Weeds, a Clown, and a Seller Walk Into Court…

HOA documents aren’t exactly exciting reading.

Until they are.

I represented a buyer purchasing a home in an HOA. My buyer lived out of state, and during the transaction we received information from the HOA indicating that the seller was not in compliance.

The problem?

Weeds and landscaping.

The HOA wanted the property brought into compliance, including specific landscaping work.

The listing agent told me the seller had taken care of it.

Before closing, we did the walkthrough. We didn’t see weeds or anything that jumped out at us as an obvious problem.

There was another option: ask the seller to pay approximately $800 for an updated HOA status document.

If the work had been completed, did the seller really need to spend another $800 to be told everything was okay?

We decided not to.

That decision would eventually involve a $500 security deposit, thousands of dollars in landscaping, a mediator who was also a birthday clown, and a trip to court.

First, What Do HOA Documents Actually Tell You?

When you’re buying a property governed by an HOA, there are really two different things to think about.

There are the association documents themselves — the declarations, rules, financial information and other documents that help a buyer understand the community they’re purchasing into.

Then there can be information concerning the individual property: assessments, balances, violations or other issues involving that particular owner or property.

Those documents matter.

But they don’t replace the purchase contract.

A walkthrough doesn’t replace the contract either.

And closing doesn’t necessarily make every promise made in the contract disappear.

That distinction became very important in this transaction.

Everything Looked Fine

The seller was staying in the property for one week after closing under a post-closing occupancy arrangement.

Because he was temporarily remaining in what was now my buyer’s home, there was a $500 security deposit.

Closing happened.

My buyer became the homeowner.

And shortly afterward, she received a letter from the HOA.

The landscaping violation had not been properly corrected.

Now the HOA was looking to her — the new owner — to bring the property into compliance.

She started doing the work.

And the bills started adding up.

Thousands of dollars.

Remember that $500 security deposit?

The check hadn’t been canceled.

She deposited it.

And Then Came the Birthday Clown

The seller wanted his $500 back.

So the dispute went to mediation.

Now, when most people hear “real estate mediation,” I think they picture someone sitting at the table who understands real estate contracts, HOAs, status letters, post-closing occupancy agreements and all the other pieces that got everyone into the room in the first place.

That’s not necessarily what you’re getting.

A mediator’s job is to help two sides try to reach an agreement. The mediator doesn’t necessarily have to be a real estate expert.

And ours certainly wasn’t.

Our mediator’s other job was being a birthday clown.

I’m not making that up.

My buyer was a physician with difficult hours, and this was the mediator who could accommodate everyone’s schedule.

So there we were discussing an HOA violation, a rent-back security deposit, thousands of dollars in landscaping and the obligations from a real estate contract with someone whose other professional experience involved children’s birthday parties.

You can’t make this stuff up.

The birthday clown couldn’t get them to agree.

So mediation failed.

How a $500 Check Turned Into a Court Case

Here’s the part I find particularly interesting.

My buyer wasn’t chasing the seller through the legal system trying to recover thousands of dollars in landscaping costs.

The seller was pursuing her.

He wanted his $500 back.

When mediation didn’t get it back for him, he continued the dispute into court.

And once he did that, the $500 check wasn’t the only thing that mattered anymore.

My buyer could show what had happened after closing. The HOA had determined the property wasn’t compliant. She could show what she’d spent getting the landscaping into compliance.

Now the court could look at the bigger question:

Who was responsible for the underlying problem?

The seller had gone to court over $500.

He didn’t get his $500.

And, as I remember the outcome, he ended up being held responsible for thousands more toward the landscaping.

That’s an expensive way to find out that closing doesn’t necessarily erase the promises you made in a contract.

The $800 Question

This is the part I’ve gone back and forth on.

My buyer wasn’t being asked to spend another $800. We could have insisted on obtaining an updated status letter before closing and negotiated for the seller to pay for it.

He had already paid for one. We’d been told he’d corrected the problem. We couldn’t see the specific violation during the walkthrough. And my buyer didn’t want to make him spend another $800 when everyone believed it had been handled.

We also knew the contract still protected her.

And ultimately, it did.

Looking back, would I insist on the second status letter?

Probably.

But even that isn’t quite as simple as it sounds.

What if the seller had paid another $800, the landscaping looked corrected that day, and the HOA issued an updated letter saying the property was in compliance?

Then the weeds came back a month later anyway.

Would that piece of paper have protected my buyer — or actually made it harder to establish that the seller hadn’t properly corrected the original problem?

I don’t know.

In our case, there was no second letter saying the violation had been cured. When the dispute eventually reached court, my buyer could show the original violation, the later HOA notice and what she’d spent bringing the property into compliance.

So maybe the lesson isn’t simply, “I should have ordered another status letter.”

The better lesson may be this: when an HOA has identified a specific violation, don’t just verify that it looks fixed. Understand what the HOA requires to actually cure it — and document what was done.

A Lesson for the Seller’s Side, Too

Here’s the piece that’s stuck with me since.

It wasn’t just my buyer who could have asked the HOA to confirm the work was done.

The seller could have too.

He was the one claiming the violation was fixed. He was the one with the most to lose if it turned out it wasn’t. And he was the one in the best position to get that confirmation, because he was still the owner — the person the HOA would recognize as responsible for making it right.

Instead, he left that claim unverified and let it become someone else’s problem the moment the deal closed.

That’s really what this comes down to. Whoever is making the claim that something has been fixed is the one who benefits from proving it — not just telling someone it’s true. If the seller had gotten that updated letter and it turned out he was wrong, that mistake would have surfaced while it was still his mistake to fix, not my buyer’s mistake to discover a month later with a fine attached.

He didn’t do that. And it ended up costing him a great deal more than $800.

And Then There’s the Contract

This story could easily be about an $800 HOA letter.

Or a $500 check.

Or a birthday clown.

But that’s not really why I’m telling it.

The contract mattered. Closing didn’t simply erase what the seller had agreed to do, and when the dispute eventually reached court, that mattered for my buyer.

But a contract is something I would much rather never have to ask a client to enforce — and enforcing it after closing isn’t simple. The seller had already moved on. My buyer was the one left tracking down what he owed her, going through mediation, and eventually making her case to a judge.

That’s what I’m actually trying to avoid next time. Not just having the paperwork, but having the underlying problem still be the seller’s to fix while it’s still his to fix.

My buyer ultimately had the contract on her side.

But she had to go through thousands of dollars in landscaping, mediation and court to prove it.

That’s not the kind of protection I’m aiming for.

I’d rather have an irritated seller paying another $800 before closing than a buyer trying to chase down a former owner afterward — even knowing that letter isn’t a guarantee either.

And if doing a little more work before closing means I never again have to explain why our mediator was also a birthday clown?

I’d call that a win.