Homeowner Disputing Actions Of Community Association

EL PASO, TX. – Associations can be essential to keeping a community orderly and pleasant. But oneABC-7 viewer says they can also be a big problem.

The viewer wrote to ABC-7 in an e-mail, “I’d like to let others know what can happen if you don’t pay attention to what your homeowner’s association is up to.”ABC-7 went out to the Cielo Dorado Community in Anthony, NewMexico to find out what caused the bad blood.

The posh communityis unlike many in our area. It’s a fly-in community, meaning taxiways run behind almost all of the homes in the subdivision. In the center lies a runway that residents with their own planes use to take off. This lifestyle isn’t cheap.

Last year, the homeowners association required each of the 92 homeowners to pay $4,000 for road, taxiway and runway repaving. But one homeowner said only part of the job was done. “As it turned out, none of the roads got done. It seems like the runways and taxiways, especially at the board members houses, they’re the ones that got done,” said community resident Joe Liebich.

Board member Bill Barnhouse spoke to ABC-7to sayhe disagrees with the idea that anything came up short.He agreed that about 97% of the proposed paving got done, butthe remaining 3% is still unfinished.

But after investigatingthe neighborhood firsthand,the appearance of many taxiways, roadways and pavement indicated otherwise.ABC 7 found certain taxiways remained unpaved but a newly-paved taxiway runs right behind the house of the former board president, Stephen Harris.

Harris was acting president when the special assessment was passed. The bylaws for the Cielo Dorado Homeowners Associationspecify a special meeting must take place before a special assessmentcan be collected.

Barnhouse told ABC-7 that theassessment of funds to be paid by the homeownerswas passed at the annual meeting, not a special meeting. He also said association attorneys reviewed the rules before any action was taken.

But some residents wonder whether the $364,000 they paid out really didsome good. “I don’t have an objection to the increased monies as far as going into the till, as long as going it’sto benefit everybody in the subdivision,” Liebich added.

The majority of the homeowners ABC-7 spoke with said they were happy with the board’s decisions. The only way to handle disputes between homeowners and the Cielo Dorado Homeowner’s Association is through independent legal action.