There is a reason why we tend to avoid buying a house that has a Homeowners Association, HOA, but of course HOAs are important for maintaining property values and promoting peace and harmony within a neighborhood. Unfortunately, it is all too common for an HOA to be led by humans who always wanted power but never earned it. Plus, the real problem is that nobody wants to serve on their HOA board, which allows a rogue board to go unchecked. So this post is about my experience with our HOA in what has played out to be the most egregious penalties you could ever imagine being levied against an owner. Spyglass Ridge HOA confiscated Pam & Greg Smith’s $2000 landscape deposit based on their backyard maple tree having a trunk caliper that was questionably short of the required 1.5 inches.

Since that verdict was rendered, it has come to our attention that the tree caliper was incorrectly measured. The entire backstory on this can be found at https://adventurecontinues.org/hoa.

Here are the details about the caliper measurement

I have never gotten any feedback from an actual HOA board member so I decided that my next step would be the following request to the HOA on 11/5/25:

I would like to challenge the process by which we were not allowed a Board Review of our Landscaping Deposit Confiscation. How the 30 days was enacted without response to my request for clarification and how you waited until the 30 days was up before you rendered a final decision.

I really did not think that I would be granted my review request; however, on 11/10/25, I was notified that I would be given 7 minutes to state my case at the upcoming HOA Board Meeting. So I prepared the following Statement that I would read at the meeting. I made this request to highlight the fact that our HOA provides very few options for interaction; all communication goes through the secretary. That alone is a red flag. I served on an HOA Board in Oregon for 15 years, and open communication is critical for harmony.

My request was the last item on the New Business Agenda; however, before I was given the floor, the HOA President gave his own timeline that focused heavily on everything except my actual request for a board review or the caliper measurement problem. Basically I was ambushed with the HOA Board attacking me instead of listening. Finally they stated that to be fair to all residents of Spyglass, they could not grant my request since I had not complied with the HOA’s landscaping regulations.

Later, I realized what they meant about being fair to all Spyglass homeowners, since many of them had been screwed by the HOA, I should also be screwed. This is actually very sad. Since I have started communicating about this egregious act, I have received numerous comments from other owners citing that they too have been unfairly treated and even bullied. The common thread, though, was that they now just want nothing to do with the HOA and just want to be left alone.

For proper context here are photos describing our landscaping at the time of the rejection, makes you wonder why would the HOA want to penalize an owner for striving to create one of the nicest landscapes in the community. Could their be a personal vendetta involved?

So what do I do next? My fight has never been about getting my $2000 deposit back, but I could easily turn this into a lawsuit to recover my deposit due to their caliper measurement mistake. But I don’t want to sue my own community; I just wanted to help repair the HOA. See Desired Action.

Here is a Link to the Complete Story: HOA Landscaping Deposit Confiscation