abc 11 EYEWITNESS NEWS: Homeowners share cautionary tales of HOA nightmares

By Diane Wilson

Monday, May 15, 2017 06:27PM

RALEIGH, North Carolina (WTVD) —

The power of Homeowner’s Associations: You pay your mortgage and taxes, but HOAs still have the power to boot you from your home.

When you’re looking for a new home, you always make sure that home meets your needs, and that you like the neighborhood. But you also need to check out the kind of power the HOA has in the neighborhood.

Erica and Brandon Carter have been living in their Willow Spring neighborhood for 10 years. Erica said the HOA has had issues with where she parks her vehicles. The Carters were first fined for parking on the grass near their mailbox. The Carters said they stopped doing that and parked all of their vehicles in their driveway and in a gravel area beside their driveway, but Erica said there were still issues.

“Some weeds have grown up through the gravel so when they would drive by they would take pictures and say we are parking on the grass,” Erica said.

She said they killed the weeds and put down more gravel, but she was still faced with $500 in fines after her HOA claimed she violated the parking covenants several times.

“I pay my taxes. I pay for my house. I pay for everything,” Erica said. “This is my house, they should have no right unless I’m doing something really makes the neighborhood look bad or takes down people’s property values.”  Read more:

http://abc11.com/home/homeowners-share-cautionary-tales-of-hoa-nightmares/1996362/