Article Courtesy of
ABC Action News Tampa
By Heather Leigh
Published November
4, 2019
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PASCO COUNTY — A Pasco County family is now getting answers after a fight with
their HOA over changes to their driveway dragged on for more than a year.
"A
lot of people do not like the HOA which now I can see why, before I defended
them — I no longer will,” said Amy Ford.
Two years ago, Ford
says the community association for Fox Wood at Trinity told
homeowners they couldn’t park their cars in the street
without a permit. She and her husband put thousands of
dollars aside to expand their driveway.
“We do have a lot of kids, and five of them are teens and we
knew they’d be driving eventually,” Ford said.
After she hired a contractor, and they drew up the plans
that were approved by the modifications committee the
driveway was installed.
Nearly a year later she was told the driveway didn’t meet
HOA standards. Ford says the news couldn’t have come at a
worse time — her mom was dying. |
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"She passed away on Easter eve at 10:30 p.m. and then at four o’clock that next
morning my brother called me from Indiana from my father side and told me my dad
had died from a heart attack that morning,” Ford said. "So in three hours I lost
both of my parents. This literally was not number one on my priority list."
The battle continued on. The HOA even attempted to take her to court over the
issue. ABC Action News got involved Thursday, the same day the HOA told us they
already decided to drop the issue entirely and admitted the former board wasn’t
enforcing their own rules.
"It’s a great neighborhood. We chose it [because] it’s safe. There’s 910 homes
in here, the schools around us are amazing but I would love to see consistency
on everything,” she said.
The board changed members in April 2019, and began stepping up their rule
enforcement.
They sent a statement: The Fox Wood Board of Directors has been aware of the
issues with Ms. Ford and her driveway not meeting the standards as defined by of
CCR. Ms. Ford first made application to our Architectural Standards Committee
(ARC) in late 2017 and the ARC committee in place at that time approved a
rendering provided by Ms. Ford and her contractor. Some time passed and the ARC
did a follow up inspection and determined that the work completed was not the
work that was approved. Although initially there were some email communications
between the parties, the communications ceased and the matter was referred to
the Board attorney for further action.
Yesterday, October 30, 2019 Ms. Ford contacted the association attorney to work
toward resolution. Our first contact directly with Ms. Ford was yesterday and
today you and I spoke. This morning a conference call took place between the
management company and the board attorney. After a review of Ms. Fords
correspondence and information brought to light on similar existing non-
conforming violations in the community, it was recommended by association
attorney that the prosecution of Ms. Ford’s case should cease. The board has
agreed with the recommendation of the board attorney and we consider the matter
with Ms. Ford closed.
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