Sobering Case for HOAs, Good One for Homeowners.
Winchester Community Assn. v. Perrotta, Case No. C075562 (3d Dist. July 21, 2016) (unpublished) involved a situation where homeowners and an HOA got into a dispute over the review of submission of landscaping plans. Association won at the trial level and was awarded attorney’s fees and costs of $159,269.61.
Those awards went away on appeal. The reason? HOA prevented performance of a settlement agreement between the parties allowing for review of landscaping plans by refusing to review the submissions. The appellate court reversed the fees/costs award, but ordered the HOA to either approve/disapprove the plans and allowed homeowners a specified amount of time to get Placer County final inspections/permitting. This result should remind HOAs that they need to be reasonable in their review process of submitted landscaping or architectural plans by homeowners; if not, the courts may well be the arbiter of what is right—even at the appellate level.