Update. The Association moved for a summary judgement. The judge granted it, and decided yes, everyone in the described area is in the HOA. Seven law firms representing us folks are appealing. The story is that the judge based her decision on a cliff's-notes review, summarized by an aide, of 16 individual properties who's deeds DID say that membership in the Lake Association was required. She apparently ignored the 1600 others whose deeds say nothing about it. Upshot: we still don't have to pay unless the appeals fail. Possible positive outcome suggested by some lawyers: We lose the suit, but are then officially voting members of the Lake Association. We vote out the current administration, dissolve the Association, and give the lakes to the State of NJ. Back to waiting. No one expects any more news for at least a year.
Movement! Yeah, nothing much has been happening for 6 months. There's apparently a piece of new state legislation designed to "clarify" what a homeowners association can do in terms of popping surprise fees on groups of people within an arbitrary area. Or something like that. It's passed both houses and gone to the governor for signature. If passed, we're off the hook and the lake assoc is up the creek. Fuckin finally.
I was just reading your post on my thread about privacy, and was thinking "@Forbin hasn't posted about the lake issue for a while.", and was wondering how it's been going?
Supposedly things are percolating along slightly in our favor. We just heard that we have an expert witness lined up who may be so convincing that the Lake Association has put forth a motion to have them barred (god knows on what grounds). Still waiting to find out if the governor will (or has?) signed the legislation in question above.
It's nuts how long this shit is dragging out. The only activity on the anti-lake association Facebook group was a new member who comments: "I bought my house in Oakland in 2012, and spent a few years fixing it up before I moved in. I moved in last July, and immediately got a bill in the mail from this Lake Association, for dues retroactive to 1012. What the fuck???"
Apparently the judge toured the area last week to get a feel of the area, and stuff like proximity of the homes to the lake. I'm betting nobody brought her all the way the hell up to my area, where we didn't even know the lake existed until we started getting bills.
1012? Wow they really built houses to last back then didn't they? I'm guessing that it wasn't a "smart" home though was it?
Well, fuck, we lost. The court ruled they can assess 'membership' fees dating back to 2017. Not losing a single fucking moment, we got a bill the next day for dues back to 2012. The rallying cry now is that if we have to be members, we're going to try to vote out the current officers and dissolve the association.
no, no, no.....even better than pennies is paying with: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...AE33C97CC348F3E85795AE33C97CC348F3E&FORM=VIRE
Much more petty and harder to organize, but it would be fun if you could not immediately dissolve it and instead change the rules to allow all people in the area access to use the lake. See how quickly they suddenly decide surrounding people don't need to be in the association when there are hundreds of people swarming their backyards.
A new development from our title lawyers - after reading the 300-page decision four times (!!!) they think there's a loophole. Anyone who's original deed dates before the Lake Association was formed should be exempt. We think our house was built before that. Waiting to hear. Also, there may be an appeal pending with a less-bribed judge. :/
Some people in town are reporting a guy in a car taking pictures of their houses. One person chased the car down and was told he was hired to get pictures of properties with outstanding bills, and he had a printed list. We're not 100% sure this has to do with the lake, but if it does, this is some kind of harassment.
You disappoint me. This is Jersey. Harassment should include horse-heads at the very least. How do they rationalize billing for fees back to 2012 when the judgement stated 2017? How big was the bill? I want to share your pain.
$47 a year "membership dues", and the bill they sent totaled $420 and change. There are plenty of people in the suit who want to look into horse heads, I'm sure. They decided to start sending out bills to everyone in the area in 2012, when they ran too low on funds to keep the dam maintained. They didn't bother anyone before that. When nobody took them seriously, they started a law suit to force us to pay. In 2017 there was some kind of state law passed clarifying what HOAs could and couldn't do regarding squeezing people. So apparently the judge is calling the passing of that law as a milestone as to when they could start squeezing us. It all confuses the shit outta me. We're just gonna wait until out lawyers say either we deifintely have to pay, or we're off the hook. I worry for the poor horses in the area if we lose.
We finally got a final judgement. As I read the surprisingly intelligible 5-page decision, owners of houses built before Dec 1951 are off the hook. I THINK our house was built in 1947. The deed is in the safe deposit box, and it's not critical to find out in the middle of the apocalypse. Supposedly our title insurance agency is supposed to let us know soon anyway. The fun part is that the Lake Association is required to refund any dues to people who aren't required to pay, who paid under the threats the Assoc sent out over the last 8 years.
Oh, check your house on Zillow. That will usually tell you when it was built. Mine, for example, was built in 1978. Zillow has it right in my case.
I love that the photo has my neighbor's Corvette in it's car cover in the pic. He only takes it out one in a rare while.
FINALLY got word from our title lawyers, after something like 5 years, that since our house was built before 1951, the year Ramapo Lake Association formed, we don't owe those motherfuckers a fucking red cent. WOOHOOO!!!
