By Andy Sevilla
Homeowners of an east Kyle neighborhood who learned in April they had liens put on their properties per a 2005 agreement can rest a little easier.
The Kyle Council Tuesday night approved an ordinance declaring a 180-day moratorium prohibiting the enforcement of liens put on homes in the Bunton Creek Village subdivision.
Homeowners were slapped with a $4,600 lien in March, and it was only discovered after one resident tried to sell his home and learned the assessment had to be paid before finalizing the sale.
In July 2005, Kyle granted C4D-I, Ltd developers a Public Improvement District (PID) to issue debt on the backs of future homeowners to build infrastructure for the planned Bunton Creek Village subdivision. That November, just four months after the PID was approved, C4D-I sold its PID interest to PID Holdings, Ltd, the company now responsible for collecting the annual assessments.
“I had no objection to paying the PID (assessments) if it helped the community,” Bunton Creek Village homeowner Stuart Tony Pacheco told council during citizen comment at a May 6 meeting. “What I have an objection with is — paying a PID is a fact that it is what I have to do, without penalties, is fine — but paying to someone who used predatory practices to obtain the PID and put liens on our homes and take the money.”
“I’d rather have my money go to the city, than to some shyster’s pocket,” he said.
The city resolution that created the PID stated that the debt issued to make improvements for the Bunton Creek neighborhood would be paid down through financial assessments of no more than $3,202 (excluding interest) tied to each home in the subdivision over a 30-year period. Homeowners were expected to pay about $207 annually, or could pay the full amount up front.
Now, however, homeowners have said they knew nothing about the PID or its financial assessments, and were never charged an annual bill.
“This affected our entire neighborhood,” said resident Mark Decker, the homeowner who found out about the liens when he tried to sell his home. “If we had known about this, this would not have been an issue. If we had received a letter saying, ‘you need to pay this much a year,’ — non-issue. We didn’t receive any of that.”
On March 17, Robert P. Wilson, the PID manager filed $4,630.46 liens against homeowners in Bunton Creek Village, according to Hays County Clerk records.
On Aug. 2, 2005, Kyle entered into a management agreement with Wilson, a Boerne-based attorney, for the purpose of managing and maintaining oversight of the PID. Homeowners told council Wilson never sent them an annual assessment bill, and had never heard of the attorney until he filed liens against their properties.
“(The PID) was not managed properly,” Decker said. “There were communication errors. The city didn’t receive the proper information. The city didn’t send out proper information.”
Bunton Creek Village homeowners submitted a petition to city staff seeking the dissolution of the PID. City Attorney Ken Johnson said more than 50 percent of the property owners signed the petition — the threshold necessary to ask for the PID’s dissolution.
“We have submitted this petition to dissolve this PID,” said neighborhood resident Diane Decker. “This has nothing to do with us not wanting to invest in this community. It has to do with this petition, and this PID that has been implemented and somehow put on our plate without us knowing it … No one (knew) anything about this PID until this one community member tried to sell their house. Somehow that’s not right.”
During the 180-day moratorium, the liens are not enforceable and collection of the assessments is prohibited. In their ordinance Tuesday, the council affirmed that the management of the PID, per the provisions and requirements that created it, has not been complied with nor has been contravened, “thereby invalidating said assessments and liens and harming the public welfare of the city’s residents and citizens.”
