She read through the relevant sections of the CC&Rs, asked the HOA’s lawyer to point to any language that prohibited boats in driveways. And when he couldn’t, she ruled in my favor. The order was clear. The HOA was to immediately return my boat at no cost to me, and they were prohibited from taking any further action regarding the boat pending the resolution of the lawsuit.
I retrieved my boat from the marina two days later at no cost to myself. Here’s how the liability chain worked. The towing company had an account with the marina and had delivered the boat there. The marina’s policy was clear. Whoever drops off a boat is responsible for storage fees until it’s picked up. The towing company tried to argue they were just following the HOA’s instructions, but the marina didn’t care about that.
The marina’s contract was with the towing company, so the towing company owed the fees. The towing company, now stuck with a massive bill exceeding twenty-two hundred dollars, went after the HOA with their own contract, which stated that the HOA was responsible for all costs associated with storing items they requested be towed. The HOA tried to claim they never authorized such expensive storage, but the towing company pointed out that the HOA never specified where to take the boat. They just said to remove it.
The towing company chose the marina because that’s where they take boats. It was all perfectly documented in their standard service agreement. The HOA ended up paying over twenty-two hundred dollars in storage fees to the towing company, who paid the marina. I didn’t pay a cent.
The police reports I had filed documented everything thoroughly. While the prosecutor’s office declined to pursue criminal charges, stating it was a civil matter, those police reports became crucial evidence in my lawsuit. Having official documentation that law enforcement agreed my property had been taken without authorization strengthened my case considerably.
The legal proceedings took months to unfold. During that time, I parked my boat right back in its original spot on the side of my driveway. The HOA didn’t dare touch it again. In fact, they didn’t send me any more violation notices at all. The president resigned from the board shortly after my lawsuit was filed once she realized the personal liability she had exposed herself to.
Several of my neighbors approached me during this time to express their support. A few of them told me they had also received violation notices for various things. One for having the wrong color mailbox, another for having a basketball hoop at the end of their driveway, another for having too many potted plants on their front porch. Patricia had apparently been on a crusade to remake the neighborhood in her image and people were fed up. None of them had been as bold as to take someone’s property though.
One neighbor told me that Patricia had never actually gotten any complaints about my boat. She had simply decided it didn’t fit her aesthetic and made up the story about complaints to justify her actions. That didn’t surprise me at all.