Author: john.mitchell

The woman across the desk was the same office manager who had told me four years of my payments had gone to a closed account. I asked her to pull …

THEY HAD BEEN CASHING MY PAYMENTS FOR FOUR YEARS, BUT SOMEONE HAD CHANGED EVERY CHECK BEFORE IT REACHED MY ACCOUNT Read More

My daughter called the board again and asked who had authorized the inspections, and this time she didn’t accept “the inspector acted within policy” as an answer. She asked for …

THE INSPECTOR WHO KEPT PHOTOGRAPHING MY HOUSE WAS THE MAN WHO LIVED BEHIND ME, AND HE SAID SOMEONE ELSE HAD ORDERED HIM TO DO IT Read More

The account wasn’t Earlene’s. The name on it belonged to a man none of us recognized, and when we asked Earlene who he was, she said she’d been told years …

THE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION HADN’T EXISTED FOR TWENTY-ONE YEARS, BUT SOMEONE HAD STILL BEEN COLLECTING EVERY DOLLAR Read More

The landscaping company was the part that made the retired auditor stop smiling. He asked the woman who had pulled the bank records whether the board had ever approved a …

THE BOARD SAID THE WATER BILL WAS MISSING, BUT SOMEONE HAD BEEN MOVING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OUT OF OUR ACCOUNT EVERY MONTH Read More

The middle initial made my stomach drop because it was mine. Not my full name, not a similar name, mine with the same middle initial I had used on every …

I RESIGNED FROM THE BOARD, THEN DISCOVERED MY OWN SIGNATURE WAS BEING USED TO APPROVE CONTRACTS FOR A COMPANY I DIDN’T KNOW EXISTED Read More

The chairman’s notes said the other applications were approved because they were “temporary medical accommodations,” which was exactly what mine was. I asked my lawyer to pull the original applications …

THEY APPROVED TWO OTHER RAMPS IN A WEEK, BUT DENIED MINE FOR A REASON THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RAMP Read More

I wrote down the plate and waited until Monday because I didn’t want to accuse somebody based on a guess. The architectural review committee has five members, and I knew …

THE PERSON TAKING THE PHOTOS WAS ON THE COMMITTEE THAT KEPT FINING ME, AND HE HAD BEEN USING HIS POSITION TO WATCH MY HOUSE FOR TWO YEARS Read More

The member’s name was a lawyer I’d seen at association meetings before, but I’d never known he had any connection to the developer. His name was on the LLC filing …

THE PLAYGROUND WAS SOLD FOR ONE DOLLAR, AND THE PERSON WHO RECEIVED IT WAS SOMEONE THE ASSOCIATION HAD HIRED TO PROTECT US Read More

The treasurer’s name was the one I recognized. She had been the woman who sat beside the developer at the closing when I bought my house, and she’d been on …

THE VOTE THAT APPROVED AN $11,000 FEE NEVER HAPPENED, BUT SOMEONE HAD ALREADY SIGNED FOR EVERY HOMEOWNER Read More

I drove to the address listed on the violation report because I wanted to see the property in the photographs for myself. It was three streets over, and the yard …

THE PHOTOGRAPHS THE ASSOCIATION USED TO FINE ME WERE TAKEN FROM A YARD THAT WASN’T EVEN MINE Read More