The HOA was charging me something like three hundred fifty dollars for the tow, two hundred dollars for the initial violation fine, and fifty dollars per day for storage starting from the day they towed the boat. The storage fees had already accumulated to one hundred fifty dollars, bringing my total to around seven hundred. The letter said the fees would continue to accumulate until I paid the full amount and retrieved the boat. There was a phone number to call to make arrangements for payment and retrieval.
I called the number. It went to a voicemail box that identified itself as the HOA management company. I left a detailed message explaining that the boat had been taken from my private property without my permission, that I had not authorized any towing, that I had filed a police report, and that I expected the boat to be returned immediately at no cost to me. I said that any damage to the boat would be their responsibility, and I requested the current location of my property.
Three days passed with no response from the HOA. During those three days, I had actually started preparing to move the boat to my backyard, exactly as Patricia had demanded. I had gotten quotes for removing some landscaping and had scheduled my friend to bring his truck over that weekend. I was literally going to comply with her unreasonable demand, even though it would destroy my yard, but she couldn’t wait. She had my boat towed before her own deadline, and now things were about to get interesting.
I did exactly what the police officer had suggested. That night, I found a lawyer who specialized in HOA disputes and had a consultation the next morning. The lawyer advised me this would take time. These things always do, but he was confident we had a strong case. I showed him the CC&Rs, the correspondence with the HOA, the security camera footage, the police report, and the demand for payment.
He actually smiled when he read the HOA’s letter demanding payment. “They really stepped in it,” he said. “They removed your property from your private driveway without legal authority, and now they’re refusing to return it unless you pay them. That’s not how any of this works.” He drafted a formal demand letter on his firm’s letterhead.
The letter stated that the HOA had no authority under the CC&Rs to prohibit boats in driveways, that the removal of my boat constituted an illegal taking of property, and that their refusal to return it unless I paid constituted extortion. The letter demanded the immediate return of my boat at no cost to me, compensation for my time and trouble, and reimbursement for my legal fees. He gave them five business days to respond.
While this was happening, I did some investigating about where my boat actually was. The letter from the HOA had mentioned appropriate storage, but hadn’t specified where. I called the towing company whose truck I’d identified from my security camera footage. The person I spoke to was cagey at first, but when I mentioned that I had filed a police report and hired a lawyer, they became more cooperative. They told me the boat had been delivered to a marina about twenty miles away.
I drove out to the marina that afternoon. Sure enough, my boat was there sitting in their dry storage area along with dozens of other boats. I spoke to the marina office and explained the situation. They were sympathetic, but said they couldn’t release the boat to me without authorization from whoever had arranged for storage. In this case, the towing company that had delivered it.