All Jonathan Borsellino Jr. wanted was to go swimming in his neighborhood pool.
The 12-year-old was a friend of all the lifeguards; he even bought them pizza with his allowance. His dad was a member of the Abingdon Village Homeowners Association, which runs the pool.
But when he showed up on the last day of June ready for a swim, the lifeguard kicked him out, for good, on the orders of the association’s business manager. Jonathan called his father in tears.
The reason?
Two gables and some trim on his father’s brick ranch house aren’t the color Abingdon Village approved, spawning a long-running spat that has escalated to a lawsuit.
The story starts in spring 2009, when Jonathan Borsellino Sr. began painting his house on Auburn Drive purple without association approval, the association claims in a pending Circuit Court suit against Borsellino. The ranch, in the neighborhood near the intersection of Interstate 64 and Indian River Road, is mostly red brick, but has siding on the gables.
The association sent him two violation notices when he continued painting, according to the lawsuit. In 2010, Borsellino painted his garage door lemon yellow, an approved color. A photo in the court file shows the gable siding half-painted a dark wine color with unfinished white patches, and gutters, downspouts and shutters a pale blue.
Borsellino said in an interview he got frustrated and stopped painting.
When the house was not painted an approved color by December, the association began fining Borsellino $10 a day. The association is now suing him for $900 in violation fees – the largest amount the law allows the association to collect – plus attorney’s fees.
Borsellino’s house is now white with a ragged paint job; he said he doesn’t understand what the association wants, got tired of waiting for an explanation and painted with primer to cover the paint splotches from the last two attempts. The paint does not meet association standards, and the lawsuit is still under way, said Leilani Adams, the attorney representing the Abingdon Village Homeowners Association.
Suspending membership privileges is often the best way to get the attention of a homeowner who is breaking a contract, and homeowners associations have the right to do so until violation fees are paid, Adams said.
However, it’s fairly rare for an association to revoke privileges like pool use to community members, said Clay Atkinson, president of Atkinson Management Group, which oversees 90 homeowners associations and condominiums in Hampton Roads. His company deals with three or four such cases a year, he said.
“Generally,” he said, “when the situation gets that hostile and aggressive, that’s mostly because one of the parties has just said, ‘I’m not going to do anything – I’m just going to stick to my guns.’ ”
Ruth Moon, (757) 222-5130, ruth.moon@pilotonline.com
Original story posted here.
Ruth Moon 