Louis “Lou” Balestrieri moved his family to Montgomery’s Towne Lake community from New York in October 2011, and he said he began to feel targeted by the community’s Homeowner’s Association in early 2012.

According to Balestrieri, he has been sent notifications that he would be fined $100 for violating HOA covenants on five different occasions. However, he said he has only paid once. The other four fines were canceled after Balestrieri appealed them before the HOA’s Board of Directors at an administrative hearing.

“I’ve only had to pay one of the fines, but each time I had to pay legal fees to have my attorney at the hearing,” Balestrieri said.

He said he has no opposition to the HOA and wants to adhere, but he feels singled out by officers, who said they do not fine people who are regularly in multiple violations of the association’s covenants.

Other than his suspicions about unfair treatment, Balestrieri said he has requested financial information from the association on multiple occasions, as well as surveillance footage captured by cameras the HOA put throughout the neighborhood to help with a burglary case.  He said the association has never granted him access to any of the documents showing where and how funds are spent. An issue, Balestrieri said, because he has never missed or been late on the nearly $600 dues he pays annually as a member.  Read more: