Homeowners' Association Battles Resident Over Property Improvement

The Union Democrat (Sonora, California) reports:

• The Copper Cove and Lake Tulloch Owners' Association may have invited new legal action Wednesday by announcing it is imposing fines on a handicapped man who made a county-approved addition to his home in order to gain street-level access to his bedroom. Ken Gutman, 61, target of the fines, says he fears the association actually intends to use the levies as an excuse to take his home away or make him tear it down.

[...]

• The association stirred up a nationwide hornets' nest among homeowners in 2003 when it seized the Copperopolis home of Thomas and Anita Radcliff and sold it at public auction because the Radcliffs failed to pay $120 in homeowners fees. Ultimately, the Radcliffs bought their house back in 2005 and settled their differences with the association out of court. The California Alliance for Retired Americans has called nonjudicial foreclosures "a predatory business practice" used by some homeowner associations to collect tiny amounts of money.

For more, see Homeowner fined in Copper flap.