HOA Put 60 Solar Panels on My Land — Then the Utility Asked, “Who Authorized This?”
Chapter 8
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I arranged for an independent surveyor named Caleb Moore to examine the boundary. He had surveyed parcels around the county for more than twenty years and had the habit of answering the question he was asked before offering theories about questions nobody had settled. I showed him my deed, the recorded subdivision plat, and the latest county parcel image. Caleb said the fence appeared consistent with the existing boundary information, but he wanted field measurements before reaching a conclusion.We walked the north line together while the drill worked downhill. He found old markers, checked the corners, and recorded positions against the recorded legal description. At one point he stood near a steel post that had been driven into the pasture the day before and stared at his equipment for so long that I wondered whether something was wrong. Then he looked at the new installation and shook his head."This row is nowhere near the subdivision's common tract," he said. "Not even close enough for a normal drawing tolerance to explain.""Can you put that in writing?""I can prepare a survey report showing where the improvements sit relative to the recorded boundary. Whether anyone has a legal right to use that land is a separate question."That distinction mattered to me. A surveyor measures; a court resolves contested rights; an electrical utility decides whether it will connect equipment under a particular interconnection application. I was determined not to make the same mistake Vanessa was making by asking one kind of authority to substitute for every other kind. I wanted each question answered by someone qualified to answer it.Caleb's report would take several days. In the meantime, I found the land description in the original ranch records, opened the subdivision's publicly filed plat, and checked for easements that might explain the installation. There was a utility corridor near the boundary, but the notation related to specific existing services and did not, by itself, give the HOA unlimited authority to occupy my pasture with a generation facility. Nothing I reviewed contained my signature, my father's signature, or a document identifying an array on that site. I sent copies to a property attorney, Naomi Patel, who had previously helped me resolve a feed-lot access dispute.Naomi did not tell me I had an automatic right to destroy the equipment or remove it with my tractor. Instead, she asked whether I had already notified the contractor and HOA in writing, whether I had identified safety risks from the active work area, and whether I could preserve evidence without interfering with machinery. She recommended a formal notice disputing site control and requesting an immediate pause while ownership and land-use documents were reviewed. She also warned me that the sooner lawyers became involved, the more disciplined I needed to be about recording facts rather than telling myself satisfying stories."Do not let your certainty turn into carelessness," she told me. "You have strong evidence of ownership, but every additional legal claim deserves its own proof."