PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — 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.
PASCO NEWS | The latest headlines from Pasco County
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.
"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.
