Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia

In Georgia, an HOA is formed by recording the covenants in your county land records. If there are recorded covenants, it is likely that the HOA was in fact formed. I'm doing a lot of reading between the lines, but it seems the issue you are really dealing with is that there is no one running the HOA at this point, so there's no one around to govern these issues.

Typically, the original developer of the community acts as the Board of Directors of the HOA. This fact is memorialized in the recorded covenants for the world to see. Until control of the HOA is turned over to the property owners, the developer typically has broad discretion to operate the community. The timing of the turnover to the property owners depends on the language of the covenants, which I don't have at my disposal, so I can't comment on when or how that would happen.

Until control of the Association is turned over to the property owners, your neighbors cannot force you or your lessee to tear down the fence in the name of the HOA. Only the developer, acting in his capacity as the Board of Directors of the HOA, can do so.

If the neighbors continue to pursue this, I would strongly recommend that you hire an attorney to, at the very least, spend a couple hours reviewing your covenants. I have a lot of experience dealing with HOA matters and I think you will find my rates to be extremely reasonable compared to other real estate attorneys in Atlanta. Good luck!

This message is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship.