Exclusive | Texas homeowner wins $100K after nightmare 6-year battle with HOA over tiny backyard office

A Texas homeowner’s fight to build a tiny backyard office spiraled into a six-year legal nightmare for the neighborhood’s homeowners association — which now faces a bill topping $153,000 after losing in court.Masha Davis wanted to construct a modest 160-square-foot office behind a home in the Davis Spring subdivision in Austin, Texas, back in 2020.But the homeowners association rejected the proposal, The Post has learned, setting off a bitter legal battle that ultimately ended in Davis’s favor.As of Nov.5, the association owed approximately $153,264 in attorney’s fees, court costs and interest, according to calculations provided by Davis’s attorney.

Interest is continuing to accrue at roughly $34 a day.The association represents about 570 homes, and Davis says residents still haven’t received a clear explanation of how the judgment will be paid.“It’s their association and their money,” Davis told The Post.The dispute began in July 2020, when Davis submitted plans for a detached backyard office measuring just 10 feet by 16 feet, with a roof height of 9 feet, 6 inches.The proposed structure would have electricity and air conditioning but no plumbing, and Davis said it would not have been visible from the street.The homeowner, who had retired, planned to use the building for consulting work and as a separate space where family members could isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic.But the HOA’s architectural review committee rejected the application, citing the structure’s height and concerns that it could function as a separate dwelling in violation of the community’s single-family housing restrictions.Davis argued that the height restriction wasn’t included in the architectural guidelines legally in effect when the application was submitted.The homeowner sued the association in January 2021, launching a legal fight that would stretch across multiple court rulings and an appeal.In August 2022, a Williamson County district court ruled that the ...