“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win!...” Ghandi
In June 2003, Hendersonville attorney
Walter Carpenter answered four questions concerning the legal nature of the Ledges homeowner’s association and the extent to which the original Restrictive Covenants could be amended. On August 18, 2006, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Mr. Carpenter’s judgment. Furthermore, the Court concluded among other things that the Amended Restated Covenants are “unreasonable….invalid and unenforceable”.
After three years and legal fees totaling upwards of $80,000., the facts are unchanged.
1. The original 1988 Covenants remain in effect and are fully enforceable.
2. The corporation known as the Ledges homeowner’s association is a by-invitation-only private club which since 1994 has misrepresented its authority and illegally collected tens of thousands of dollars.
Rules Are Not Sacred, Principles Are!
The following is one of several requests made to the homeowner's association president after the Supreme Court ruled against the association.
Bill and Ursula Jenrette wrote:
Dear Mr. Katz:
The recent decision handed down by the NC Supreme Court in regards to the lawsuit brought by The Armstrongs, Moore’s and Clore’s against The Ledges Homeowner’s Association which was recently ruled in their favor states clearly that dues collected from homeowners in The Ledges subdivision, over and above those needed to pay for the lighting at the entrance to the subdivision, were collected improperly.
Therefore, I am requesting that the dues paid by me to the homeowner’s association over and above my share of the lighting cost be refunded in full. In addition, I am also requesting that any fees that were assessed to me and subsequently paid by me to the association to defend the association and its officers against this lawsuit be included in the refund.
You should recall that I was one of the first homeowner’s to object to the action being taken by the association to revise the covenants and by laws that I believed infringed on my property rights and at that time urged you and those who were influenced by your ideas to abandon the course of action you had embarked upon. If I had been residing in my home at the time I hope I would have had the strength to join the plaintiffs in their suit, and in retrospect should have done so as an absentee owner in order to help them with the financial burden they undertook in order to defend the rights of all property owners from being run over by a majority hell-bent on having their way.
Fortunately, the Armstrongs were tenacious enough to follow their beliefs as far as necessary to find justice. Thankfully, in America we still have the right to seek justice through our court system and thankfully the NC Supreme Court agrees and has vindicated their tenacity. Since you have had the use of the funds I paid interest free for several years now, I’m sure that you take care of this request promptly. Please send the refund to my home address shown below.
Sincerely,
Bill Jenrette