Protest Precedes Trial Against Hispanic Homeowner for Unpaid, Abusive HOA Fines

August 5, 2024 – Featured image from Patch article credited to MuskratPhotos 6/25/24. Updated on 10/18/2024 for corrections.

FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE – August 1, 2024 – Contact: Steven Lapham – Montgomery County Property Owners – Protest Abusive Homeowner Associations

UPDATE: Mr. Segura did, in fact, owe some past “monthly assessments” which he could not pay during the COVID epidemic due to unemployment. HOAs can create great confusion by not providing a clear record to the homeowner of what is owed, and what payments have been received. Read about the outcome of the court hearing and the general issue here and here.

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, August 1, 2024 – Eric O. Segura, a 14-year homeowner in the Quail Valley neighborhood in Gaithersburg and father of a college student, will be defending himself without a lawyer in Maryland District Court on Wednesday, August 7 after being sued by his homeowners’ association for his refusal to pay abusive fines and fees. Homeowners from several other local HOAs will be there to support him.

The Quail Valley HOA is suing Segura for $5,148 for having a bare patch on his lawn.

Steven Sellers Lapham, a blogger who writes about abusive HOAs and is Segura’s neighbor, says the Quail Valley Homeowners Association (HOA) has a history* of imposing abusive fines against its residents, many of whom are elderly, minorities, and/or immigrants who cannot easily defend against vague “property violations,” and cannot afford to pay the fines or hire lawyers.

“I attended a 2021 trial in which the court ruled against the Quail Valley HOA and in favor of the Vietnamese American homeowner, and I hope for a similar decision today,” said Lapham. “Mr. Segura has made every good-faith effort to reason with the HOA board members. He even filed a complaint with the county’s CCOC-–the Commission on Common Ownership Communities–which is supposed to provide mediation. The CCOC provided to him no relief, and no justice.”

“Mr. Segura is Hispanic American. The HOA has barred him, his wife, and their daughter from using the community pool for six summers in a row even though he always pays his monthly dues on time. Preventing this family from enjoying the pool during our hot weather is unfair and inhuman,” Lapham says.

“These are the reasons we want to pack the courtroom with neighbors who support Eric and demand an end to the Quail Valley HOA’s unceasing campaign of intimidation and debt against its own members,” Lapham added.

A protest and press conference is planned for Wednesday, August 7 at 8 a.m. (rain or shine) in front of Maryland District Court, 191 East Jefferson Street, in the City of Rockville. The trial, Quail Valley HOA vs. Eric O. Segura, is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 413.

“After the trial, we will deliver a 10-point online petition to the office of County Executive Marc Elrich and mail it to Governor Wes Moore and our state legislators,” said Lapham. “The petition calls on our elected officials to halt these HOA abusive practices and reform state laws that enable and reward the abuses.”

“We support the Segura family in their struggle for economic justice,” Lapham said. “This is equity theft. It’s time to end HOA intimidation and HOA-generated homeowner debt now, and we hope other homeowners will turn out to protest the abusive HOA system in Maryland.”

For additional background, please visit:

patch.com/maryland/gaithersburg/hoa-denies-community-pool-passes-hispanic-family-six-years-nodx

Petition: Change.org/ReformHOAs    

HOA dysfunction nationwide: www.independentamericancommunities.com

QV HOA history: See the “Living on Cuckoo Court” blogs at Tinyurl.com/CuckooCourt  7/10/2024, 6/21/2024, 6/2/2023, 5/30/2023, 10/21/2021, and 5/12/2021, among others.

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