Recently-Constructed Outdoor Staircase Built Without Prior HOA Approval Leaves Clueless Homeowner In Losing Legal Battle

In Raleigh, North Carolina, WRAL-TV Channel 5 reports:

• A Raleigh woman could be climbing the stairway to foreclosure in a battle with her neighborhood's homeowners association.
  
  Gloria Daniel received a city permit to build the two-story staircase at the back of her Karlbrook Lane home in the Stowecroft neighborhood off Buffaloe Road. But she didn't follow the subdivision's covenants, which required her to get approval from the HOA first.
  
  The Stowecroft Owners Association Inc. sent Daniel letter after letter telling her to tear the staircase down. She refused, saying she spent thousands of dollars on it.
  
  "They say they're going to fine me $100 every day, and if I don't pay, they're going to foreclose on my home," she said recently. "When they say 'foreclosure,' I was so sad. These people are going to foreclose on my home just for building some steps."
  
  Michael Ganley, an attorney for the HOA, sent a letter Monday to WRAL News to defend the association's stance.
  
  "This is not the case of a homeowner building a flower garden or porch swing without approval," Ganley said. "Ms. Daniel has constructed an enormous and unsightly staircase edifice to provide exterior access directly from the ground level to the second floor of her home."
  
  What's more, he said, she has consistently misled the HOA about the reason for the staircase.
  
  "Even following construction, Stowecroft was still willing to give Ms. Daniel permission to maintain the staircase, but Ms. Daniel has not provided any truthful or reasonable justification for the necessity of such a structure," he said.

For more, see Raleigh woman, HOA in stare-down over backyard staircase.