Dear editor:
Hot Springs Village residents are being hijacked by the Hot Springs Village Property Owners' Association, which is the board of directors and general manager.
In 2011, Cooper delivered the "Assignment and Assumption of Developer Rights" to the HSVPOA. This gave the board the rights to amend, rescind or add to the Protective Covenants for the Village, but not without the approval of property owners.
Section 3 of the Covenants states in part:
"The Board of Directors may amend, rescind, or add to the Protective Covenants from time to time ... but such Amendment, Rescission or Additions shall not make the Protective Covenants as to those Lots zoned as Residential less restrictive for the construction of residential buildings. ... "
Article XIV of the "Declaration" states in part:
" ... Said covenants shall be automatically extended ... for 10 years unless an instrument signed by the then-Owners of two-thirds of the Lots or Living units has been recorded, agreeing to change said covenants and restrictions in whole or in part."
The board added Section 32 which states, "Overlay Zones: All protective covenants are enforceable with the exception of areas designated as an Overlay Zone." This allows Section 23 which states, "No animals, livestock, or poultry of any kind shall be raised, bred or kept on any Lot or Parcel ... " to allow an "Overlay Area for building an Equestrian Center" which would allow livestock.
In another action, the board ignored the verbiage in Article III Sections 1 and 2 of the Declaration Entitled "Membership" and "Voting Rights" which in part states, "Every person or entity who is a record owner of a fee, or undivided fee, interest in any Lot or Living Unit which is subject by covenants of record to being assessed by the Association ... shall be a member of the Association. ... "
"The Association shall have two classes of voting membership:
Class A members shall be persons or entities as defined in the Membership section above and shall be entitled to one vote for each Lot or Living Unit in which they hold the interests required for membership and Class B members shall be the Developer."
In Section 3, entitled "Basis for Annual Assessments" in part states, "The annual assessment may be increased by a vote of the members for the next succeeding three years. This verbiage in no way states the "board of directors" is allowed to assess a lot different from a living unit.
These two actions above and other items changed in the Covenants, created the legal action against the HSVPOA. It was denied by a local judge. The legal action has been submitted to the Appellate Court to obtain a thorough review of the board actions.
The two-tiered annual assessment virtually makes it impossible to stop the HSVPOA from taking actions that are against our legal rights because there are 8,990 resident property owners, 22,983 nonresident owners and roughly 2,465 lots owned by the POA. That essentially says the resident owners will always be in the minority.
The appeal involves lawyers and costs money. Donations are needed for the expense. Go to: https://sites.google.com/site/hsvmembersrightsleague/home.
Jim Langford
Hot Springs Village
Editorial on 10/04/2015