April 09, 2004

By Julie Reeder (View author info)
Copyright The Village News

We ran a story last month about a lawsuit between the Brook Hills Homeowner's Association and Jim and Sonni Bass over landscaping issues. This story has generated a lot of letters both in support and opposition of the lawsuit. Some of the letters we received were letters of complaint that were not for publication. I have taken some time to answer questions from the first one and will attempt to follow suit next week with the second letter I received. The whole issue is very sad in my opinion. Brook Hills is a great neighborhood. The homes are beautiful and there are a lot of nice people who live there.

As far as homeowners association boards, I understand that the people who serve on them do it without pay as a service to their community and there are benefits, overall, to having rules and regulations in order to hold property values. I also understand that in the case specifically of Brook Hills, that the former president as well as the couple sued are probably both nice people who have been caught in a bad situation, possibly escalated by temper as much as anything else. In hindsight I believe it would have been far better to have pushed for reconciliation rather than litigation--with ambassadors, not litigators.

In further escalation, last week a police report was filed and a detective has been assigned to a complaint after vandalism was done to three homes in the neighborhood--the Bass's home, the Bouzan home and Sonni Bass's parents' home. The person who put dead rodents in the Bass's mailbox may be surprised to find out that what they did is a federal crime.

Here are some specific complaints about the article and answers.

Complaint: This is a case of the Bass family not choosing to solve their dispute initially. The issue has been blown out of proportion due to their lack of respect for the process and the lack of accountability on their part. They have been given many opportunities to bring the matter to conclusion. Instead they have chosen to pursue the matter by contacting and hiring/firing various law firms to bring suit against the HOA. Many neighbors have been threatened by them with law suits. At this point they have run out of options and are seeking sympathy from the media.

Answer: The case is actually Brook Hills Homeowners Association vs. James and Sonni Bass. Case Number GIN026443 filed on December 18, 2002 by the Brook Hills Homeowners Association. The suit they filed is a counter suit in response to the HOA suit.

Complaint: After reading the article we realized you had not interviewed 99.9% of the neighborhood.

Answer: It is my understanding that there were nine homeowners (nine different residences) at the Sonni Bass home the night of the press conference, which represents about 13% of the community. It was a public meeting and there were people on both sides of the issue present.

Complaint: The family in question does not have the support of the neighbors in their vendetta against the HOA and in particular against our outstanding neighbor John Nielson.

Answer: The Bass' have the support of several neighbors from whom I have received letters and phone calls.

Complaint: This is a personal vendetta against the HOA and John Nilsson.

Answer: As to the vendetta against the HOA and in particular against John Nilsson, The judge, in her own ruling, stated that the Bass' have presented enough evidence to the court to allow them to go forward with their action against Mr. Nilsson that he acted in concert with the HOA and the Bass' may be entitled to recover punitive damages.

Complaint: Many residents here have had no problem receiving extensions to get landscaping completed. The issue is a choice of following the rules and/or the logical consequences. Another good example of adults not accepting responsibility but rather blaming someone else for their mistakes.

Answer: As to obtaining extensions, the Brook Hills Homeowners Association / Fine Schedule dated September 5, 2002 states "The fines will be imposed regardless of whether the Owner has requested or received an extension or provided a status to the Architectural Committee".

Complaint: Next time it would be a good idea to research your information more thoroughly before writing such an offensive article.

Answer: As to researching the facts of the case, according to the documents submitted to the court by the property management company regarding homeowners landscaping in a timely manner, the responses showed that only 6 out of 67 submitted a notice of completion within the 180 days required by the Architectural Guidelines, only 15 out of 67 submitted a notice of completion within one year, only 11 out of 57 were actually fined, including the Short residence who was fined four months after the close of escrow of their home.

Apparently three Board of Directors who voted on imposing fines also took from 1 year and 3 months to complete their landscaping to 2 years and 7 months.

Because this is such an important issue, and one that we have not seen before, we have spent a lot of time in research and been very careful. When neighbors start filing lawsuits against other neighbors in this town it is news, and everyone involved should be ready to explain themselves.

Again, Brook Hills is an excellent community with great people and properties. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a home there after everything is resolved. I would just make very sure that I was completely involved in the HOA.

Thank you to everyone who has written me with your concerns.