Woman struggles to reach HOA after dealing with leaky roof for 8 months

By TOSIN FAKILE

Click here for updates on this story

    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A woman in Nashville said when it rains, it pours inside her home.

She said it has gone on for eight months and that her homeowner’s association hasn’t been communicating when the issue will be fixed.

Instead of home décor, Jacqueline Stephens has had to put containers on top of her kitchen cabinets due to water coming down through her leaky roof.

“It really depends on it it’s really hard rain. I would say I get a gallon of water in a container easily,” said Stephens. “In October, it was almost like turning on a faucet, like turning it up to medium, the water was just flowing.”

Since then, Stephens said she reached out to her HOA, but nothing has been fixed.

“I have communicated with them probably literally over 100 times,” Stephens said. “I have only received one response from one of the people involved with the HOA and that response didn’t really address a lot of things.”

Stephens has been wondering what, if anything she can do to get the HOA to fix her roof.

Attorney Scott Weiss recommended that homeowners can start by reading the HOA bylaws.

“The bylaws usually have a way you can call a special meeting and get a number of homeowners to sign a petition to call a special meeting,” Weiss explained.

But if a meeting isn’t what someone needs and phone calls and emails fail, Weiss suggested sending a certified letter with a timeline of when you expect a response. If there is still no answer, he recommended reaching out to the community associations institute who can help contact board members of an HOA. And in a last resort, a homeowner may need to contact a local attorney.

As for Stephens, she just wants to get her kitchen back to normal without putting a hole in her wallet.

“I will have to fix the ceiling if the HOA doesn’t step in, I received an estimate and was told it could be between $12,000 to $15,000,” Stephens said. “I would like to see done a new roof because that’s what the HOA person told me.”

We did reach out to Stephen’s HOA contact, but they haven’t contacted us before we were able to tell Stephens’ story.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.