LEX 18 Investigates: Small Debt Costs Lexington Woman Her Home

Ingrid Boak did not realize participation in her homeowner’s association was mandatory. It seems like a minor oversight, but it was a mistake that ultimately cost the 75-year-old German immigrant her Lexington home.

The Masterson Station Neighborhood Association sold Boak’s house on Winding Oak Trail last month after she failed to pay six years worth of membership fees – or $48 per year.

Now, Boak is packing up a lifetime worth of memories and keepsakes while she prepares to find a new place to live. Meanwhile, she is renting her home from the company that bought the property, for which she paid $125,000 in 2007.

“I’m paying rent on my own house…” she said. “There is something wrong with that system.”

The homeowner’s association and attorneys sent at least 20 letters, notices and summonses to Boak’s home since 2009, but the some of the mail never reached her, according to court documents. Boak, a horse trainer and business owner, is rarely home.

When letters did reach her, Boak says she threw them away because she thought the homeowner’s association was a solicitous social group, and the $48-per-year was a fee to use the pool. She paid cash up-front for her house, and no one explained to her that the fee was mandatory, she said.

“I’m very cautious how I spend my money,” she said. “If it is frivolous, I don’t go for it.”  Read more: