She smiled.
“Apparently not.”
Three days later, a violation notice arrived.
UNAUTHORIZED ENCROACHMENT INTO HOA MAINTENANCE CORRIDOR.
Fine: one hundred dollars per day after thirty days if not corrected.
The homeowner called the management company.
The property manager sounded confused.
“Maintenance corridor?”
“That’s what the notice says.”
“Let me check.”
Twenty minutes later:
“I don’t see an easement in your compliance file.”
“So why did I get this?”
“The board president submitted it directly.”
“Based on what?”
“She referenced an association survey.”
“Can I have it?”
“I need board authorization.”
The homeowner laughed.
Not because funny.
“I'm being fined based on a document I’m not allowed to see?”
The manager hesitated.
“I understand how that sounds.”
“Good.”
He emailed a formal records request.
No response.
Sent another.
Then certified letter.
Ten days later, he received a photocopy of a neighborhood map.
It was not a survey.
It was a landscaping plan from almost twenty years earlier.
Colored lines indicated mowing areas.
Someone had drawn a blue marker line behind six houses.
Across his lot, the line bent inward.
Handwritten beside it:
DRAINAGE MAINT.
No dimensions.
No survey seal.
No legal description.
Nothing.
The homeowner called again.
“This is the document?”
“Yes.”
“This is a landscape maintenance drawing.”
“I’m aware.”
“Who added the blue line?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is this what the President is using to claim part of my land?”
The manager became careful.
“You’ll need to address interpretation with board.”
“Interpretation?”
He looked through the glass door toward his backyard.
A property dispute was beginning because somebody had drawn on a photocopy with a marker.
He hired a surveyor.
Eight hundred fifty dollars.
The surveyor found every recorded corner.
Checked county plat.
Title commitment.
Deed.
Recorded easements.
Then placed bright survey flags down the side and rear boundaries.
The new gate was inside the homeowner’s property by eleven inches.
Not outside.
Inside.
There was a drainage easement along the rear eight feet of the parcel, but it belonged to the county, not HOA, and it did not give the association ownership.
The homeowner sent survey to board.
No apology arrived.
Instead the HOA President responded:
Association records differ. Further review required. No concession of ownership is made.
Ownership.
That word bothered him.
Until then, the dispute had been about access.
Now she was talking about ownership.
He called his title company.
They reviewed.
Nothing changed.
His deed included the whole lot.
The title company attorney said:
“If HOA has contrary recorded interest, they need to produce it.”
“They haven't.”
“Then don't sign anything.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
Two weeks later, the HOA President appeared at his pool gate.
This time, she carried a clipboard.
The homeowner had been cleaning the filter.
“What now?”
“We need access to inspect drainage.”
“County inspected last year.”
“HOA inspection.”
“Under what authority?”