INDIANAPOLIS — Massive potholes that are more like craters aren't getting fixed in one south side Indianapolis neighborhood anytime soon. The problem is confusion over who actually owns the road.
On Thursday the city told RTV6 the neighborhood's Homeowner's Association privately owns the road, except — the residents say there's no HOA in the community.
"Since 2008, at least since I bought it, there's not been an HOA, we've never had an HOA," Darshan Soni, a Green Lea Acres homeowner, said. "As far as I know, there hasn't been one since the construction of the neighborhood."
However, the city property records say its owned by a homeowner's association called 'Green Lea II Homeowner's Association Inc.,' but state records show that HOA hasn't existed since 2008.
"Not really getting any sort of answers. Just kinda, 'maybe you should just fix it yourself' is the basic response that I'm getting at this point," Terri Gimbel, another Green Lea Acres homeowner, said.
The city won't fix the road because they are not allowed to use road dollars on private property. The city says this is a rare issue — but they say they legally can't do anything about it.
Now, what's left for the residents in the neighborhood to do?
"Just because it's administratively dissolved does not mean the associations cease to exist, those documents, the covenants still run with the property," David Jacuk, with Tanner Law Group — whose team specializes in HOA related issues — said.
Jacuk says the covenants still exist and still stands even though the old association doesn't exist. According to Jacuk, the community needs to restart the HOA.
"The board can decide to be self-managed and make decisions on their own," he said. "They could retain a property management company who will collect assessments for them, or they could petition for a receiver who will get the association back on track."
From here it will be up to the homeowners in the area to deal with the potholes on the road.
