I have lost our retirement, our kids' education and our savings to a homeowners association lawyer

May 11, 2003

By Marci O'Brien
Copyright Marci O'Brien

I am filing a lawsuit I do not wish to file. With a lawyer I do not wish to hire. For a claim that has no merit. Against a company I do not wish to sue. With an agreement for legal fees I am not allowed to see.

This lawsuit is driving down the price of my home, disrupting my formerly tranquil neighborhood, and all to correct alleged construction defects in our homes that largely do not exist, we cannot see, do no harm, or will not manifest themselves for many years in the future, if at all.

Of all the crazy lawyers jokes I have ever heard, this is the craziest-and least amusing. But this is no joke; it is happening right now to me, and thousands of other homeowners in Southern California, and they are not laughing either.

Our story began last year, when a law firm sent our homeowners association a letter, telling us we could win a lot of money because our condos were probably just full of defects.

This was not a joke, but a surprise to me and my neighbors, who thought we lived in nice houses, in a nice neighborhood that didn't have any problems that a guy with a tool belt couldn't fix on a Saturday morning.

But the lawyers told us different. Oh no, they said, you have lots of problems-you just can't see them.

We didn't believe the lawyers, and we told our board of directors we wanted nothing to do with their bogus lawsuit.

They did not listen. Instead, they salivated as the lawyers dangled the prospects of large buckets of money in front of them. Money that would come after we filed a construction defect lawsuit. Money they said they would collect from an insurance company, supposedly eager to avoid a lawsuit.

The fact that we didn't have defects didn't seem to disturb the attorneys. They knew of a quirk in the law that would help win the case-and help the attorneys collect a 30 to 50 percent contingency fee.

No one listened as we told them these lawsuits would prevent us from selling, or refinancing, our condos, thus hurting our home values.

No one listened as we told them the builder had videotaped every step of the building process so thoroughly that it was held up as a model of how to prevent defect lawsuits on the CBS news show 48 Hours.

No one listened as we insisted that the only ones who would make any money on this lawsuit were the lawyers.

Finally no one responded when we asked to see the leaky roofs, the crooked doors, the dangerous construction that would merit such a radical course of action. They could not respond: These items did not exist.

But our board didn't listen. So with the two votes that made up a majority of the board, they voted to proceed with the lawsuit on behalf of over 220 homeowners, signing on agreement with the lawyers that, to this day, remains a secret.

So how many of us are in a lawsuit we want nothing to do with?

We thought we had options. We presented a petition to the board-complete with 117 signatures, more than 50 percent of the homeowners-that would have derailed the lawsuit. The board simply and completely ignored our plea.

We'll fix that at the upcoming election in a few weeks. But much of the damage has already been done. Already a few people bought into our complex, unaware of the hundreds of defects that the lawyers said exist. Including water pooling on exterior stairwells, when we have no exterior stair wells, and lots of other defects on items that do not even exist.

But here's the catch: Even though these defects do not exist, as our own attorneys claim they do-thus they must be listed on real estate disclosure forms. Costing all of us lots of money in lower home appraisals and prices. And maybe even legal costs from the new, and disgruntled, buyers.

Even if we drop the suit now, which we still want to do, the biggest investment any of us will ever make is tainted, costing each of a good portion of the equity we were counting on for retirement, or our kids' education, or just plain old savings.

And all because a lawyer sent us a letter, a pipe dream, that our board did not have the sense to rip up into a million pieces, and treat like the rotten, corrupt, insidious sick joke that it was. And is.