Sun City Anthem resident battles HOA

Norman McCullough has become a 76-year-old pain that won't go away for Sun City Anthem's homeowner association board members.

He's been feuding with them for years about cracks in the concrete foundation and stucco walls of his 8-year-old, Del Webb-built villa home, cracks that have been identified as construction defects by two law firms.

"Yes, we have construction defect issues, and yes, we are upset and mad about it," McCullough said as he pointed out stress cracks and crumbling exteriors on homes in his neighborhood. "But the real story here is not about the defects in our homes. It's about a board of directors who are more sympathetic to Del Webb's financial well-being than they are for the Sun City Anthem residents."

The association hired a contractor to fill in the cracks and paint over them, but not before McCullough took 44 photographs of damaged villa homes on Peoria Avenue, where he lives, and around the block on Harrisburg Avenue.

The HOA is forcing homeowners to pay for those repairs with reserve funds that are intended solely for maintenance of the community, McCullough said.

He pays about $940 a year in association dues for upkeep of common amenities such as the swimming pool and recreation center. Another $1,040 in neighborhood fees goes toward water bills, garbage collection and landscape maintenance.

"But there's no money in there to pay for Del Webb construction defects," McCullough said. "They had no business using our money to repair those. The association disavowed responsibility for the foundation and slab. What are they doing spending my money putting paint and putty on the foundation?"

Pulte Homes, which acquired Del Webb in 2006, has denied that any problems exist. Calls to the community manager and the president of Sun City Anthem for comment were not returned.

The codes, covenants and restrictions, or CCRs, at Sun City Anthem cover only the outside part of the home, yet McCullough said he still had to pay $500 to replace defective plumbing that ran from an outside valve to a water pipe in the wall.

Bob Frank, a former HOA board member at Sun City Anthem, agreed with McCullough and left the board after a rift developed over philosophical differences with other members.

"It's not about the cracks. It's about arbitrarily deciding to cover them up," Frank said. "You should not cover up the evidence unless you ask each homeowner. They have the right to say paint it or not. That was my big argument. Even when people were yelling about it, they did it anyway. So the attitude of the board members is, 'I don't care about you.' "

Frank said the HOA unfairly raised assessments by $500 a year and accumulated a surplus of nearly $5 million. A large portion of that money should be refunded to residents, he said.

"We are not just a bunch of old troublemakers," McCullough said. "We are seniors who are being abused by the system. What our board of directors has done to us is called retaliation because we dared to question their decisions regarding our dues and our rights. We have had enough and we want the world to know it."

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.