Hoa Designates My Private Pond As “Public Hoa Property”.. Unaware I Own The Land!

She said

“Come on everyone, we are leaving for now, but this is not over.”

The group slowly gathered their things and then left my property. The HOA President shot me a look of pure hatred as she walked past.

Fraud in the Trial

When they were gone, I thanked the deputies for their help.

One of them said

“Sir, you should know that if this dispute is not resolved soon, we’re going to keep getting called out here.”

I said

“I would recommend getting a lawyer involved.”

I replied

“Already done. There’s an active lawsuit. Hopefully, it’ll be resolved soon.”

After the deputies left, I sat down on the shore of my pond and tried to calm my nerves. This situation was just insane.

I couldn’t believe this woman was so convinced she was right that she was willing to risk arrest to prove it. But the worst was yet to come.

A few days after the mass trespassing incident, I received a letter in the mail. It was from the HOA attorney, and it informed me that the HOA was filing a countersuit against me.

They were claiming that I had fraudulently acquired title to community property. They claimed that I’d been harassing residents and that I owed the HOA back dues for the years I had illegally occupied their land.

Essentially, they were suing me for my own property. I forwarded the letter to my lawyer, who told me not to worry.

She said

“This is actually good. They are putting everything in writing and they are making legal claims that are demonstrably false.”

She added

“When we win—and we will win—we will have grounds for a much larger judgment against them.”

The legal process moved forward slowly. We also obtained the original development documents from the developer’s records.

It turned out that when the development was planned, the developer had indeed approached my father about purchasing the property. However, when my father refused, someone in the development company had simply redrawn the maps to include our land anyway.

They apparently assumed that either no one would notice or that they could pressure my family into selling later. It was fraud—clear, documented fraud.

The case went to trial long after the initial lawsuit was filed. Their HOA had spent significant money on their legal defense, but their position was fundamentally indefensible.

My property deed predated their development by decades. Also, the county records clearly showed continuous family ownership.

The licensed survey confirmed the boundaries. Their argument that the internal map superseded official county records and my property deed was just laughed out of court.

Well, I mean, the judge didn’t literally laugh, but you could see him struggling to keep a straight face. The HOA’s attorney tried to argue that their maps represented the true ownership of the land.

Finally, though, the judgment was decisive. The court ruled that my family had always owned the land in question.

The court ruled that the HOA had knowingly trespassed on my property and that their claims of ownership were based on either fraudulent or grossly negligent recordkeeping. The HOA was ordered to pay damages for the harassment and trespassing, my legal fees, and punitive damages for their continued bad faith conduct.

The total judgment was significant. It was not life-changing money, but enough to hurt the HOA’s finances considerably.

A Peace Restored

More importantly, though, the court ordered the HOA to issue a formal written retraction to all residents. It admitted that the pond was private property and that residents had no right to access it.

The court also ordered the county to update all official records to clearly show that my property was not part of the Tyrant Estates development. The HOA President resigned from the board the day after the judgment was issued.

I heard from neighbors that she sold her house and moved out of the community within a few months. Apparently, she could not handle the embarrassment of being so publicly and thoroughly wrong.

As for my pond, it’s peaceful again. I spent my weekend mornings there with my fishing rod, just like my father did and his father before him.

The property has been in my family for decades. Thanks to this whole ordeal, everyone in the neighborhood now knows exactly who owns it and exactly where the property lines are.

And all I did was catch some fish on my own property.

The Office Scammer

The next one is an amazing petty revenge story that is titled I will pay you Tuesday for a dress I want to wear today. I had a co-worker named Lori.

She was super loud and obnoxious and was into everyone’s business. After the first week of working with her, I requested a new desk far away from her.

Although my request was granted and I got to move, Lori came by to chat at least twice a day. One time after she visited me, one of the women in a neighboring cubicle took me aside.

She informed me that Lori is a scammer and any money she has borrowed she hasn’t paid back. She even had a small claims judgment against her for when one of our co-workers sued her for not repaying a loan.

She owed both the Avon and Pampered Chef reps money. She had an endless supply of new employees to scam because our unit trained new people before they went to their permanent unit.

Her other scam would be that she would tell her people that her friend is making lunch boxes to raise money and convince people to buy lunch. Come the day after lunch, she only brought half the lunches and then she leaves for the day.

Then one afternoon, I’m looking online for a wedding guest dress and Lori walks by and oohs and ahhs over the dresses. She asks for the website.

About an hour later, she points out that shipping is free if you spend $99 or more. She tells me about her brilliant idea of her saving me money by buying a dress for myself and one she picks out for herself.

I pay for both dresses and she said after it’s delivered she will repay me. She said payday is just around the corner.

Well, in reality, I didn’t order either dress. After about 2 weeks, I tell her the dresses will arrive at my house by the weekend and I will need my money by then.

She tried to stall me and also tried to give me reasons why she needed the dress ASAP and why she had to pay me later. She kept trying to negotiate with me.

She backed down for a while, but she decided to try me one last time. I told her I sent both dresses back because I found one I like better at the mall.

After that, she left me alone. She kept to herself and then was made to transfer out due to her poor performance.