Here’s where it got interesting. The marina charged premium rates for unscheduled storage, forty-five dollars per day for a boat of that size, plus a two-hundred-dollar intake fee since it had arrived without advanced arrangement. The person in the office pulled up the account and showed me the charges accumulating. The intake fee alone was two hundred dollars and with daily storage at forty-five dollars per day, the costs were climbing fast. After the first week, the bill was already over five hundred dollars.
I asked who was responsible for paying these fees. The marina employee explained that their policy was straightforward. Whoever delivers a boat to them is responsible for all associated fees until the boat is picked up or the account is settled. In this case, that was the towing company. The towing company had an account with the marina and had delivered the boat there, so they were on the hook for the storage fees.
I filed a second police report specifically documenting my attempt to retrieve my boat and the marina’s statement that they couldn’t release it without authorization. The officer who took this second report was different from the first, and he seemed more interested in the situation. He made notes about the accumulating storage fees and the HOA’s refusal to return my property. Then I waited.
The storage fees at the marina continued to accumulate. My lawyer’s demand letter had been sent via certified mail and we had confirmation of delivery. The five business days passed with no response from the HOA. My lawyer filed a lawsuit. We sued the HOA, the HOA president personally, and the property management company.
The lawsuit alleged wrongful taking of property, abuse of HOA authority, and demanded return of my boat, compensation for my expenses and time, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages. We also filed for a temporary restraining order requiring the return of my boat pending the outcome of the lawsuit. The court scheduled a hearing on the restraining order for two weeks out. In the meantime, the storage fees continued to accumulate. After two weeks, the bill was around eight hundred thirty dollars. After three weeks, it exceeded twelve hundred dollars.
During this time, I received a panicked call from the property management company. They wanted to work something out and asked if I would be willing to just pay a reduced fee and take my boat back. I told them I wasn’t paying anything and referred them to my attorney. They tried to argue that the daily fees were becoming excessive. I agreed that they were, and I suggested they return my boat immediately if they didn’t want the fees to keep climbing.
Here’s what was happening behind the scenes, which I found out later. The marina had been billing the towing company for the storage. The towing company had tried to bill the HOA. The HOA was claiming they had never authorized storage at a marina and refusing to pay. The property management company was stuck in the middle and getting increasingly worried about the liability exposure. And Patricia, the HOA president, was insisting that I was responsible for all of it because I had refused to comply with the violation notice.
The restraining order hearing was brief. My lawyer presented the CC&Rs, showed that there was no valid restriction on boats in driveways, and argued that the HOA had taken my property without authority and was now holding it hostage. The HOA’s lawyer tried to argue that the board had broad authority to enforce community standards, but the judge wasn’t buying it.