2. Unpermitted Parking in Motor Courts
The issue of unpermitted parking in the motor courts of the Willow community is of utmost significance to us as it has led to unsubstantiated accusations of harassment and threatening behavior and threats of arrest and legal action by the builder, Meritage, and property manager, Keystone, which have stripped us of all sense of peace in less than 4 months since taking possession of our new home (this is detailed in the post titled "Why is Parking in the Motor Courts Such A Problem for Us?).
As I explained in my first post, the homes in Meritage's Willow community revolve around "motor courts". The CC&Rs for Live Oak unequivocally state:
"there shall be no parking of any vehicle within the Motor Courts... temporarily or otherwise" (page 24)
Unfortunately, it is evident that this rule has not been clearly communicated by Meritage, Keystone, nor the HOA to Meritage's employees and contractors, vendors, and community residents and guests since most folks are under the impression that 5 to 15-min or even 30-min parking stints (as per a Meritage contractor in the video below) are permissible.
The following links redirect to recent encounters in the motor court which took place on June 3, 2025 around lunchtime and were captured on a body camera which I have been forced to wear since the blindsiding May 1, 2025 phone call from Meritage Sales during which I was accused of harassment and threatened with arrest if I "continued to drive away Meritage's business".
Conversation with Owner of 2099 Bergamot re Parking in Motor Court
Conversation with Meritage Employee Re Parking in Motor Court
As I understand it, the "temporarily" in "there shall be no parking of any vehicle within the Motor Courts... temporarily or otherwise" unambiguously addresses that 5, 10 and/ or 30-minute parking stints are not allowed in the motor courts. Having said that, at this point, we remain unclear as to whether homeowners are, in fact, permitted, as both the owner of 2099 Bergamot and Meritage Customer Service Rep, Hector Estrada, assert in the previous clips, that the motor court may be used for loading and unloading of, say, deliveries and move-ins. We have no one to ask since I have been prohibited from directly corresponding with the community's property managers at Keystone (see Cease & Desist Letter) and have no contact info (despite my request) for Board members.
Mr. Estrada is a nice person overall, but we lost confidence in him early on as as we found that he is not well-informed regarding the community's rules and has a tendency to misspeak- e.g., he thought car washing in the motor courts was permitted (it is not) and that HOA enforcement would increase as more folks moved in (it will not - the HOA conducts enforcement 2x per month which will never increase to every 2 hours, as Mr. Estrada suggested... You should have seen his face when I informed him of this fact!) Incidentally, Mr. Estrada mentioned that his own community in Murrieta, CA is managed by Keystone and that he, too, has issues with the company - in his case, issues related to Selective Enforcement and not- as in ours- a lack, thereof.
I will detail my specific grievances with Keystone Property Management in a separate post as I feel it is imperative to share that information in an effort to help others who, like me, find themselves in a situation in which their reputations are being willfully and maliciously undermined with grossly distorted narratives and unsubstantiated accusations. This is precisely the type of unethical behavior that compels me to rebut the false narratives of Meritage, Keystone and the HOA in the greatest detail possible. I maintain that I have not harassed nor threatened anyone in my new community and intend to continue to share that Meritage, Keystone and the HOA erred in their rush to accuse and threaten me with arrest, quite possibly in an attempt to cover-up for their own negligence in enforcing the community's parking rules. We have seen this before and know how it will play out and are fully prepared to defend our interests. In the words of Jackie Robinson, "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me..." In this case, "respect" means enforcing the community's rules and "doing your job".
It is mind-boggling and incomprehensible that a company would approach its customers with serious accusations but no corresponding opportunity to discuss these. We believe Meritage Sales and the HOA fucked-up royally... i.e., there should have been a formal investigation that factored-in our account before judgement was passed against us. To be perfectly clear, my husband and I were never invited to participate any discussions regarding the alleged reports made against us (which we requested and for which we have yet to receive a reply... likely because no reports exist!).
As I stated previously, we have little context regarding the accusations made against us by Meritage and the HOA. They mentioned a real estate agent in their Cease & Desist letter, so we decided to approach the only real estate agent we'd had conversations with about the issue of unpermitted parking in the motor court. This individual happens to be the owner of the property across the motor court which is a rental. Per the video that follows, he denied making any accusations against us:
Conversation with Real Estate Agent re His Alleged Accusations
Going back to the issue of parking in the motor courts, we do not understand why others do not consider the consequences associated with parking in front of our respective garages in the motor courts. We thought this was common sense, but it's probably because we have prior experience with shared driveways and understand that strict adherence of CC&R parking rules is the only way to make shared driveways work. I should add that visible signage also helps.
My approach to any action I take- particularly, in a communal setting- is "How would I feel if everyone did the same? ... And, more importantly, what are the consequences of everyone doing the same thing?" So, for example, how would I feel if I parked in front of my garage in the motor court and then my neighbors did the same... and, more importantly, how would that play out in, say, an emergency situation in which there was a need for emergency vehicle access into the motor court?
I don't know whether the width of all motor courts in the community is the same, but I do know that if all 6 sets of homeowners in our court used the space in front of our respective properties for parking, we would have a problem with egress/ ingress from/ to our respective garages and, most certainly, negatively impact an emergency vehicle's access into the motor court.
I'll share another recent emergency situation: I had to call 911 due to a fire in my neighbor's backyard on May 19, 2025. My neighbor left an unattended pot on her outdoor grill which turned into a fire before my eyes. The same thing happened here- the fire department had to contact me for precise directions because they were unable to locate my neighbor's property because, as stated earlier, house numbers in the Willow community are not visible from the street. I ask again, What if there had been parked vehicles in the motor court that were blocking the fire department's access to our neighbor's property?
I cannot believe that I find myself having to write about things I see as matters of common sense... and then I am reminded of George Carlin's stance on the intelligence of people: "Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that half of them are stupider than that!" If you haven't watched the late George Carlin's performance on stupid people, I highly recommend it:
George Carlin on Stupid People
You can call me a "Karen" because I complain about aluminum foil in the windows of brand new homes in our middle class development, motor court parking that contraindicates the community's CC&Rs, and fires due to unattended grills in my neighbor's backyard. I take no offense to that designation and promise not to accuse you of harassment for any less-than-flattering opinions and/ or the tone you might employ when expressing said opinions. I do have to caution, however, that if you yell at me (as Cara Garcia of Meritage Sales foolishly did), I will probably yell back. Anyway, as I see it, it is my right and duty to raise my concerns about legitimate community issues and I intend to continue to do so until these are definitively addressed by Meritage Sales, Keystone Property Management, and/ or the HOA Board.
I would argue that, contrary to the HOA's Cease and Desist letter regarding my communications with Keystone, filing legitimate complaints - however numerous- is not tantamount to harassment. As for the HOA's claim that the volume of emails I have sent (see post titled "Emails to Keystone Property Management") significantly interferes with management's ability to conduct the business of the HOA--- uh, helllooo?! ... I am not emailing regarding personal issues! The emails I have taken time to prepare and send are directly related to the community and, therefore, the business of the HOA of which my husband and I are paying members. Furthermore, though my tone may not be the sycophantic one preferred by Meritage Sales, Keystone Property Management, and the HOA Board, a tone of exasperation is, likewise, NOT tantamount to harassment nor threatening behavior.
I need to be clear in that my sole purpose in communicating with the HOA/ property management company is to report issues that are clearly contraindicated per the community's CC&Rs and affect our household and/ or detract from the aesthetics and appeal of the community. As an interior design aficionado, I am fully invested in the appearance of my community. Having said that, if I, personally, did not have to do the reporting, I'd be in a much better place, as I would most certainly prefer to be rearranging my furniture than preparing spreadsheets and Violation Reports for the management company on any given day! Unfortunately, judging from the aluminum foil that's been covering the window of one of the homes facing the street for the past three months, it looks like I'm on my own.
Yikes! It appears I've gone off on a tangent and started ranting. Aside from memorializing our horrible experience in maximum detail, however, that IS one of the reasons for this blog... i.e., I need to vent and blogging is proving quite the therapeutic exercise. Nevertheless, my husband and I decided that it would probably be a good idea to also contact Kaiser to see if it offers stress-management support. Sigh.
I'd like to move on to a detailed discussion of why the matter of unpermitted parking in the motor courts is such a sore spot for us (see post number 3).
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