New Hanover County Man in a Battle With His Homeowner’s Association

NEW HANOVER COUNTY–Eddie Gilsinan is in a tight situation. he lives in Whitney Pines
sub-dividion and works for Phillips Towing Service, a company that assists emergency crews in removing cars from crisis situations. When he’s on-call, he brings his truck home. According to Whitney Pines homeowner’s associtation guidelines, he can’t park it there.

“It angers me, it really upsets me,” Gilsinan says, “I feel that I pay for my mortgage and I should be able to do what I want with my property”

The guidelines state that commercial vehicles are not allowed to park there. Gilsinan faces a one hundred dollar fine per day if the truck stays. In an effort to have the rule changed, he took his situation to the streets–asking neighbors to sign a petition to change the rules.

“Out of the 21 neighbors that I spoke with, 20 of them signed it.” Gilsinan says.

Alan Sundy lives across the street and signed the petition.

“I don’t have a problem with it at all it’s not an eyesore.” Sundy says.

Even so, the association denied his request. HOA guidelines state 90% of the neighborhood has to agree to amend a rule, just for the board to even consider changing it.

A representative of the Whitney Pine’s HOA issued this statement.

“Remember that these associations have been set up to help the
communities achieve their goals.

Often these goals include safety, security, protection of assets and
improvement of property values. these are goals worth working for.”

Gilsinan Says he doesn’t plan to follow the guideline.

“I’m going to keep on bringing my truck home,” Gilsinan says, “This is my
livelihood, this is the career path I chose to go through and I’m not
going to change it just because a board has denied my request.”

Gilsinan wants to warn people to read the fine print before joining a homeowners association.