[tx] Condo Hoa Has Rejected My House-paint Applications 8 Times Over 2+ Years With Shifting Rules And No Written Guidelines. Any Way To Resolve This Short Of Paying A Litigator?

Location: Texas . It's a condominium regime, so Chapter 82 applies, not Chapter 209.

In Dec 2023 I applied to paint my house. The trim was rotting and the sun-side paint had worn off after the 2021 and 2023 ice storms. The declaration has no paint or architectural guidelines that I can find. It only says the architectural review committee must approve changes in writing, and that no answer in 60 days counts as a denial. They had ignored a trash-shed application of mine years earlier after hassling me to get one so I had the expectation that they might ignore me again. After 51 days with no answer, my contractor had an opening and I let them start. That was my mistake. The HOA's denial arrived the day they finished, and I was told to repaint which I agreed to do with no pushback.

Since then:
- Feb 2024: informal guidance to match colors (or something very close) already in the neighborhood.
- May-Sept 2024: my applications sat for 98 days, then were denied under new, much stricter written criteria that differed substantially from the guidelines I was given in February.
- Sept 2024: a Zoom meeting with two board members produced a third set of criteria. I told them we didn't want the original all-brown scheme and didn’t like brown. They told me they wanted to allow for individuality in how owners paint their houses. Most of the homes in the neighborhood aren’t all brown so my submissions aren’t out of line with what exists in the neighborhood.
- Dec 2024-Oct 2025: I sent some reference images and color options trying to get feedback and speed the process up but they ignored these. I tried to submit multiple applications at the same time and was told I had to submit them one at a time (despite previously being told to submit more than one at a time). So I submitted five more applications, each denied or sent back as "incomplete". The criteria tightened until one reply said "brown is always an option". One application sat for 109 days before being denied. In my opinion these applications have met their guidelines.
- That makes 8 denials. I've asked for the written architectural guidelines four times and been ignored or denied, and my certified records request to see the communication between the committee and the property management company was ignored. Thus I’m unsure if there’s a breakdown in communication between what I’m sending the committee or the committee is seeing everything and making these decisions anyway.

I hired a lawyer in Oct 2025 to get advice on how to get them to abide by their guidelines and allow me to avoid painting my house brown but the lawyer said they should just rescind the violation and suggested we pursue that avenue instead. Their counsel agreed in principle to rescind the violation and approve the colors retroactively, but nothing was ever signed. In June 2026 their law firm demanded I repaint within 30 days, then billed me legal fees (via the property management company) without telling me. Their counsel agreed to rescind the violation again in July 2026 but the board never signed the settlement. In Sept 2026 their counsel again agreed to retroactive approval, I sent the application in, and six weeks later it was denied again.

I've spent thousands on legal fees already and won't spend thousands more to litigate. The CCRs require mediation and then binding arbitration. I'm planning a written request for a hearing before the Board, and I'm willing to consult an attorney to prepare for the hearing and mediation. They’ve behaved adversarially since this began and every effort to speed up the process or reach a settlement has failed. Is there anything I can do short of litigation?