A yard sign (Obama for prez) led to a 400k court fight....
By Justin Jouvenal, Published: February 9
The feud that consumed Fairfax County’s Olde Belhaven would span four years and cost the community as much as $400,000, and it was ignited by one of the smallest of sparks: an Obama for President sign.
The modest placard Sam and Maria Farran planted in their yard during the 2008 election put them on a collision course with the neighborhood homeowners association. It was four inches taller than the association’s covenants allowed.
“Need I say more! This would lead to chaos,” a neighbor fretted in an e-mail about the precedent that would be set if the sign wasn’t removed. “Our property values would be put at risk.”
Such HOA disputes are as suburban as cul-de-sacs and two-car garages, but few metastasize into legal battles that spend years in the courts, break legal ground and bankrupt the HOA.
Most damaging of all, though, was a move probably unprecedented in area neighborhood feuds: The common area that is the literal and metaphoric heart of Olde Belhaven was put up for sale last year to settle its debts. It appeared that “the square,” as some called the neighborhood, would no longer have a square.
“It destroyed our community,” Maria Farran said.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fairfax-homeowners-group-humbled-by-court-battle-with-residents/2013/02/09/d46f9bec-6652-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_story.html
Stupid HOA.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Really the most unlikeable people at the library, by far. Full of themselves and their big-fish/little-pond power trips. 
Who would want to live with such anal neighbors? 
should sue the HOA, which was certainly not acting in their best interests.
To spend that much money (!?) fighting the "bad" homeowners--OMG absurd.
But this is Murka, where people have nothing better to do.
