Nearly a dozen residents who live in Laurel Glen subdivision in Oakwood say their Homeowners Association board has “gone rogue,” wielding its power to “target” and “retaliate” against them and others in the neighborhood.

Since then, Thomas said that “everything seemed to erupt from there.”

“(The harassment) came as soon as I pushed back and started questioning them,” she said, mostly through emails to the board.

Many of the violations, she said, are unwarranted and retaliatory in nature. The specific violations, she said, don’t appear in the HOA’s covenants. Some of the violations include:

In April, Thomas replaced withered plants with mini junipers in the ground and submitted a property modification request. Her PMR was denied after the board ordered her to provide receipts. That came four months after they were planted, and she had long discarded the receipts.

• She received a $50 fine for placing those plants in pots — which she said 14 other homes also had.

• A $100 fine for repainting the trim of her home the same white color it had been.

• A $100 fine for a fig tree that had been planted two years prior — which the board finally rescinded after she provided a digital receipt she had to hunt online.

• A violation for “four spots of crabgrass” in her yard before the lawns turned green in the spring, told by the board that she “needed to provide paper receipts” that she had her yard chemically treated.

• A violation for “obnoxious offensive behavior” — unrelated to her property.

In March, without a neighborhood vote, Laurel Glen’s HOA board hired management company Southern Property Management to serve as a mediating third party between residents and the board.

Some of the residents now say the company has instead served as an enforcement arm of Laurel Glen’s HOA, routinely patrolling the streets in a black F-150 Ford truck and scouting for potential violations.

Brandon Puckett said the board has refused to release their contract with SPM “because it’s ‘proprietary’” information. He said neither the company nor the board will release the HOA’s annual budget.

In audio Thomas recorded from a Zoom meeting between residents and the board in February, Ellen Spaeth is heard boasting that an unofficial motto of the company is they’ll “do anything for the (HOA) board except go to jail.”

Terry Allison, who hasn’t yet received a violation, said the board is being “selective in who they’re targeting,” and that he has pots on his property like Thomas but was never cited.

Allison also said the frequent allegations of “harassment” by board members has forced him to install cameras on his property.

“Anyone could be next,” he said. “If you question the HOA, they’re coming after you. That’s why I’m here – because it does alarm me.”

‘Every day I’m worried’

There are a slew of police reports, photos and footage from doorbell cameras documenting disputes and incidents between the board and residents.

In October of last year, 25 Laurel Glen residents convened at Oakwood Community Center to discuss ongoing issues with the board. That’s when Dan Spaeth demanded entrance to the community center.

An email that Lt. Jay Ivey sent to Meah Kent before the meeting indicates Oakwood police were aware of the tension between residents and the board.

“Just a quick update,” Ivey writes. “The HOA board members are not going to show up at your meeting on Tuesday. That being said, I will set up an extra patrol of the area during the meeting.”

Resident Gary Trenton, who organized the meeting, called police after Dan Spaeth showed up at the community center that day and was ordered by an officer to leave.

In footage provided to The Times, Spaeth is seen returning to Trenton’s and Thomas’ home the following day, shouting and waving erratically in the doorbell cameras of the two homes.

Aponte was in Arizona when he saw the footage streamed from Thomas’ camera. He called Oakwood police and was told there “was nothing illegal about it, but that it was just odd behavior.”

“Every day I’m worried about what they’re going to do,” Trenton said.

Hatch said officers have responded to calls in Laurel Glen “more frequently than other areas,” but most of those incidents have been civil and not criminal.

“I’ve never seen anything come across my desk that indicates there’s any actual bonafide threat,” Hatch said. “I can’t take anything away from somebody who says they feel threatened … but it’s not risen to that point where we’ve been required to take law enforcement action, yet.”
 

Legal action

Thomas sought legal counsel to counter what she considers unwarranted property violations in April, hiring HOA attorney Quintin Carr. She can no longer afford Carr’s services after the HOA board retained Atlanta-based Leganza and Johanson in response — the second attorney the board has hired.

The board has since levied a $500 special assessment fee on all 39 homes in the neighborhood to cover legal bills – and an additional $2,880 on Thomas. On Friday, Thomas was notified that she has 15 days to pay the board’s attorney’s fees or a lien would be placed on her home.

Thomas and the others said they feel their only recourse is to move out of Laurel Glen, where homes range between $400,000-$490,000 in value.

“It’s their board, not ours,” Puckett said. “We want peace in the community, but at the end of the day, I just want these people to leave us alone.”

JD McCall, a 93-year-old Marine Corp veteran who lives in Laurel Glen, said he fears what the growing hostility could lead to.

“I’m seriously afraid that somebody’s going to get hurt physically,” he said. “The tension is taking a toll on me. It’s affecting my emotions.”

Hatch said his department is “committed to providing the quality, professional law enforcement services that all of the residents would expect.”

“I don’t want anyone up here to feel like they're being neglected by the police department,” he said. “We’re still performing our functions to the best of our ability, and we’re not going to stop doing that.”