A Texas man’s attempt to get back into his home was dashed on Aug. 20, 2026, when the Ninth District Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s refusal of Sereivandy Kim’s request to force his homeowners association (HOA) to return his home.
Kim was fighting multiple battles at once, according to MPA Mag, as he tried to reverse a 2022 foreclosure order from Cedar Woods Community Association, Inc., which started the process after Kim allegedly fell behind on his dues.
According to Kim, he was never properly served the right legal paperwork, which he says should have prevented the process from getting as far as it did. Unfortunately for the homeowner (who represented himself in the case), a judge threw out his request, saying that he was suing the wrong party.
That’s because it wasn’t the HOA who technically foreclosed on his home. That was his lender, Guild Mortgage Company. Thankfully for Kim, it doesn’t sound like all hope is lost quite yet, since Neeley still has a quiet-title and wrongful-foreclosure claims ahead of him. That being said, it seems like there’s a whole lot more red tape to cut through before he has any hope of sleeping in his own home again.
The HOA Filed an Order of Foreclosure in 2022 Over Unpaid Dues
There are so many horror stories about HOAs foreclosing on homeowners over unfulfilled financial obligations, and it sounds like that is exactly what happened to Kim. And while the court documents shared on the txcourts.gov website don’t spell out exactly how much Kim owed at the time the foreclosure process was started, you have to imagine it was enough to get the ball rolling.
According to the outlet, Kim’s home had been sold through a deed of trust’s power of sale, which then allowed a substitute trustee to sell the home to the highest bidder in 2022.
After that, the property changed hands again when it was sold for around $300,000, and is now held in the name of an LLC that doesn’t appear to be linked to Guild Mortgage or the HOA. This is part of why the court found the association couldn’t be forced to hand back a property it no longer possessed.
Why Does It Seem Like So Many HOAs Foreclose?
Stories like Kim’s serve as a cautionary tale for some homeowners who may be thinking about defaulting on their dues when money is tight. According to an August report from the Wall Street Journal, HOA foreclosures are becoming more common in recent years as cash-strapped associations work to keep their own coffers full. The outlet said that HOA-related foreclosures jumped 40 percent in two years, with a noted increase in associations cutting grace periods and jumping directly to legal action when homeowners default.
And homeowners may not have too much protection when it comes to these procedures, since HOAs often spell out what happens when you default in the paperwork homeowners have to sign when they purchase property within an association.
Of course, we only have a glimpse of what’s going on with Kim’s case, which still has several lawsuits in the works. But this still serves as a reminder of the importance of keeping up with your HOA dues when you buy one of these properties, since even a small lapse can create a snowball effect that could have massive consequences.