The gist of it is that we had no HOA until Jan. of this year. Developer decided it was time to pass the torch so he formed the HOA and filed what is now the Articles of Inc. and By-Laws. I don't know what the norm is today but those Articles of Inc. and By-Laws don't even resemble the original covenants. They are a set of well laid out documents that basically give the HOA all power and authority over pretty much anything and everything they choose. The original covenants, filed in 2001, were a series of pretty common sense rules that you would expect 99% of any group of people would do regardless. I paid my dues in full but denoted my check as a donation and declined membership in the HOA. IMO, and hopefully the court's opinion, membership in the newly formed HOA is not a requirement. The HOA returned my check and quoted some of the new documents as saying that all property owners were required to join. A month later they sent me a certified letter stating they were placing a lien on my property.
Don't get me wrong, i'm sure there are a lot of people that just don't want to pay and I take exception to that. If you live in a community you should want to keep it nice and therefore you should willingly pay your fair share to keep it nice. Money is not my issue. My issue is that I feel by joining this thing I would be accepting/endorsing the terms and conditions of these newly created and filed documents that go well beyond the scope of the original covenants that I did agree to upon building.

