The Pleasant Valley West
Your Property Rights

ALERT: PLEASANT VALLEY CLUB WEST RULE CHANGE UPDATE:

In July of 2023 the Board of Pleasant Valley West Club, Inc., a private club within the community of Pleasant Valley West,  implemented a new rule that affected all of their members.  The rule attempted to stop new home owners and anyone who changed their deed in any way, from renting their property for less than 30 days.  While they tried to lead current owners to believe it didn't affect them, this rule actually targeted all property owners in various ways.    Well, it backfired in a very big way. 

It has recently been determined that for many, if not most property owners, membership in the Pleasant Valley West Club, is NOT mandatory.  For them, it makes Pleasant Valley West Club purely, a basic road association, which makes them responsible for maintaining the roads and the recreation areas.  Whether membership is or is not a requirement was established long ago in the original deed covenants by the original developers.  Regardless of the requirement, everyone is required to pay a pro-rated share of road and recreation area maintenance.

Since it's been discovered that many, if not most, owners have NO REQUIREMENT to be a member of the Pleasant Valley West Club, a group of owners have asked the court to affirm this.  This attempted rule change restricting owners from private use of their property for rentals by a simple bylaw change has been, for all intents and purposes, invalidated as established in other recent HOA related cases before the courts.   And if you're not a member of the HOA, none of their rules or restrictions apply anyway.  This is where it backfired, as interest in club membership will surely be affected.

For a short time, while the rule stood, it significantly impacted the value of the properties effected by this bogus restriction, as it impacted an owner's ability to sell to the broader vacation home market, as most buyers are vacation home buyers.   Coincidentally, the current board is made up of full-timers, so their interests are not in align with the majority of property owners in the community. 

As a non-member, there are no covenants or restrictions through the private club of Pleasant Valley West Club, Inc. that would apply to you.    This means that all regulations and codes that impact or apply to you are only regulated by Penn Forest Township, not through this private club.   Not being a member better allows property owners to maintain all of their legal rights without restriction by a fickle, fleeting, or biased board of directors, now or in the future.

Recently the board put this in the newsletter (see article below).  It's a poorly worded explanation of a long-standing wrong that a group of owners are now trying to correct on behalf of themselves and the community at large.  By the tone of the article, it implies that these owners are doing something surreptitious or underhanded.   The truth is, the Club has been deceitful and/or ignorant for fifty years in making membership a requirement, and taxing each new owner at the time of purchase ( i.e., resale certificate, capital improvement fees), and then yearly with membership dues, all WITHOUT CONFIRMING whether membership was a requirement.  Fifty years of this bad policy is coming to an end this year.

So what brought all this to light?  The HOA's attempted rule change to restrict the rights of property owners, and not even discussing it with the membership at all before enacting the rule.

What happened next?  It triggered confused and angry owners to research this.  They obtained full deed abstracts and had them reviewed by an attorney, which then revealed what the "Club" knew or should have known all along, that many owners are NOT required to join the "Club". 

And just to give you a sense of the scale of this problem, of the nearly 50 properties that were researched, only four had any kind of requirement to be a member of the "Club."  The rest were/are simply required to pay a pro-rated share of the actual cost of road and recreation area maintenance.  Now that doesn't mean there's a lot of savings for anyone not a member of the club, but there is a lot more freedom.  Non-members are not subject to their arbitrary rules, such as not being allowed to place a real estate sign on your property when you want sell your house.  You're also not affected by a biased board of directors, who are strangers to most of the community members, making decisions that affect your property values.

 If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail us.

And if you're wonder why vacation homes and vacation rentals are so important to everyone who invests in the Poconos, read this.

 Pleasant Valley West Property Owner's Group.