I'll take "world's biggest asshole" for $500.......

[patgund]

There are some people that really need a good swift kick in the nuts followed by a massage with a crowbar.

Chick Edwards is one of those people.

Kennewick reservist faces threats over landscaping

"Burke Jensen moved to Kennewick about a year ago, bought a nice house in the country south of the city and began to settle into a new job at Energy Northwest.

Then came the call five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait.

So Jensen, who says he is an involuntarily mobilized reservist, headed off, leaving behind a pregnant wife, a young son and a 2.5-acre lot with not a spot of landscaping.

Now, Lt. Jensen is being told to get an irrigation system and landscaping on his property as soon as possible or face legal action from the Oak Hill Country Estates Homeowners' Association."

You would THINK, if you had the brains Goddess gave a potted fern, that Burke Jensen would have a pretty damn good excuse, right? Enter Chick Edwards, the developer and the only member of the homeowners association.

""I really don't give a [expletive] where he is or what his problem is," said Chick Edwards, owner and developer of the 47-lot subdivision at the south end of Oak Street in Kennewick.

"It doesn't matter to me," said Edwards, who insists Jensen has violated terms of the homeowners-association covenants requiring that landscaping be completed within one year after an occupancy permit is issued for a home."

(Snip)

"DeAlicante said he has written Edwards to tell him the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act prevents any civil legal action from being taken against someone on active military duty overseas. He also maintains Edwards cannot legally prevent Jensen from renting his property.

But Edwards said he isn't backing down.

"This is a contract. I don't like the way his property looks. This clown gets to do what he wants, and I'm as mad as hell," he said."

Dude, getting called up as a reservist and sent overseas is NOT "GETS TO DO WHAT HE WANTS" YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!!!!!

Thankfully, it looks like the community got pissed off by Mr. Edwards and is doing something about it:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/kennewick_pasco_richland/story/340754.html
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/kennewick_pasco_richland/story/342029.html

Comments

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

It never ceases to amaze me how people find new and intriguing ways to make life even more miserable for Reservists. Thanks for posting this.

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

hmm I think you're too kind.

I'd probably want the developer in question signed up as an involuntary reservist too - and let people in basic training know what the guy did..... and then ship him someplace where he's unlikely to cause any trouble, like Baffin Island or the like.

[loli-cat.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately if the place has a homeowners association you must abide by their rules and regulations or get fined. And the fines can be arbitrarily punitive.

When you buy a property in a homeowners association you don't get a full 'bundle of rights' as a property owner - the association holds some of them ie: what you can & can not do to your property. In exchange you pay dues to the association and get services in return like lawn mowing, snow plowing, trash removal, etc as well as upkeep of common areas.

When this guy bought his property he should have known that he'd be required to put in that irrigation system by a certain time period. Either that or he didn't listen or read the papers at the property closing.

As far as renting the property, the association may very well have a regulation against it.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

And as the article says, he left money and signed a contract with a company to do just that - install landscaping and an irrigation system. They ran off with the money and didn't complete the job. Sounds to me like he made every reasonable attempt to comply under the circumstances.

None of which excuses the total asshattery of the single-person "HOA". Dismissing the fact that the property owner has been called into service as a military reservist by saying "This clown
gets to do what he wants" is pretty major asshattery

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

Actually, the HOA's covenants do not require any landscaping or irrigation at all, just a three rail white vinyl fence around the perimeter of the property. The only thing it says about landscaping is what kind of trees are not allowed, trees and shrubs are not to be over 20 feet high, and all outside lighting must be shielded so it doesn't bother the neighbors.

They do cover themselves by saying "these rules are not all inclusive", but it sounds to me like one guy is running everything and making up rules as he goes.

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

Fuck that guy. Let it go to court, crush this fool with the SCRA, and dissolve the Homeowner's Association.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

Did you see the part where he said he had "a bad hair day" the day he made that clown comment? I'm pretty sure the state of his hairdo isn't a valid excuse for what he said, let alone what he's done. I have no use for people like that.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was a major CYA move. I think he would have done himself better by saying "I screwed up, I shouldn't have said that".

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me, I hate HOAs