March 17, 2017: Part Three.

In March, roughly five months after starting construction, we received a notice from the HOA that our home was being built out of compliance. This was certainly news to us as we had built in accordance with the plans approved by the community. What we found out was that upon inspection of the property, one of the husbands of one of the architectural board members, had used a laser to measure one of our interior finished floors to the bottom of the interior roof. The measurement came back at 16'4". You might be saying, 'hey that sounds exactly right, what's the issue?', as I did. The measurement was taken on the inside of the home and therefore would not be inclusive of any roofing materials. Pinnacle Peak HOA viewed this as a violation.

Now, you'll notice that I said "one of the finished floors" - we have three. The regulation states that the measurement must take place from top of roof to finished floor - no where does it define 'finished floor' or stipulate that if you have more than one, which finished floor should be utilized in measurement. The larger issue of course is that homes are not built from the top down, and that construction is not an exact science. Things change, problems arise in the field and are dealt with. If you were to pull the plans on your home and measure the same home in the field there will absolutely be a discrepancy in the height because no one, I repeat no one, includes the height of building materials on the plans. Including this type of detail would be quite literally impossible. In order to ensure that your home meets the same height as reflected on plans - the only way to even get close - would be to build the home 4 or 5 inches shorter than reflected on the exterior elevation plan (something so asinine it's not even a conceptual solution). However, the HOA absolutely has the authority to flag the home and cause a lot of aggravation, and that's exactly what they did.

We immediately disputed this and instructed them to use a different finished floor to measure the home height. They refused. We had our own engineer measure the home from the correct finished floor location. They refused to accept it. We were deadlocked, and there is no dispute process when it comes to HOA's, they are quite literally judge, jury and executioner. Their proposed justice came to us in the form of a settlement letter. They proposed that we pay them $25,000 in the form of restitution for the violation. TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. 25k for 4" at the worst definition of the violation. If the home is measured from another finished floor location it isn't even a problem! It was at this point I confirmed that we had indeed moved to crazy town.

I'll fast forward through the minutiae of the next seven months to keep you form falling into a detail induced slumber but nasty emails were exchanged, lawyers got involved and finally a fine was imposed on our home which has been running since October of 2017. We have been assessed a $100/day penalty which at present sits at just over $9000 in fines. In addition to this, settlement talks have continued and fallen apart and then continued again. When you're working with an HOA who only meets once per month things tend to move unbelievably slowly. The HOA's latest attempt at extortion was presented in December 2017.

• $25,000 in restitution

• $10,000 in legal bills

• Payment of the $9,000 fine

For those without a calculator handy this adds up to just a hair under $45,000. Are you still in your chair? I'm not.

This is where we've gotten as a society. This is why this adds up to more than some stupid white-man's argument over inches in the air. This is an assault on liberty and a defiance of the basic common sense any governing body should be required to adhere to. This is insanity.

So, why am I writing all of this crap down? Why does it matter? This has been going on for over a year, what's going to change now? Why does anyone care?

I'm documenting this experience, and the experiences yet to come, because as a country and even my beloved wild west State of Arizona have allowed these attacks on liberty to exist for too long. Because we've looked the other way with a 'as long as it's not in my backyard' attitude. Because I'm taking this matter on as a personal fight, to do my part to ensure my little area of this country doesn't further slide into a bureaucratic cesspool. Because if the fact that a self-appointed, self-governed, unregulated body of know-nothings can impose almost 45k in fines and fees simply because they don't like the cut of your jib doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should.

There is no version of this world where I will be content to sit idly by while my family and our freedoms suffer at the shaky, unskilled hands of those who simply have the time to participate in an HOA board and therefore believe they have been empowered to govern me. I didn't elect these representatives and Jen and I have both been barred from participating in the democratic HOA process as a result of this dispute. It's textbook 'ruling class'; make the barrier to entry such that it is impossible to be unseated. If anyone challenges your power, hit them hard enough to discourage anyone else from doing so. Only this particular ruling class made an error. That error occurred last week.

Last week we received our Certificate of Occupancy.

You see, I've been hamstrung to do anything in regards to this abuse of power for as long as the remainder of construction funds held by the bank were yet to be distributed. I couldn't risk taking action on this and having a judge stipulate that the build was to halt while we all figured it out. We began moving in today. The construction loan has been closed out, the bank requirements satisfied and all subcontractors have been paid.

We've been building our case quietly, biding time until everything that could harm us had been systematically quashed.

Yesterday another notice went out, but this time it was from us. As I've often said;

Every problem should be approached with an open mind and an open heart. But if all else fails and you decide to hit someone, you do it so they don't get back up.

If you'd like to follow this story you can subscribe on the right of this page. If you would like to receive email updates regarding the legal outcomes in this case, as we intend to set a strong legal president regarding HOA conduct, please drop me a line via the contact form and I will make sure you receive the legal proceedings as well as the post updates.

-vae victis