What type of organization that is NOT an HOA, can an Arizona neighborhood form to protect and promote its own interests?
I am part of a neighborhood off a county road in Cave Creek that has had its easement entrance and exit at the corner of E. New River Rd and N. 54th St. by a single homeowner in an adjacent HOA who, without any written authority or otherwise application to the town or county has placed giant boulders in the middle of our road at the corner, imperiling the visibility and other safety features for e all vehicles entering and leaving the intersection and gravely imperiling those of us who have no other access point in and out of the neighborhood.
This is not the first time members of this particular HOA have acted selfishly and likely illegally to take away our access rights that have been both deeded and recognized by years of established easement rules and boundaries. In another instance a HOA house up the road put in barriers on an established horse trail, for instance.
But immediately the “Boulder Blocker” has to be stopped, sanctioned, and injoined to not do similar encroachments in the future. Our N. 54 St neighbors have already been adversely impacted over this action, which we believe was intentionally initiated on this past Friday evening so as to further delay neighbors ability to respond immediately by contacting Town of Cave Creek authorities to come out for inspection.
We are not interested in joining an HOA, or forming an HOA to fight this abuse by a nearby HOA. We do however expect that Town and or County response to getting the HOA homeowner to remove the boulders on our road will take some time (based on how they havve handled other matters in the past).
We also do not expect the remediation to include compensation to any of us for the damages we have already endured.
However, if private legal action is required, we would prefer to pursue the complaint as a collective lawsuit rather than only individually. We also need to raise some money for this cause as a number of us, unlike the offending HOA homeowner who is apparently covering his action under the guise of a corporation of landscaping engineers and his newly relocated realtor wife as well as an alleged phone conversation with the HOA VP, who said it was OK to do what he unilaterally did, are retired and living on limited fixed income.
Short of forming our own HOA, what options do the 54th St residents have?
What legal entity can we, the non-HOA neighbors of N. 54th form to
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Stephen,
First of all, you definitely do not want to create an HOA. Nor do I believe that you could actually do that. If your right or way and access rights are in fact established in recorded deed restrictions or covenants, then they are absolutely enforceable on and for all parties. No party has the right to ignore or violate those deed covenants. My first advice is to see what the municipality or county will be willing to do to protect your access and right of way rights. Remember one thing both municipalities and counties are slow bureaucratic organizations, and very hesitant to get involved with individual homeowner disputes. The one adage that probably applies the best is “the squeaky wheel get the grease.” You and your neighbors can collectively be the squeaky wheel that collectively get the attention of your municipality or county officials. Other than that, you can seek legal advice from a property lawyer and generate a class action lawsuit against the offending parties preventing you from access to your properties. That would be the extent of the organization efforts you would need to do to get a resolution to this issue. Depending on the clarity and substance of your claim to rights of way this is a very winnable litigation.
Dennis