I forced a meeting of the Board of Directors to finally put an end to this little brouhaha. They seemed loathe to have a face to face meeting with me, just preferred to sic their hired dogs and lawyers on me. Well, I did my research and also consulted a lawyer re: powers of Home Owners Associations and what can be done when they exceed them. Fortunately in Texas much is given to property rights and rights of property owners. Except in cases of Eminent Domain, laws are to be intepreted with a bias to being as liberal as possible to the property owner's rights. Fore-warned is to be fore-armed so I met with the B.O.D., the property manager and their lawyer. The lawyer wanted to dominate the discussion and of course, tried to intimidate me with legal jargon, quoting the law, and such like. I stood my ground, as I am not in violation of any restriction or covenant. The lawyer then changed tack, telling me that "12 or 15" other homeowners had complained about my truck and shouldn't I be concerned for their sensibilities? My response was that 12 or 15 of 86 homes puts them in a minority and no, I wasn't the least bit concerned about their opinions of my truck. I also informed them that I welcomed any legal proceedings as I would win handily and that there would be a counter suit which they would lose. One of the B.O.D. chortled that they are personally protected from paying any award, a fact which I knew from my tenure as president. My response to her was that even though the B.O.D. wouldn't have to personally pay, I'd make sure I was at the general meeting when they explained to the other homeowners why they all had to pony up X number of thousands of dollars to pay for losing a frivolous lawsuit. Further, I told all of the B.O.D. that I would subpoena every last one of them and that they could enjoy testifying in court instead of going to their jobs, maintaining their households, or whatever activities they usually did. That seemed to shut her up!
The upshot of this stupid little squabble is that the B.O.D. will have to craft a new restriction that prohibits my truck without interfering with the rights of other truck owners in my neighbourhood, all the while not appearing to target one homeowner which would smack of prejudice and harassment, thus leaving them open to a law suit. I anticipate they will drop this matter, but look forward to enjoying their efforts if they don't.