Hoa Is Threatening To Sue Us And Landlord If They Don’t Evict Us

Location: Orange County, California

The HOA president of our community which my family rents an apartment is threatening to sue for violence. This started three days ago when my dad and brother were fixing something minor in their car when a lady came up to them knocking on the car telling them they are not allowed to fix their car in the community. She was quite rude, but I know this doesn’t matter for the issue. He asked who she was and she claimed to be the HOA president. We did not receive any written notice or official letter.

Their next encounter happened yesterday afternoon, my dad and brother were checking something in the car again, when this same lady started screaming from across the parking area, saying “Hey, I already told you to stop fixing cars.” She then walked up to my dad very closely (less than 1 ft apart) and demanded our apartment number. He told her to leave him alone and to just send a written notice of the violation. They started arguing and it escalated to both of them screaming at each other. She said he “obviously hates women,” and he said why are you harassing us and to leave him alone. She was in the area for another thing, but I don’t believe she lives here. She was with a lawyer and another lady, the lawyer didn’t say much, except at the end, my dad heard him say “xxxhole.” Nothing physical happened, just words were exchanged.

A few hours later, we got a call from our realtor who said the HOA president called the landlords threatening to sue them and us for “violence,” and fine us $500 if they don’t evict us immediately. I believe she just using her power to pressure the landlords to evict us, but we are in good standing with our neighbors and landlords, we have lived here for two years with only one noise complaint the first month we were there. We believe the HOA president is new as we have never seen her before. We have had no problems for the past two years fixing our cars in the community, as we always do it next to our garage or inside it. Does she have grounds to sue? I believe she doesn’t, but will she instead try to fine us $500? In our community rules (which we only got yesterday from the realtor) it says that the second warning is $100.

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Update: we spoke to the realtor in person and explained everything in more detail. I want to thank everyone who gave great advice and we tried our best to defend ourselves. So for clarification, the HOA president called our landlord just 1-2 hours after her encounter with my dad. So we know she did not use the proper channels to issue the $500 fine. Also she is threatening to sue my dad+ landlord if we aren’t getting evicted because she claims he used profanities at her and was aggressive(not true, he only repeated to her to leave him alone and asked why is she suing him).

We asked the realtor to ask the HOA to watch the cctv camera that is pointed directly at the community trash area and our garage is directly behind it. We assured him that we have nothing to hide and that camera will prove it. She was the one displaying aggressive behavior by getting up in my father’s face. We know there is no guarantee that they will let him watch it but if not, then she is hiding something.

The landlords are worried about being sued, but we tried our best to tell them our side of the story. I checked the HOA rule book and there is supposed to be a written notice of the name, violated rules, and date of violation sent to the homeowners before a fine is issued.