For many homeowners, the appeal of a homeowner’s association is the legal recourse afforded to a group of like-minded homeowners in the event that a neighbor makes decisions with their property that could drive down the property values of their neighbors’ homes.
For many entering into this arrangement, these sorts of cases are understood to be drastic, such as rusted out cars with no wheels littering the lawn or loud music playing overnight.
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However, the reality that these homeowners face is that these HOAs can become legally empowered to control aspects of their lives that seem far less significant, such as the lengths of their lawns or the presence of Christmas decorations when neighbors apparently don’t want to see them.
The biggest cause for concern is that HOAs can not only impose fines if their rules aren’t met, but also liens or even foreclosures on a household that doesn’t meet even modest fine payments when desired.
And in the case of one Arizona grandmother, certain HOAs can also prevent elders from providing support to family members going through the worst days of their lives.
At the end of 2018, 15-year-old Collin Clabaugh experienced a terrible tragedy.
As his grandmother, Melodie Passmore, told ABC15, he lost his father to suicide before also losing his mother to an undisclosed cause of death two weeks later.
Understandably, Clabaugh was in need of support and was left without many options in his home state of California.
So he moved into his grandparents’ house in Prescott, Arizona, which he told ABC15 helped him a great deal through the grieving process.
A year later, however, he would experience a new hardship.
The issue was that the Passmore residence is in a neighborhood that the local Homeowner’s Association designated as a 55+ community.
As a representative from the HOA made clear in a letter dated December 10, 2019, this meant that Clabaugh was not allowed to live there and would need to find alternate accommodation by June.
In response, Passmore requested an extension for Clabaugh to remain living there until the age of 19.
However, the association replied in their letter that doing so would involve ignoring “one of the community’s most fundamental restrictions” and that they must balance the interest of “all parties involved.”
The HOA board further stated that not enforcing this age restrictions could result in legal issues.
![Image credit: Reddit | [deleted]](https://static.diply.com/BzA9rS9UyMKodlGMUZlk.jpg)
As far as Clabaugh is concerned, however, the HOA is putting the enforcement of a rule over a person’s life and he said no one from the HOA showed him compassion.
As Passmore told ABC15, “We didn’t plan this. We didn’t go out one day and say, ‘Hey, let’s have Clay kill himself, and let’s have Bonnie die, and we’ll take Collin in,’ And to heck with the HOA. It’s not the way it was planned.”
Although the Passmores had intended their current home to be their final one, they are now planning to move.
They first moved into this neighborhood four years ago and confirmed that Clabaugh had been living there since shortly after the death of his parents.
Passmore said her family is now considering whether to speak with a real estate agent or leave on their own terms.
As the Passmores are now in their 70s, the process of moving once again will likely be difficult, but the HOA’s inflexibility leaves them no other choice.
And so, Passmore had one final message for the board that made this new move necessary: “I’ve stepped in things I find nicer than you people.”
h/t: ABC15
