Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and Practicing Attorneys here in North Carolina, going to tackle HOA questions from the listeners. And again, this is an opportunity. If you've got an HOA situation you're dealing with, listen up. We're going to hit a lot of these. It'll be interesting.
It's all coming up next. Whitaker and Hamer present. Judica County. with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, and they're practicing attorneys here in our great state of North Carolina.
They placed offices convenient for you across our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucuvarina, down near Charlotte and Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, hit the different questions. And again, it's all about legalese. We're going to get into some HOA questions that are coming.
If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to tackle on a future broadcast, just send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com. And again, we'll have complimentary estate planning consults available for you today.
So listen up for the opportunity to grab one of those. No cost, no obligation. Josh.
So you guys, you guys enjoy the snow? We got snow. It snowed. Did it? A little bit.
I don't go outside. Never. Yeah, I don't I don't believe in it, so. I didn't even know that, man. That's great news.
No, it was good. It was good. We talked and you said you you had nothing. And I told you, I was like, Hey man, you should look outside again And you did and you're like, Oh yeah, okay.
Well, yeah, I live kind of in South Raleigh, and Joseph is down in Clayton, and we were in the Last weekend we were in the dry slot. For a long time. A long time, and then I guess overnight we got some. Then I had a bunch of kids at my house playing in the snow. I'm too old to play in the snow.
You went out there. Surely you went out there. I walked out there and smoked a cigar. I'm getting close to too old to play in the snow. I'm not quite there yet, but it's coming.
So I was out there. But it took a toll on me, man. It took a toll. I realized how fat. and worthless I am after a short period of time of being out there and trudging.
and pulling kids on the sleds and It's the joints, man. That's what happens to me. I don't ski very often, but like every couple of years, like. will I'll get talked into skiing and you know taking our kids skiing and you get brave oh man that and that's a terrible day like you you know I some people might enjoy it it's fun to to do but getting out there Getting your crap, beating the crowds, keeping up with your kids, skiing is uh It's not fun at all. I mean, To me Well, it's East Coast skiing, so a lot of people in a very small amount of space.
A lot of injuries just due to people running into each other. And if you're not, if you don't have your head on a swivel, yeah, it could be painful. We um You know, we had, we took the god man, that must have been five years ago now. I get it's about time to go again, right? Every five years, and that when you should get out there.
Just when's the last time you went s snow skiing? Oh man. forever ago. Uh it was probably like a church thing when I was like In middle school, man. I love the idea of it.
I say it a lot, you know. A lot of the time I'm like, woo. I'd like to go skiing and I just never do it, man. I need to do better about that.
Well, it's not even about yourself, man. It's about your kids. Do you love your kids? I do. I do.
Most. Yeah, for the very most part, I do. That's how I get talked into a lot of things. The kids need to do this. This is an experience the kids need to have.
Well, that's a good point, man. Hard to argue with that. One thing I haven't done though, I haven't really got the kids. Golfing. It's too snowy right now though.
We're gonna start who doesn't love their kids now. Your kid's doing a lot of golfing? No, no, not yet. Maybe one day. Maybe one day.
So. My kids are. I was going to ask you guys: did your parents take you golfing when you were younger? No. No, it wasn't a thing, man.
Breaking new ground. Yeah, my dad wasn't a big golfer, so. We did not do that, but uh I enjoy golfing. We golf sometimes, Josh. We do.
We do. We're not raised on it. We golf. Yeah. We yeah.
When I was a kid, we played basketball. That's what we did. Yep, same. And my kids know how to play basketball. Yeah, they are.
Your kids. I play basketball with your kids, man. You've got some. talented little basketball children, man.
So as a father as a father Do you think it's your responsibility to teach your kids how to play like every sport that's out there? Or only the good ones that you're. Yes. And if you don't, I think you should lose your kids. What about cricket?
So, our kids know how to play cricket. Yeah, yeah, man. If your kid comes home and is like, I want to play cricket, yeah, you teach the kids cricket, man.
Well, look, I'm I My kids have actually asked to play golf at certain times. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we'll play golf. It just never happens, but this is the year, man, 2026. Yeah. Start them off with range time, maybe nights play, do a little par three.
They can get their frustrations out, and then when you really want to spend a whole lot of money, you take them to play golf. Yeah. It's not a cheap sport, man. No, no, the golf. Mm-mm.
Mm-mm. All right, well There's still, as we're in the studio, there's still some snow on the ground. I think we have a chance later this week, right?
So by the time we hit the radio, we might have had a little bit more snow. Yeah, I've heard. It's gonna be cold, maybe not super snowy, but but rainy, and then it's gonna freeze.
So, yeah. Nothing else, man. These kids are falling woefully behind by education. Look, I always ask myself, what would they do in China? Would China take a bunch of snow days?
No. No chance. No chance. Remote learning. Yeah.
Remote learning. I don't think that's learning. Remote learning. I'm just telling you what I'm assuming China does. Oh, remote learning.
If they can't make it to school, remote learning. Like, I'm going to take my kids out of school and send them to China to get schooled. That's a good. That's. I think I've been saying for years you need to send your kids to China, man.
I think that would be the best thing for your family. You know? They'd really know how to do some stuff. Yeah, yeah. They'd come back stronger than ever.
Well For better or worse. You know, we've been trying to theme these shows here lately. And so we've talked about it before, but we've got a whole list of listener questions about. homeowners associations. And, um You know.
Whether you like to talk about them or not, homeowners associations are a thing that a lot of our listeners deal with. You live in a subdivision that has. A homeowners association, maybe it's a really strict one. Which some people like. Maybe it's a really lax one that doesn't do a lot.
You got HOA dues, you can get fined. What you can and can't do, what to be aware of when you're buying a home.
So. I'm feeling very lazy because of the snow days, and so we'll probably meander through these questions. But we do have some questions. We're usually super duper duper duper on it too, man. This isn't usually a lazy show, man.
We put 100% into it every day.
So, if our normal show is 100%, if you take that as a given, that our normal show were 100% on point, we're 100% motivated. I feel like this show's going to be. 27.5%. I was going to say 32%, man.
So it was the same. As I drink this coffee I've got, we could get up to 40%, maybe. No, I'm thinking 66.6%. And Morgan's locked in. Morgan never phones it in.
After Morgan said that, it made me feel more like. 14%. Yeah. It's like you went down instead of up. Just flated you.
Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, let's get some legal questions. How about that? HOA.
First one up, guys. Can an HOA really fine you for something minor, such as trash cans or even weeds in your own yard?
So, you know, and you should know this before you buy your house, right?
So, one of the things before you buy a house, you know, if you're using an attorney or a real estate agent or whoever's helping you with this purchase. You should get a copy of the covenants. They're recorded. Public record covenants of the HOA. And that's going to kind of.
You know, that's going to kind of give you an idea of what you're walking into. But, yes, HOAs. And I think Joseph knows this too, right? HOA's. Can fine you for trash can placement, leaving the trash cans on the road.
Weeds getting too high, grass is too high, bushes are too high. Um most normal HOAs can can regulate that and um Some do, some don't. A lot of these will be HOA specific, but we're going to talk about the average. level HOA And uh Yeah, Joe, they could send you a letter. I've gotten those letters.
I'd say that can and will. Like, they can, and they most likely will. Um,. It's the entire point, right? You know, the people people...
These developers put together these covenants to protect values in the neighborhood, keep everything looking nice. You don't want one weird pink house with all the weeds ruining Everybody else is Property values. Property values, yeah.
So there's a you know, that's the stated reason. for doing it. And uh they can do it, man. You know? Uh the v the vast ma there's I'd go so far as to say that there's very few covenants that I've seen that don't.
at a minimum give the ability to do exactly what you just said. You know, that's it. Policing aesthetic things like that as one of the the Top functions of any HOA.
So very common, and they can and they will find you. Yeah, the HOA is usually gonna Pay an HOA, a private company, a management company. Who will, you know, every couple of weeks or so, or every week, depending on what the HOA has them scheduled for, you're gonna see the management company car kind of go through the neighborhood. They usually take pictures of violations so that when they send you the notice, they get a pic of what they're looking at. And.
Yeah, and if you don't fix it within a certain amount of time, you can start getting some fines or some daily fines and. That's just part of the deal. But yeah, the the thought is like Joe said, the thought is. Make the subdivision all look the same, make the subdivision look good, make sure everybody's obeying the rules, and in theory, that protects everybody's property value. Yep.
I. I grew up in the country where sometimes you lived beside somebody who had like 49 cars, you know, in the yard and. the the the camper that was riding in the back. And you know, if you wanted to sell your house in theory, that might that might harm your property value. And so that's that's kind of the thought there.
You you keep everything somewhat uniform and the same. It's a good it's a and and it's a good I think we'd argue, as annoying as it can be to get that notification of a violation, it's a good thing, generally speaking.
Well, if you live there, you in theory had notice of it, right? And you wanted to live in a neighborhood that had that kind of. enforcement. You know, usually it's not something you get surprised by, you know. Um Usually.
Usually. Yeah. We are in the middle of HOA questions from the listeners. And again, these come from all over. And if you are in an HOA neighborhood, you'll want to pay close attention because there's some things out there you probably aren't aware of.
And if you are considering purchasing a house in the near future or moving, make sure you are aware of what the HOA is and what it requires. We're going to get into more of these questions as we roll through the program. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in the great state of North Carolina.
Real quickly, we do have estate planning consults available. You can call at any time, 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. There's no charge to this. And you're not obligated to become a client, but get your estate planning either rolling or in order, and it's complimentary: 919-7727000.
You can also visit the website. WH.LAWYER. We've got more HOA questions coming up. on Judica County. Welcome back, Judica County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing law right here in the great state of North Carolina. They've placed offices all over the state, Moorhead City down at the coast, over near Charlotte, Gastonia. You got Fuquay Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Cleveland, Garner, and the cap city, Raleigh. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to be on. We do have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've ever had questions about estate planning, you've been thinking about it, but procrastinating, this is an opportunity, no cost, no obligation to get the ball rolling. And also, if you're in the middle of something, need a second opinion on the estate planning, come on in, grab one of these consults, 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000.
You can also visit. Visit the website wh.lawyer. It's H-O-A questions, Josh. The next one up. Do HOA rules apply to tenants or only to the homeowner?
Well, that's a good question. And we see that come up, right? You have a lot of. People who have investment property, they have rental property, they rent it out to tenants, they have a good. Lease with the tenant.
And then lo and behold, the owners get a notice from the HOA that The tenant hasn't mowed the grass or the tenant is trying to rent out a room or the tenant isn't you know Taking care of the property. And so the tenant. is the one who's who's getting They're the ones with the behavior that's causing the violation. But yes, the owner of the house is one that HOA has. The relationship with, the contractual relationship with.
And so it's the owner of the home that's going to get the violation, is going to get the fines, is the one that's going to have to deal with the HOA.
Now they're going to go to the tenant. And if you have a good lease, the tenant's going to owe you fines, you know, whatever you have to pay to get it cleaned up. But yes, as the owner of the home, you're getting the violation. Yeah, and and regardless, like you said, the contractual relationship. it it it's kind of irrelevant, right?
In in this sense in this in the sense of The contracts with the homeowner, but that is going to be a. It's you live in the house, right? And the consequence is going to be a lien on the house. And Arguably That's your problem, right? If that house is foreclosed by the HOA, you've still got a valid lease that's in place, but it could still be a problematic thing for you.
It could be. The tenant, you know, the tenant usually has, let's say, the average residential lease is six months to a year. And so any of the hardcore And I'm sure we'll get to it in these questions, but any of the hardcore things an HOA could do to the owner of the home. probably passed the tenants. lease term, right?
So the the tenant can do a lot of things to screw up Uh get fond. Trash in the yard. Unregistered cars, you know, not keeping pets properly. You know, fenced up or on a leash. There's all kinds of things a tenant can do that will make your HOA mad at you and fine you and.
We get that call a lot. That's something that we see happen a lot. And if your lease is drafted correctly, Sometimes you just give up on the tenant and go ahead and proceed with an eviction, like if that tenant can't get it together. Um But hopefully, you know, you let the tenant know: hey, maybe you didn't know, but you can't park your boat on the road, you know, whatever they might do. And hopefully you can fix it.
But yeah, you're the one who. As the owner, you're the one who's going to get fined, you're the one who could get foreclosed on, you're the one who could get an HOA lien. and your tenant is probably not going to be nearly as concerned about it as you are. Yeah, and generally speaking, it's likely you're going to have some kind of provision in your lease. that dictates your tenant's gonna have to uh obey any Covenants, you know?
And so that's going to be. As a homeowner, or as a landlord, rather, you don't want your tenant doing things that are going to. mess you up, you know, and so that's that's not uncommon to see.
Well, I think guys, I was just going to ask this question.
So if you're the land the landlord, it's going to be in the contract about basically adhering to what the HOA is is telling, I guess, the homeowner. Yeah, and in a good lease between the landlord and the tenant, in a good lease, the landlord's going to say, hey, we have an HOA. The best leases have a summary of like the top 10 or top 15 things that a tenant needs to know, you know, where to park. When trash day is, when trash cans have to be back, you know. You're responsible for yard maintenance, you know.
Like a lot of people sum it up and just make it a part of the lease, and that's really great. if you end up having to evict. For something like that, judges, you know, our magistrates like to see everything spelled out because otherwise, the tenant's just gonna be like, Well, I didn't know. You know, right, you know, and they know. They know.
They usually know. But but if you don't have it in writing. you know. But that's what all lawyers say, right? That goes with anything.
If it's not in writing, if I can't point to it and show it to a judge. You got problems. That is correct. We are in the middle of HOA listener questions. And if you're in a neighborhood, you've most likely got an HOA and how you handle some of these questions.
And maybe you're not aware of some of these questions.
So, this next one. Uh and it's interesting. Can can an HOA change the rules after you buy your home. I well, the short answer is is yes. But only certain things, you know.
When you buy a house, there's covenants. That are on record, and those covenants kind of spell out what everybody can do. And they won't be super specific, right? They won't say you have to cut your grass every. week in between these months or things like that, but they'll give the board the authority to set Uh give them some guidance for rules.
And so small things You know, and everybody will be different. It depends on what your covenants allow for. But, Joe, basically, the board can set small things. Right. Policies.
Yep. Yeah, the board can do small things within, you know, again, it all comes back to the covenants ultimately and what the covenants dictate and say you can do. And, and. Generally speaking, yeah, the board's going to have the authority to do some things. More substantive, larger changes are also a thing, you know?
But uh Hmm. generally speaking That's going to be any kind of substantive amendment to covenants. It's a thing, right? It happens, but there's going to be a process and a procedure for it. And.
The majority of the time that's going to require some kind of Majority of all homeowners coming together to make that substitute revision.
So it does happen. It could happen to you. And the other thing in this situation, if you're a tenant, right, that's trickier is you're not the person that has the say in that. It's the landlord that would be. voting with those homeowners.
So but it but I don't know that that's necessarily a a super common thing that you're going to see often. This makes me think of something that comes up a lot. You know, we'll have a lot of people who are buying They're in the market to buy a rental property.
So, this is not, you know, they're trying to buy a house to rent out. They are not planning to live there. And they'll tell their closing attorney, right, or their real estate agent, whoever's really helping them find the house, like, hey, I'm buying this to rent it, right? And you have to be careful because there are some neighborhoods in Wake and Johnston and counties across the state that don't allow. Rentals.
Right? There's short-term rentals, there's long-term rentals, but you'll run into some neighborhoods who don't. This happened 10 or 15 years ago when all the national companies that buy houses to rent. You know, they were kind of taking over some neighborhoods in certain price ranges, and so it became popular for folks to run out and. You know, changing covenants isn't easy.
It's a very laborious process, and you have to have a certain percentage of homeowners vote. But you saw a lot of subdivisions try to amend their covenants. to not allow Rentals. Um And some succeeded and some didn't, but you have to be. You have to be careful.
Um But some also don't allow short-term rentals. And so, what I'm getting at here is. that that kind of change would be a public record you would you would find that before you bought the house if you're looking for it and you tell everybody that's important to you Um the things that they can change are like parking and yeah, you know, minor, kind of minor policy things. But the big things they can't change are you can't buy a house to rent it in a neighborhood and then that neighborhood changed four years later later to not allow rentals. We are in the middle of HOA listener questions.
Some of these questions you've probably thought of, others maybe not, but just be aware. Of exactly what's going on with your HOA. We do have complimentary consult in and around estate planning through Whitaker and Hamer. You can call 919-772-7000. That's 919-7727000.
Grab one of those complimentary no-obligation consults on estate planning. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. All right, next question up.
So you're getting notifications. There's a fine, there are possibly unpaid dues. Can an HOA put a lien on your home for the unpaid dues or maybe they're outstanding fines?
Well, you never you never want to ignore You know, we've talked about we've talked about this before on the show, like ignoring. male or ignoring problems. A lot of us have a bunch of a bunch on our plate already. And getting a violation notice from the HOA maybe might not make our top 10. Right away, or you might see it and set it aside and mean to get back to it.
But yeah, an HOA violation, that's one of those things that. Can turn from non-serious to serious pretty quick.
So, you know, if you're, if you're getting. a violation letter, usually there's a period of time where you can Challenge it or appeal it, the violation, you know. But once you start getting fond, and I know Joe's seen this, once you start getting fond, that can really. Escalate pretty quickly. Yeah, it's an exponential thing.
And again, like you said, it's easy to kind of put something away. you know, assume that It's not a huge deal. And maybe it's not. Maybe it's a small fine, but. You take a small fine, you ignore it, and you multiply that by 300 days.
and, you know, that that gets out of hand quick and Again, these are not things that are just going to magically go away. And the HOA, by law, has the ability. At the end of the day, foreclose on the property if all is said and done.
So. You can take a very small thing. that you could pay 20, 30, 40 bucks, and fix right away and turn it into a multiple thousand dollar problem. that you could y lose your home at the end of the day over.
So Take them seriously, man. Don't just put them away. Yeah, and in nature way The fine is not usually a one-time fine. You know, once they get to the fine stage, and it takes a lot of time. They're going to recur.
Yeah, it's going to be a fine. Yeah, it's a daily. It's going to be like a daily fine, and the covenants usually limit. The daily fine to 25 bucks or 100 bucks, but you know, $25 a day for a certain amount of time, and then you've got a big. Big check to pay, and at some point, and it's at the HOA's.
discretion at some point if they have enough unpaid fines, they're gonna place a lien on your house. And if you don't pay that lien within a certain amount of time, they can foreclose. And You know, we see these things. get out of hand. Um all the time.
Sometimes it's kind of the HOA Being a little overactive.
Sometimes it's the homeowner just ignoring all attempts at Communication and getting things resolved. But yeah, we see them when they. get a little out of whack. We are in the middle of some HOA listener questions, and it might seem small. You really need to pay attention to it if you get notified by your HOA for a violation.
We're talking about a number of different things in and around that area. Again, these are HOA questions, listener questions, here on Judica County Radio. We want to remind you there are complimentary consults in and around estate planning with Whitaker and Hamer. All you've got to do is call 919-772-7000. That's 919-7727000.
Again, no cost, no obligation. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer, and sign up there. You're listening to Judica County Radio with Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and Practicing Attorneys here in North Carolina. We got more HOA questions coming up. Um Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
And they place to offices all across the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. Want to remind you, too, we're doing HOA, a lot of questions from the listeners on that. But if you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to address from a legal standpoint, send it to us.
Questions at judicacountyradio.com. We'll answer that on a future broadcast. Questions at judicacountyradio.com. And as always, we have complimentary estate planning consults available to you. And you can call 919-772-7000.
That's 919-772-7000. Get signed up for that. You can also visit wh.lawyer, sign up there as well. But those are complimentary consults on estate planning.
So we are jumping to this question, guys.
Next up, can an HOA limit what you park in your Your very own driveway. Yeah. So I've been, say, I've been practicing law now for, I think I'm in my 23rd. Yeah. Which Seems like a long time and a short time at the same time, but I can't tell you how many calls in those 23 years that I've gotten.
where people are mad. Because they've gone and bought an R V. Or they bought a camper or they bought a boat. and they figure out they can't park it. You know, it wasn't an issue when they bought their house, so they didn't really look into it.
And then they pulled their new boat home and put it in the driveway, and they start getting letters, right? And. So that happens a ton, and then some HOAs won't let you park a work truck. You know, in in the driveway, I had a guy who You know, I had an HOA where the guy we had a guy who tried to park all of his dump trucks and tractor trailers. How many dump trucks and tractor trailers does he have, man?
That's just more than more than you more than you think. And that's a that's a big thing. We have a lot of clients who you know have dump trucks, have big trucks, have have tractor trailers. Lemos, right? And finding a place to park those, because a lot of times you can't park them at your house.
Even if you're in a subdivision where you got like five-acre lots, a lot of times they're still not going to let you pull up. All of your work trucks and park them there. You got to find a place that's zoned for it. And so that's always a problem.
Some HOAs won't let you park on the street.
Some HOAs will only let you have a certain amount of cars in the driveway. I've seen HOAs that have marked parking spaces where you kind of have shared parking, and your unit has one spot. And then everybody else has to share guest spots. And so to answer your question, HOA can limit parking in in a lot of ways. I know Joe, you see that too.
Yeah, they can, man. They've got the ability to do it. And, um,. You know, I've seen that same situation you're referring to where someone isn't aware that that's the case. Um But but but again, it it it can happen, man.
And uh It's that is not what I would that's not an uncommon type of thing to see. That's not like a very rare requirement. You know, like that's something that's very common and very standard. Yeah, I remember one time uh You know, I've seen it where a client gets a new job, and as part of that job, he gets a work truck. And, you know, just starts parking at his house and then gets the notice and then has to figure out.
where the park though you know You know, can't use the work truck. But it's for the community. You know, a lot of these communities having their covenants, they want to maintain every aspect of being a residential. You know, you can't run a business out of your house, you can't run a business out of your garage. Can't have the business trucks in the yard.
And so a lot of HOAs take that. residential nature. Very serious. And what I will say is: as common as it is to see that, it is not uncommon to see. Waivers granted.
You know, that's not an uncommon situation, especially with new development when. you're dealing with a builder and you're buying. in a new development, a lot of times that's something that'll get negotiated during the sale. And so HOAs can can issue waivers for these requirements within, you know, as long as it's reasonable.
So I've seen a lot of times where that is a requirement and someone's looking to purchase in a new subdivision and and they just kind of again, that's something they just negotiate at at the onset. And get a waiver taken care of. But in the absence of that, It's a problem, right? And it's a thing that you're going to have to abide by or. you're gonna have an issue.
I've got one thing I want to add, and I guess my question to both attorneys is: is it ever a good idea to poke the bear? I don't know if you've seen this. It's on a lot of the social media, and it's a meme. It's just floating out there. I've seen it a couple of times, and obviously, this homeowner was notified that they can't park their boat.
In there, not just their driveway, but an extra slab next to the driveway, and there's a gate. that goes into the backyard. And so, what this person did was they took a picture of the boat sitting out in front of the house with the gate closed. And then they made a wrap of that picture and they put it on the gate.
So, the boat's in the backyard. The gate is closed, but it looks like the boat is parked in the parking lot.
So, it's like the. you know, giving it the what ho to the HOA. Would you recommend poking the bear like that? I'm going to give you some practical advice, okay? In my experience, Folks who are heavily participatory in their HOAs.
are not the type of people Who take kindly to such things. And a lot of times, you know, you are very likely to invite some kind of like vindictive fury if you do that. And these people have some power, right? Like they're they're they're They understand the HOA. They sit at home and they fantasize about being able to ruin your day.
Um, so yeah, I'd be careful, man. I'd be careful with that. The I would imagine that HOA, if they're that strict on where you can park your boat, and that's not even that strict. A lot of HOAs are not going to let you park a boat, but um. They probably have some pretty intense guidance on what you can put on your fence and how you paint your fence and what kind of material the fence has to be.
Yeah, so then you're doubling up, man. I think you're probably just giving them all trouble right there. Losing some money on that wrap. And I have no idea where that took place. It's just, I've seen it several times where.
obviously somebody was pretty frustrated with their HOA so they just they basically did a wrap on their fence and It was funny, but it probably cost him some money.
Well, I think that's probably a good time to say: you know, HOAs aren't always right either. You know, HOAs are your fellow homeowners. who serve on the board. And in a perfect world, that HOA has a management company and access to experienced attorneys who are giving them advice if there's any kind of tricky. Legal situation, but that's not always, you know, we find that out, that's not always the case.
Sometimes these HOAs are just. Kind of running it themselves and doing what they think is right. But you know, we've been involved with a lot of these disputes where the HOA is wrong. Yeah. And, um, you know, um That happens too.
So it's, and there's things you can do. There's an appeal process. You can. Sue the HOA. Um There's things you can do there, but um I don't remember our question anymore.
Who needs it? No, no, no. It was: can an HOA limit what you park in your driveway? And you transition perfectly into my next question: what if an HOA rule conflicts with state law?
So you're notified that you're in violation of the HOA, and you go look at the state law, and the HOA is in violation of the state law. Yeah, so there's a uniform homeowners association, condo owners association. There's uniform statutes. that are that are meant to Fill in the gaps, you know, if you don't have complete covenants or. Again, won't allow you to be excessively fond and uh And there's more laws passing all the time.
You know, that's been popular. In North Carolina, we kind of have a You know, we have a Republican legislature and and and I think every year there's more and more laws kind of limiting HOAs, that's just a thing that happens. And so you see fines get limited, fees get limited. Um And and so, yeah, if there's a state law. The state law's always gonna control.
Nobody, HOAs or me or you or a company, nobody can violate those laws. Laws. And so if an HOA is violating a state law, You call them on it, right? You point that out to them, and if they still continue to do it, you sue them. Uh just like you would sue anybody else.
And uh And they don't like that a lot of times, but um But if they hadn't talked to an attorney, like I said, most HOAs are getting legal counsel. But if the HOA board does something and they haven't got legal counsel and your legal counsel calls them out on it, a lot of times they'll go to an attorney. That attorney will be like, Yeah, you shouldn't be doing this. No one can ignore HOA. Or an individual, nobody can ignore the state law.
That doesn't work. It's great advice from our show. You can't ignore the laws. It's pretty. Cut and dry, right?
Yeah, we could sum up our show. We could just wrap it up. Yeah, you cannot ignore the law. HOA questions. Listener questions, we're going over those today on Judica County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, right here in North Carolina. Offices placed convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquai Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Want to remind you we do have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. Simply call 919-77270000.
It's 919-7727000. Sign up for one of those. Again, no cost, no obligation. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more HOA questions coming up on the other side.
Judica County Radio, welcome back in. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And offices are all over our great state, Moorhead City down at the coast, over near Charlotte and Gastonia, Ciafuque Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys.
If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to take on on a future broadcast, just send it to us. Questions at judicacountyradio.com. Legal question, obviously. Questions at judicacountyradio.com. And a reminder: complimentary consults on estate planning.
You can sign up for those at 919-77270000. No cost, no obligation. 919-7727000. Get your estate plan in order. And you can also visit the website wh.lawyer.
So we're back to HOA questions. The listeners have these all over the country, and we thought we'd get into them.
So, this next one, guys, is: when should a homeowner stop arguing with a board and just call a lawyer? Oh, it's a good one, man. Yeah, I would It is a good one. You know, you're gonna get a violation letter. That violation letter should.
give you uh a chance to uh appeal. You know, if it's just saying your grass is too long, cut your grass, you know, you don't, you know, but if it's giving you a violation. That's going to be expensive to fix, right? You just. You built a deck and you didn't get approval, or you painted your house the wrong color and you didn't get approval, or if it's something that's going to cost you a lot of money to fix.
You probably want to get an attorney involved. Early. you know, just to before it gets before it gets nasty, you know, um You can certainly talk to your HOA. I'm like, hey, I got this notice. What's going on?
Is you know what kind of what do you want me to do? And you can try to negotiate, but at some point, Um You know, a lot of times, I didn't believe this before I was an attorney. This didn't make sense to me.
now makes perfect sense. But a lot of times You know, hiring an attorney in a lot of different situations, just having someone. To be a mediator, right? If you hire an attorney, the attorney is going to be. You know, it's an attorney for you.
You know, he or she represents you, they're going to advocate for you. But a lot of times having someone come in as a third party to kinda negotiate a situation, mediate a situation. That's just helpful. Right. And as a younger man, I don't know that I really understood that because I never had a problem talking to whoever.
I had a problem with, but But especially when life's going man and you work and you got kids and then something like this comes up. Uh no one wants to pay attorneys' fees. But getting an attorney involved to help mediate a dispute and get to the I don't know. It just I've never seen it not be helpful. Yeah.
Yeah, uh and I I would agree with that, right? Like, I I think it is it's something that that is very likely to be helpful for you. But at the same time, keep in mind. There are certain situations where An attorney, if you're just outright violating your covenants, right? Like, if you're just.
There's no argument. You're in violation of your covenants. Uh The attorney May not be able to do a lot in terms of that negotiation. You know, they may not be able to fix that issue for you. But having them, if for no other reason for them to explain to you.
what you're up against, you know, and what the consequences could be. And if it is something that's worth fighting, then by all means, let's let's fight it. But if not, let's let's wave the the white flag and let's not get foreclosed by our on by our HOA. One of the things that I always try to do, you know, I meet with a lot of people. everyday different different areas of law.
And one of the things that I've always done. As I like to be unfailingly honest with people. Right. You know, I'm telling you, you know, I tell you, like, tell me what's going on. I'll ask you some questions.
And I'm going to be like, well, I'm going to play devil's advocate here. And if the person you're having a problem with was sitting here, here's what I tell that person. Or, you know, if you're. I mean, it's not a legal term, right? But if you come sit down to me and you tell me what's going on and what you did and what you want to happen, and I think it's not good, and like I'll tell you, hey.
This isn't good. You're boned here. Let's deal with it. You feel like ruining people's day, is what you're saying, Josh. I don't like to lie to people, and I don't like to take people's money and give them a false hope something's going to happen.
I like to be very honest. I'm like, well, here's our situation. In this situation, you haven't made the best choices, right? You didn't know. You know, it's no fault of yours.
You didn't know what was going on. But here's what we need to do. But I don't. I don't gussy it up, right? I don't put lipstick on a pig, right?
I'm like, hey, this is not a good situation to be in, and we need to start working on. you know, deescalating or we need to, you know, see if we can Propose some alternate resolutions or get you some extra time, you know, but I'm not going to. Because I've seen attorneys do that, right? I've seen attorneys, and maybe they didn't know, right? I've seen attorneys who've defended clients who I'm like, clearly, the facts.
Your client's wrong here, but they'll fight you tooth and nail. And I don't think that's very helpful because that's attorney's fees to their client, and then we get to the same. place in the in the end, right?
So so don't don't sugarcoat. No, no, I I think we're always dealing with adults. Right. You know, there's one adult dealing with another adult. And, you know, I've had some clients who don't.
Like That. Most clients like that, but I've had clients who don't, you know, they want someone who's going to fight for them. And I was like, well, I'm. I'm not going to take your money and fight for you if you're in the wrong. Right.
We need to. figure something else out, but Okay. I don't know. Um at some point Yes, at some point you probably wanna want to hand it off to an attorney and then take that attorney's advice. Yeah, that's a that's great, man.
Listen to your attorney. It's not a difficult and It's not a hard concept. Listen to your attorney, man. Yeah, you hired him for a reason. That's right.
Right? Right. They they they they know the legal realm, you do not. HOA disputes, questions. Uh we're going over some today.
Uh this next one, guys, uh can homeowners band together To challenge the HOA. Attica! Attica! Can can they protest together here? Yeah, I mean, it depe it really depends on what it is.
Right? It really depends on what's being Challenge, but but but yes, the more the more homeowners that can get together on an issue. Um And tell the HOA we don't like this, or we don't agree with this, or you know, the more that you have. That certainly is more effective than just one person. Um But it would have to be a sizable group, and it depends on the issue, right?
Let's talk about parking boats. Let's say you've got a subdivision of 100 people. and five people have boats they want to park on the street. and the covenant say you can't do it.
Well, five people's not enough. to change anything. Right. But you know if you could get fifty percent on an issue. 40% on an issue.
You can't. You know, that's a lot, right? If I was sitting on a board and I had 40 homeowners come to me and say, we don't like that. You're making us cut our grass twice a week. We think this is dumb.
I think an HOA board would listen to that. Yeah, and the other thing we touched on it, right? You get to that point where if you've got a super majority of homeowners. You could be looking at a scenario where they could just Change the covenants, you know? If it's a big enough issue, they could band together.
And if you've got enough folks, then yeah, they could come together and just revise the covenants. And if they don't like what they say, just. we're going to make them say something different, right? Yeah, I don't, and I know we're coming up against a break. I don't know that I've ever seen that happen where an HOA got that many people together that the board disagreed with, but in theory, it could happen.
Yeah. Yeah. We have one segment remaining, and I've got a big question coming up. You don't want to go anywhere. And it is: can homeowners, again, we talked about banding together to challenge an HOA.
So the next question is: what is the biggest mistake homeowners make in HOA disputes? Think about that. We're going to take a short break, come back, answer it on the other side. Again, this is Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're your hosts and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Complimentary consult on estate planning. You can simply call 919-772-7000 or visit the website wh.lawyer. That's 919-772-7000 for a complimentary consult on estate planning or visit the website wh.lawyer. Back after this. Back on Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts, the managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina and offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Gullsborough, Fuquay Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City.
Morgan Patrick with you as well. And it's all about HOA questions today. And the final question, guys, and I'll just throw it at you: what's the biggest mistake homeowners make in HOA disputes? You know, Morgan, this has made me think about, I don't know if they still do this in law school, Joe. When I was in law school, you know, you go to class, you get reading.
Right, so you got a little, you read some cases, some cases, you read a lot of cases, right? Your professor gives you, we're going to talk about. negligence, right? And so it gives you a bunch of cool cases to read. Hopefully, you read them, right?
Hopefully, sometimes. And so, you're in a class of, let's say, you're in a class, this first-year law school classes, for me, there were like 100 people in the class. and the professor would come in And he would pick someone randomly. Yep. Make you stand up.
You stand up, right? He stands you up and he's like, all right, Mr. Whitaker, today's your day. Stand up. And the way they teach is they ask the student questions and try to get the student to kind of Explain and understand what's going on, and they try to help them along.
The Socratic method. Yeah, yeah. And it's. It's very effective. It's also very scary.
It's very scary. Especially if you haven't read. That's right. You're a great student, so I know that never happened to you. But yeah, it may have happened to me on occasion.
But, you know, if you hadn't read, you couldn't just say, I guess you could, but no one did, say, I didn't read. You try to like Know get your way through it, you know. But the professor, depending on you, might have had a nice professor, you might have had the professor who wants to make an example of you. And if you had the professor that wants to make an example of you, he's going to like demolish you. And you're standing up.
You're up for an hour, right? You're not sitting down.
So, did you ever get got, Josh? Did you ever get called on? You didn't read? I did, but it was a very nice older teacher who just really took it easy on me. I never, we had the teachers that if it happened, you were totally.
It wasn't sit down, Mr. Whitaker. No, no, that was sweet relief. Yeah, that's what, that's what I got.
So it happened to me, and he just looked at me very disappointedly, like I had failed him. And yeah, I just got to sit down.
So it was actually not, it actually worked out. But we had a kid, we had a professor that first day of class, he stood a kid up. He kept him up every day for like four weeks. Oh, man. And it was brutal, man.
It was not like a light anything. It was like a, we are going to make a strong example of you, and we're going to try to make everyone quit. You included, and uh, I can't remember if that kid quit or not. The hardest class I had, I got stood up like the first week, and that was sweet relief, right? Because once you got stood up, most of the big classes, you're not getting sometimes they throw you a curve and stand you up again.
But that was, you know, get it done early. Yep. And then you read more early on, right? As a student, you get lazier. Anyway.
We had a professor. He let us make name plates for the class. And he was like, whoever has the best name plate doesn't get called on. And I tell you what, man, mine was Leonardo da Vinci, man. I spent more time on the name plate than I spent studying for anything in law school.
And never got called on, man. It worked out good. Wow, it just sounds like legally they challenge you and it's almost like the seals, you have to ask to be released, like drop on request. Yeah. And they put you on the spot.
I don't know. They might have got softer now. You know, this is, this is, I was in law school, you know, 2000. Back in the day. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Back when, and, and they were, you know, they were tough on you on purpose, which is good because that's what you need as a, as an attorney. It's not a, you know, it's not a profession. We want good attorneys, man.
We want strong, strong, able-bodied attorneys. But anyway, Morgan, you know, we talked about HOA stuff today, but you know, the law for. If you call and you say you listen to the radio show, we're going to meet with you for free for estate planning. We'll talk to you. You know, if you've been in a car accident, your personal injury, you know, we're going to talk to you for free if you call on and say, hey, I heard Josh and Joe talk about HOAs for a super long time.
And it was the highlight of my life. Yeah. Entertaining. Very entertaining. But always happy to help.
That's why we do the radio show. We want you to know an attorney when you need an attorney, right?
So if you listen to us, me and Joe are just like this in everyday life. We'll be happy to talk to you, happy to help you any way that we can, you know? Legal Pavlov's dog. You know, you hear something legal and you think Whitaker and Hamer.
Now, complimentary consult on estate planning. You can call 919-7727000, 919-7727000, or visit the website, wh.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the radio next week.
Oh. Yeah. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature, and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney, licensed in the state in which you live, has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of this show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.
