. - KENTFIELD COMMONS PARENTS PAGE

Welcome to Kentfield Commons Parents Page. This is a private site for parents living in Kentfield Commons. This site is used to share information that is of interest to families in the neighborhood. All parents, both renters and owners, are welcome here.

Homeowners experience with HOA Board Candidate: Roberta Landers
We have lived next to Roberta and Jack Landers since 2011. We were friends, but after a while we noticed that Roberta and Jack Landers were using our “friendship” to control what we did on our property.

The Landers have 4 bedroom house so they have a view from the ground floor bedroom/office, and a small front yard. We only have 3 bedrooms, so we have a view from our living room and a larger front yard.

Roberta Landers made a habit of directing the association's landscapers to cut the bushes between our properties so that it looked like we had a shared front yard. We told her we liked the bushes to grow naturally but she kept saying “Oh I’ll just have them trim them a little bit.” These bushes are on our property but we were young and new to the neighborhood so we let it go for a while.. Big mistake.
On XXX Roberta invited dozens of neighbors to a party on our front lawn. She used both Jade’s name and our address on the invitation - despite the fact that we sent her an email telling her that we would try to attend the part if we were in town, but we did not want to be involved in hosting a party. We did not know about the party until a neighbor told us she had received an invitation. When we asked Roberta what had happened, she tried to convince us to go through with the party as she had planned it. She did not want to move it to her own lawn, or to the park. She made us feel bad for ruining the party. And it an an uncomfortable situation for us with friends and neighbors who were and were't invite to "our party" that had to be cancelled.

On June 21, 2021 Roberta and Jack Landers expanded their driveway and walkway to the lot line. (Possibly over the lot line.) Instead of working with us to restore our irrigation after their renovation. Roberta and Jack Landers directed their personal landscapers and the association's landscapers to install irrigation pipes from their irrigation controller to the middle of our yard. They did this without our permission. A big section of our lawn died. When the landscapers turned on the Lander's irrigation on May 24, 2023 a broken pipe flooded our yard. The Association just spent several thousands of dollars fixing this.
On October 4th, 2021 Roberta submitted plans to remove plants on our property, to plant something she wanted.
On October 11th, 2021 Management reminded Roberta of the property lines.
On March 16, 2022 Roberta emailed us saying she was going to remove those same plants on our property.
On March 17th, Management called Roberta and reminded her not to remove plants on our property.
On March 17th, we met with Jack Landers at his request. We agreed that the property line was the sidewalk. We asked the Jack Landers to work through the HOA if they had any further issues.
On November 1st, 2022 Jack yelled at Jade because we had a sign on our yard. We reminded Jack and Roberta Landers to contact the HOA about any issues in the future.
The Landers asked the managers to send us a violation letter about the yard sign; the managers did. We had to explain to the Board and Management that HOA’s are not allowed to do this in California. The HOA should not be harassing homeowners with illegal violation letters.
On December 23rd, 2022 Jack yelled at Jade when she was planting plants in our yard. She asked him to contact the HOA and repeatedly said "No thank you. No Thank you. No Thank you." Yet he did not leave her alone. She had to retreat to our home to get away from him.
We sent the Lander’s this letter asking them to leave us alone.
On XX I let young families know that the park and front lawns were being sprayed with pesticides. We were all surprised that the HOA sprayed pesticides on our pesticide free park. No signs were posted to let families know that pesticides were sprayed on the lawns and no one has been told exactly what was sprayed. See Kentfield Commons Heath Safety and Sustainability. Many parents were thankful to know this.
On June 6, 2023 Roberta Landers and her friend Suzanne Springs approached Jade and our 7 year old Sierra while they were sitting in our families car preparing to go to school. Suzanne Springs held up their middle finger and walked right up to our car. Roberta Landers and Suzanne Springs put their faces right up to the passenger side window and stood there staring at Jade and Sierra. Jade did not open the window. When Roberta and Suzanne left, Sierra asked "Mommy why are they doing this to us?" Jade explained that, They were trying to scare mommy." and drove Sierra to school.
Later that day Roberta Landers and Suzanne. Springs claimed that Jade glared at them and then tried to run them down with her car. That never happened. We have video showing that things did not happen as they claim.
On June 7th Roberta used these false claims to file a Temporary Restraining Order.

We have told Jack and Roberta Landers that we'd be happy to have have a mutual no harassment and no contact agreement. This is a fair and equitable solution.

Roberta Landers, however, has not agreed to this because she is STILL trying to control what we do on our property. As a condition for signing an agreement: The Landers are STILL trying to exert special control over what we plant on our property - above and beyond what’s specified by our HOA.  There are no grounds for this.

This has caused our young family a lot of unnecessary stress. It is concerning that someone who bullies people like this may become a board member... Personally Our goals are simple:  We just want Roberta and Jack Landers to agree to a mutual no harassment and no contact agreement. We just want them to leave us alone.

Keith

Our advice to new/younger families in the community:

Set firm boundaries early and often. If someone is truly your friend they will respect you and your rights as a fellow homeowner.
Know your rights as a renter or an owner in California HOAs. The laws have changed a lot since Kentfield Commons was built in 1985. Just because someone says "the HOA has always done it this way" doesn't mean it is legal.
The Association Managers and Board members are suppose to follow all State laws and stay stay up-to-date on all current health and safety practices. Unfortunately they often don't. In practice residents often have to point this out and show that what's being done is out-of-date and/or illegal.
Owners and renters can use the information and links on our California HOA Information page.

2023 Update: Kentfieldcommons.com has always been a privately owned website managed by volunteers. Since the HOA has indicated that it would like to own and and operate its own website, we have pivoted to focusing this site on topics that are of interest to families and children in the neighborhood. This site is now managed by a small group of parents. Please note: This is website is not affiliated with the Kentfield Commons HOA. Members looking for HOA information should visit the HOA's portal or website and contact the Association Managers and board members. We share archived documents and forms that used to be on this website with the Association and its current volunteers.