HOA denying new construction verbally

[ti_evom]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Quick rundown....We're trying to build a new home in an 11 year old subdivision on a lot that was never sold previously. Our builder has twice now tried submitting the plans to the Architectural Committee (one woman) to gain approval. On both occasions she has denied the plans even though they abide by the CC&R. She has only verbally told our builder what she would like changed, but once the changes are made, she still denies the plans. We have a copy of the CC&R which states that the ACC must give a written response within 30 days of plan submission. The CC&R also states that if no written response is given within the 30 day window, the submission is automatically granted approval by default. This woman refuses to give a written response to our builder detailing what is wrong with our new construction plans.

My question is, if we submit yet another set of plans (possibly even notarize the plans to establish a date) and this time send them via certified mail (to capture the date) and she calls our builder back to deny them verbally, could we just wait for 30 days to pass and then tell our builder to begin pulling permits to start construction? If we ended up going this route and the HOA decided to take us to court, would we be in the right seeing that they, by default, approved our plans since no written denial was given to us?

I've spent the last two days searching the web trying to find a similar circumstance of this happening and have found nothing. So any help would be appreciated.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by ti_evom

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Quick rundown....We're trying to build a new home in an 11 year old subdivision on a lot that was never sold previously. Our builder has twice now tried submitting the plans to the Architectural Committee (one woman) to gain approval. On both occasions she has denied the plans even though they abide by the CC&R. She has only verbally told our builder what she would like changed, but once the changes are made, she still denies the plans. We have a copy of the CC&R which states that the ACC must give a written response within 30 days of plan submission. The CC&R also states that if no written response is given within the 30 day window, the submission is automatically granted approval by default. This woman refuses to give a written response to our builder detailing what is wrong with our new construction plans.

My question is, if we submit yet another set of plans (possibly even notarize the plans to establish a date) and this time send them via certified mail (to capture the date) and she calls our builder back to deny them verbally, could we just wait for 30 days to pass and then tell our builder to begin pulling permits to start construction? If we ended up going this route and the HOA decided to take us to court, would we be in the right seeing that they, by default, approved our plans since no written denial was given to us?

I've spent the last two days searching the web trying to find a similar circumstance of this happening and have found nothing. So any help would be appreciated.

**A: everything must be in writing.