The Mailbox

Would you believe the trouble this mailbox has stirred?

I haven't really mentioned this on the blog because it's not my mailbox and until last night it's really not been my problem. 

Every mailbox in my neighborhood is a cedar pole with a beige box.  They all look the same, except they are 20+ years old and all in various levels of disrepair.  Our HOA covenants require us to have a particular shade of beige mailbox, X number of inches from the ground.  My next door neighbor, last summer, built a brick mailbox post, stuck a beige mailbox inside, X number of inches from the ground, and called it good. 

Trouble is: the homeowners association, or I should say the board, does not like his mailbox and they are suing him to take it down.  This lawsuit has potential to cost homeowners in my neighborhood tens of thousands of dollars, or more. 

Because this is my next-door neighbor, I've been kept fairly well informed.  I called our HOA treasurer in October and I've also taked with the boad president last month some time.  I can't really keep straight which board member told me what, but the message was the same, here's the gist of my Q&A:
Me: Why haven't I been notified about this lawsuit?
Board member:  It's none of your business.
Me:  But I could receive a special assessment bill one day of a thousand or more dollars and I do not get a vote in the matter?
Board member:  That is why you elect the board.  We make the decisions.  You are welcome to serve on the board.  Elections are in January.
Me:  Could you please notify the homeonwers by official letter about this suit?  I think they have a right to know.
Board member:  No.   

So why doesn't he take it down?  Number one, it's three feet deep and solid concrete.  More importantly, our neighborhood also doesn't allow pool houses, basketball goals, swingsets, pickup trucks (seriously - we are forbidden to have a pickup truck of standard modern hauling capacity on our land even if we keep it parked within our garage). . . in short, almost every home has a violation or more.  If everyone else can keep their violation, why can't this homeowner keep the mailbox?  Especially since the mailbox truly falls within the covenant restrictions?  It's the right color, and the right number of inches from the ground, afterall. . .

The truth of the matter is, certain members of the board do not like my next-door neighbor. 

Anyway, this is how it circles back around to us:  Last night at the annual homeowners association it finally came to head.  There were neighbors present that had no idea of the mailbox situation, and only about half the neighborhood showed up to the meeting - so there are plenty of people who probably still don't know.  We went back and forth on the mailbox and ultimately the neighbors decided that all violations need to be removed in the next 60 days: swingsets, basketball goals. . . everything that was not approved.

DJ stood up and explained the situation as he saw it:  The prevous owners of our home had an unapproved retention wall built.  DJ had our pool plan approved, so our pool is fine, but the pool sits on top of that retention wall.  Basically, this plan of removing all violations in the next 60 days would mean we need to tear down our retention wall, which will collapse our pool. 

The neighbors saw reason on that and realized that's not going to work out well, so everyone else can keep their violations too, for now. 

The decision that was made:  we'll send out an official letter to every homeowner.  What a great idea!
 

Now I know why a good client of mine laughed in my face when I told her where I live,  "Hahahahaha. . . you live with the crazies."