The Fiore Group Backed us in a Corner

May 10, 2006

By Linda Simmons (View author info)

My husband and I purchased our home in December 2003. Two weeks before the close of escrow, we sent in our plans to the Promontory Crest Homeowners Association. We needed to do hardscape, landscape, and extend the balcony on our home.

Our CC&R's state that the Board has 30 days to approve or disapprove the plans and if they do not do so during that time, the plans are deemed approved.

After 50 days, we received a denial letter which appears to have been backdated by the Euclid management company. (We have since been in their computer and cannot find any evidence that any letter was written to us on the date they claimed.) We told the Board that we were going to build out our plans as submitted because we were allowed to do so as they had not followed the CC&R's.

They waited until we had been building for more than 6 weeks with a large crew working 8-10 hours a day. Our project was half done, when the Fiore group came and put a temporary restraining order on us.

Not wanting a long, protracted court battle, our original attorney talked to them and we decided on a compromise. We spent about $2000 on Architectural plans showing everything that we had built and wanted to build on it. The HOA would tell us what we could have, what we couldn't, and what we needed to negotiate on.

They kept our plans for about two weeks and then we got the attached five-page letter from Fiore Group.

In it, he said, "Accordingly, the entire project as proposed and to the extent constructed, has been rejected by the Architectural Committee." In other words, everything was going to have to be ripped out and removed.

As we had close to $100,000 already built in improvements, MacDowell left us no choice but to fight it out in court. (Attached is our cross-complaint)

Since that time, we have heard of MANY others that were put in the same position. The Restraining Order was not put on us until our improvements were in concrete.

I would like to get comments from other readers who have had the same experience both with the Fiore Group and with other CAI law firms.