The State of Homestead Litigation – 2025 Year End
To Homestead Class Members:
The past year was spent finalizing a few unfinished details with the Court. Unfortunately, it took most of the year to get that done.
The reason for the lawsuit remains unchanged:
[1] Homestead residents have no representation regarding their community, including how much maintenance fees will be charged. The issue in dispute continues to be maintenance fees as a form of taxation without representation.
More than 30 years after the Homestead Planned Residential Development (PRD) was formed, its homeowners have no voice in their own homeowner’s association or how their maintenance fees are spent. The Declarant has refused to turn the association and covenants over to the homeowners. We believe that the homeowners should control their own homeowner’s association and covenants. Homestead is the ONLY PRD in Lynden without a homeowner’s association.
[2] There is no accountability as to what maintenance fees are used for.
A large percentage of the maintenance fee is being spent on the golf course instead of Common Open Space maintenance. Homestead owners are subsidizing the golf course without any benefit to homeowners. The owner of the golf course currently has the right to increase the maintenance fee by 5%, or more, every year, regardless of need or where it is spent. He views the declarant rights as his property and claims the right to continue to increase the maintenance fee forever and to spend without accountability.
The following summarizes events in 2025 in more detail.
The Lawsuit
- The Judge
Judge David Freeman still presided over the case.
- Motions and Hearings
In 2025, Class Counsel’s primary focus was returning monies to homeowners who overpaid maintenance fees as a result of the invalid Sixth and Seventh Amendments.
- Funds held in Court Registry – On September 11, 2024, the Court issued its Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law stating that the Sixth and Seventh Amendments were void ab initio. On February 24, 2025, Plaintiffs filed a motion for the release of funds from the court registry to Class Counsel’s IOLTA account so that funds could be distributed to class members. The court denied Plaintiffs’ motion and finally issued an Order on July 15, 2025, stating that the Court Clerk was authorized to release funds but gave no details or methods on how that would happen.
Following a hearing on July 21st, Plaintiffs met with the Court Clerk and together came up with a method for class members to obtain funds. To date, $27,650.98 has been unclaimed and is still held in the Court Registry. Please check the Class Members’ webite to see if you have unclaimed funds. www.Homestead-HOA.org
- Funds illegally collected by MJ Management/18 Paradise – On September 11, 2024, the Court issued its Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law stating that the Sixth and Seventh Amendments were void ab initio. The natural legal consequence of this Court’s judgment requires the Declarant, 18 Paradise, LLP, and its agent MJ Management, LLC, to return all amounts wrongfully collected under the Sixth and Seventh Amendments.
Since no Class Member had received any refund of funds collected by MJ Management for the Declarant pursuant to the illegal Sixth and Seventh Amendments, Plaintiffs filed two petitions asking the Court to grant judgment to require MJ Management/18 Paradise to return class members special assessment and maintenance fees collected illegally. A show cause hearing was held on August 26, 2025 to show why the Plaintiffs declaration should not be granted.
Finally, on November 12, 2025 the Court ruled that the requested relief was “neither necessary nor proper”, and the two petitions for an accounting and repayment were denied. That decision will also be appealed.
Business records produced by 18 Paradise and MJ Management show that the Defendants collected $40,338.00 under the void Sixth Amendment and, from 2020 – 2024, collected $789,147.74 in overpayments of maintenance fees from homeowners under the void Seventh Amendment.
- Motions for Withdrawal – There were 2 motions to withdraw, one from 18 Paradise attorney Ben VandenBerghe (on July 8, 2025) and one from MJ Management attorney Jeffrey Possinger (on August 14, 2025). Both motions were approved.
- On August 18, 2025, the Intervenors filed a motion to hold Plaintiffs’ attorneys in contempt, which was denied.
The Appeal
Plaintiffs’ two petitions for further relief will now form part of the appeal. Due to the delay of the Court in rendering its decision, Class Counsel has had to file motions to facilitate supplementing the appellate record. Accordingly, the deadline for filing the appellate brief will be delayed until January.
The Golf Course
18 Paradise closed the golf course on June of 2023 and it has not been maintained since. Maintenance of golf course infrastructure, including but not limited to the irrigation system, the storm drain system, cart baths, and bathrooms, has never been funded nor done by 18 Paradise.
Despite 18 Paradise neglecting the Homestead golf course, they received 2 offers to buy the golf course, one from Lynden businessman Duane Scholten and another from an alleged Canadian buyer. Both offers were contingent on several things, including (1) that the lawsuit be dropped, (2) that the golf course owner remained the Declarant, and (3) that Homestead residents subsidize the golf course to ensure the owner makes a profit. Neither offer resulted in a sale, and both were dropped.
On September 16, 2025, the golf course was transferred to IMM Capital Advisors, Inc. in a Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure Agreement. The Declarant rights were not transferred as part of the escrowed Statutory Warranty Deed which forms part of the Deed-in-Lieu Forclosure Agreement.
The Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA)
In 2018 the Washington Legislature passed the WUCIOA to standardize the law that applies to condominium associations, homeowners’ associations and other common interest communities such as the Homestead PRD. The WUCIOA took effect on July 1, 2018, and applied in full to all common interest communities created on or after that date, but not to communities (like Homestead) formed under prior laws. However, in 2024 the Legislature adopted Senate Bill 5796, which repeals all prior laws effective January 1, 2028, and makes WUCIOA applicable to all common interest communities thereafter. Also, certain requirements go into effect beginning January 1, 2026. The WUCIOA can be found at RCW 64.90.