Bodine Loses Lawsuit - Sounds Kinda Stupid

Maybe it's just me... but gimme a break. When ya got these home owner associations like I do you don't just go build. 7 years ago I added a new downstairs master suite and you better believe we dotted every "i" and crossed every "t", unlikeTodd Bodine.

Todd Bodine loses battle with HOA

NASCAR driver tearing down his pool house; association says he didn't get OK to build.

By Stuart Watson - WCNC-TV Tuesday, Jun. 28, 2011

Todd Bodine is accustomed to the sound of winning. The NASCAR driver has won the sport's truck series twice, most recently last year. But earlier this month, if you were to pass by a well-kept home in the Harris Village neighborhood of Mooresville, you would have heard the sound of Todd Bodine losing. In particular, it was the sound of Bodine and his helpers tearing down his prize pool house and tiki hut, the result of a four-year battle with his homeowners association. More than half of the state's owner-occupied homes are governed by so-called HOAs. But few of those homeowners sue their HOA and appeal all the way to the state Supreme Court, only to lose and have to tear down a structure - plus pay opposing attorneys' fees and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bodines did. "I think I've been done wrong," Bodine said, sitting in shorts by his pool, remnants of his poolside bar covered with a tarp. "And it's incredible how unjust it is." The disagreement started in July 2007 when the HOA board president - who the Bodines say they had entertained over beers as they built their pool - abruptly told them the pool house was not approved. "The president never said, 'It's OK for you to start building,' " said Keith Black, the Greensboro attorney who represented the Harris Village HOA. Todd Bodine insists the HOA president had told him verbally to go ahead and build. "Everything was always, 'Fine, OK, looks good,' " Bodine said. The issue came to a head at an emergency HOA meeting in the Bodines' driveway. Bodine said he was upset. "It was on then. I got in his face," he said. He and his wife, Janet, went inside their home while the board members talked things over. The board members signed a "Request for Architectural Approval" and checked "approved" pending the approval of the Town of Mooresville Codes Department, which the Bodines quickly secured. But the dispute continued. The board's attorney contends that the document was conditional on the Bodines submitting final drawings with dimensions and that the board never realized how large the structure would be. "They ignored the phone calls, the email and built the thing," Black said. When the Bodines returned home after several weeks on the NASCAR circuit, they faced threatening letters and the prospect of fines from the HOA. The Bodines filed suit. Bodine insists the HOA targeted him, knowing he could afford the fines. "I was gouged pretty hard because of who I am," Bodine said. But Black, the HOA's attorney, says the lawsuit had nothing to do with Bodine's status, adding that the HOA tried to settle. "They said, 'No. We're not gonna do it. You're wrong. Kiss our rear end. We'll see you in court,' " he said. The Bodines lost at every level, culminating with the state Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case. In the whole four years, no one said the Bodines' pool house hurt Harris Village. "Hell, it was nice looking," Black said. "That wasn't the issue. Nobody said 'It's ugly and you have to take it down.' " Instead, the HOA said if it let the Bodines build a pool house without HOA permission, what next? "They open the door for anybody and everybody else to say, 'Well, I want to paint my house purple and have pink toilet seats all over the front yard,' " Black said. The Bodines were left with their own attorney's fees, the HOA's attorney fees and almost $40,000 in fines. The HOA put a lien on their home for the unpaid fines. Bodine was fed up. "I told 'em, 'Take it. Take the house,' " he said. Having exhausted their appeals, the Bodines would like the state legislature to rein in the powers of HOAs, a group of almost 18,000 neighborhood governments in North Carolina run by neighbors. "A lot of time their power is just way too strong," Bodine said. Read more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/06/28/67790/bodine-loses-battle-with-hoa.html#ixzz1QgUMUiIz

Todd...not Brett

Wally,

How long do you think it will take on Monday before we read of a HOA somewhere not allowing a distinquished veteran to fly their American flag on the 4th of July?

Wally,

Never met ya but I would be willing to bet that you are NOT a petty little despot and I am SURE that you are not God.

Glad you are just Wally and glad to have you as that. I am sure the HOA is glad to have you as well. Keep up the good work and thanks for keeping the riff raff out of the hood.

By the way, since I am betting you are not one, just what is a despot? Is it like a defamatory phrase?...The word ''petty'' in front of it makes me think it is not a good thing...It makes me glad I live in the boonies as I don't want to be a HOA despot...Yuk!

Wally is one of my heros A man that stands up for what he believes in and always there for a friend. Besides that, he was one hell of a drag racer.

See ya in York

Wally said, "Did your remark piss me off? YES"

How can that be considered "cuss at you"? He was stating what your remark made him feel like.

Adios

Come on now guys, H.O.A.S are serious business but this is post has become way too serious...I try to find the humor in everything, even the H.O.A., if that is possible...I agree to disagree and in turn laugh about it...Being a frequent reader of these posts I will venture to say that PKL meant no harm to anyone and Wally did not either...Just my 2 cents and in reality the only sense I have...

Is this the part where I get spanked again? Oh my, Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh my !

At least you ain't making me go git a "Hickory" off a bush in da backyard, LOL !!!!!!!!

Barb said:

Woohoo .. now where did I leave my whip? :-p

Jim Reep Jr said:

Is this the part where I get spanked again? Oh my, Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh my !

Dang...I didn't know I was missing all this. But, I'll chime in. Been trying for some time to get the majority of home owners in our lil neighborhood to agree to set up a HOA> The developer went bankrupt before he finished and and didn't have the HOA in place....never happened.

While I agree with the aggravation some of those in power at HOA's can cause...here in MB they are usually retirees with lots of time...and most of them are NOT southerners...if'n ya know what I mean. No offense intended to anyone...just stating the facts.

But our neighborhood NEEDS a HOA!

How the hell do we get into this discussion...oh I remember. My guess is that Todd failed to properly document what he "thought" was agreed. Need to dot the i's and cross the t's in any such agreement. Usually can't do that over a beer. The HOA guy probably caught it from every angle.

I would be one of those...whatever it is...if that is what they are...if I could wave a wand and install a HOA in our neighborhood.

While I am not a detractor or supporter of HOAs, I have had issues twice with my neighbor one having lived here 28 years, and prevailed both times. I pay the dues each year although I can never determine where the money goes. I do have an interesting story about a certain HOA not far from my neighborhood which I think gives a good indication of how the "petty despots" of whom PattyKay speaks, can be bitten in the butt by their own self-serving efforts.

A family of five, living in rural Lexington County ina double-wide mobile home, suddenly inherited several million dollars from an uncle who had no other heirs. At the time of the inheritance, a new subdivision was being built up the road so the man decided to buy property in that subdivision and build a nice home for his family. In his modest estimation, he thought a 2500 square foot home would be sufficient. When he went to the HOA for plan approvals, he was informed that NO home in the neighborhood could be less than 3800 square feet, minimum and 4,000 or more were preferred. The HOA, assuming they were dealing with a country bumpkin with no class (our hero is not highly educated) thought that was the end of it. Next thing you know, the guy has purchased six adjoining lotson the end of a block. Construction began. To make a very long story short, the home he built must, by my estimation, exceed at least 8,000 square feet, is three stories,. six car garage, huge pool and a tennis court. The home makes the others in that "exclusive" neighbor look like shanty shacks in comparison. There were law suits trying to stop the construction when the HOA saw what was happening, but the courts sided with the guy. While minimum size was restricted, maximum size was not. Pools were specifically authorized and although there was no specific authorization for a tennis court, there was no prohibition for one either. When I'm in that area, I will often ride by there to enjoy my little smile that comes to my face when I realize a "common guy" was able to outfox the lawyers, doctors, and general snobs inhabiting that neighborhood. Hope that doesn't offend anyone but I just have more of a passion for the common man with the common sense than the snobs failing to remember that everyone started at the bottom at birth and it was either through hard work or good luck that fortune smiled upon them. In the instance of my common guy here, he had busted his butt for years supporting his family and insuring his kids were being raised well. He got lucky when the rich uncle died but he can't be blamed for that. This, I will say. I have met three of his five kids who were, at the time of the inheritance, 13, 9, and 6. They are now 19, 15, and 12. I have met other kids from that neighborhood as well through activities I've been involved with at the schools. These three kids have more manners and more class in their little toes than these other snotty kids have in their entire bodies.

Bye!

I guess a comparison in this situation (in my comical mind anyway) would be " Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed, poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed then one day he was shooting in the grass up popped granny he shot her in the ...you guys know the show, I mean story.

Moral here was although Jed had ''gobs'' of money and was and still is free tolivewhere he pleases why on earth wouldhe want to move amongst this to begin with...Especially next door to Mr & Mrs. Drysdale. I know that was a T.V. show but it was a show that directly reflects WHAT fuels these same HOA type fueds in the first place. Comical on T.V.? Yes... True in real life? Yes...MMMM?Maybe, just maybe a script writer in the greater L.A. area circa 1963 had experienced the same thing in his ''snobbish'' hood.

Someone stated earlier that they would have the real estate agent check on the regulatory situation, i.e. HOA and would decline to buy based on their feelings about being told how to live... Now that to me is using your noodle and your money, earned or inheirited... If you chooseto move into the area where it is what it was before you got there then you have no grounds for complaint about what it is now that you are there...Sounded different as I was thinkingthat than when I just now read it back. Oh well.

In short if you move into a neighborhood with ''these people and this stuff'' in place and then try to do as you please even though this is America and you do have rights, I would say that you be a bigger moose than the ones with the rack.