'd carried heavy things his whole life. He had no roses and no patience for Margaret's fines.
He'd pushed back on two separate notices both times politely. Both times in writing. Both times with the relevant CC&R sections cited correctly. Both times he was overruled.
About 3 weeks before the morning of September 14th, Tom had gone directly to Margaret at a board meeting. He told her plainly the utility lines running through and around these properties weren't owned by the HOA. They ran under a private franchise agreement with a local utility company. The HOA didn't have jurisdiction over them and no authority to direct compliance actions involving them.
Margaret's response word for word as Tom told it to me later, "That was before my administration. Everything gets reviewed." She had not as far as Tom or I could determine reviewed anything. She had issued work order 2241 the following week.