I’m 21 and my sister is 19. We’ve lived in this house our entire lives. Our parents bought this house 27 years ago.
They joined the HOA about 15 years ago. My dad died 5 years ago, mom died 6 months ago. We are now the owners of this house.
We’ve been visited by the HOA multiple times, they’re citing that we’re not a single-family home anymore since our mom has died. They’ve told us that according to the terms, only a single family can be resident in the homes and being single family is defined as a person or couple and their legal unmarried children. This meant that my mom could live with me and my sister as it was a single family according to the definition, but me and my sister living here after our mom’s death means we are two families of single adults.
They want one of us to move out so that this place becomes a single family home again. They’ve visited us FOUR times now asking us to leave. They say they don’t like to sue our of respect for our parents but they will do that if we continue to refuse to comply by the community rules.
Can they kick one of us out of our own house? What should we expect and how can we fight this? Edit: location is Washington state.
TLDR of original post: After our mom died, people from HOA came to me and my sister and told us that we’re no longer a single family and one of us needs to leave. So I first confirmed that they are from the HOA, not just some people harassing us for the fun of it. We also got the CC&R of the HOA, which included a clause about single family and it’s weird definition.
If included partners, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, step parents, step children, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, children of uncles and aunts, children of nieces and nephews, BUT NO SIBLINGS. It even had a clause that said co-owners are not allowed to live there unless they are a single family based on the definition. We also received a letter from them telling us of our violation and demanding us to comply.
