A DeKalb County couple who say they were blindsided by thousands of dollars in old homeowners association charges are now fighting to save their first home from foreclosure, even as new records raise broader questions about the finances and leadership of the community where they live.
Atlanta News First investigative reporter Anastassia Olmos reported that Tatiana Pimentel used her life savings to buy a home in the Whitehall Forest East Condominium Association in 2024, only to learn less than a year later that the HOA was seeking nearly $8,000 in dues allegedly owed by the previous owner and never disclosed to her at closing.
Since then, attorney fees and additional assessments have pushed the amount the HOA says it is owed to roughly $20,000, according to Pimentel, while the association itself is carrying a $5.1 million past-due water balance with DeKalb County.
Couple Says The Charges Were Never Disclosed
Pimentel and her fiancé, Obren Cicmil, told Atlanta News First they spent months trying to find an attorney willing to take the case after the foreclosure action began.
The couple said they contacted numerous lawyers without success before Olmos first featured their case as part of the station’s “HOA Nightmares” investigation.
That report eventually reached DeKalb Pro Bono, where attorney Candace Sneed decided to step in.
“I was shocked,” Sneed said, explaining that she could not understand how a homeowner could potentially lose her property over assessments she said she had never been told about.
DeKalb Pro Bono does not typically handle HOA disputes, but Sneed said she could not watch the case proceed without someone representing the couple.
“We searched for other private firms to take on the representation, and we couldn’t find anyone,” she said. “So I made it my own project, because I can’t watch a homeowner lose their property without their day in court.”
Sneed also questioned the HOA’s accounting, saying the ledgers she reviewed did not appear to support the total amount being claimed.
“The truth is in the data,” she said.
Insurance Money May Cover Dues, But Not The Entire Demand
Pimentel said her title insurance company provided money that could help cover the older HOA balance, and she has kept that money set aside in case it is needed to prevent foreclosure.
The problem, she said, is that the amount does not come close to matching what the HOA is now demanding once attorney fees are included.
“They say we owe like $20,000,” Pimentel told Atlanta News First. “I don’t know how we owe them $20,000, but that’s what they say.”
The couple appeared in court on Aug. 24 and asked for a jury trial.
Nicholas Castricone, an attorney representing the Whitehall HOA, opposed the request, and the judge postponed a decision so she could review the case more closely.
The dispute is now about more than whether some dues were technically unpaid. The much bigger question is whether the association can foreclose on a home for charges the current owner says she did not know existed, especially when the final demand has grown so sharply through legal costs.
Questions Surround The HOA’s Leadership
Olmos also examined who is currently running Whitehall Forest East.
Dean Heard is acting as president of the association, but Atlanta News First said it could not find residents who remembered voting him into that role.
Homeowner Barbara Francis said she had never received a notice about an election or meeting that would explain how Heard became president.
“I have never had a flier in my mailbox saying, ‘Come to this meeting,’” Francis said.
Heard declined an on-camera interview but told Atlanta News First that he was never elected by the community. He said he had been vice president when the prior president was removed and then took over the position.
Records reviewed by Olmos show that Heard filed a police report in 2022 accusing the former president of diverting $3,550 in closing costs from a property sale into a personal business account rather than the HOA.
Heard told police at the time that he believed the previous president had been handling residents’ money that way “for a while,” although he said he did not know how much money may have been involved.
State HOA records, however, do not show Heard as having been formally registered as president.
Community Owes $5.1 Million On Water
The financial condition of the association itself has also become part of the controversy.
Heard told Atlanta News First that roughly 60% of homeowners in the community do not pay their dues, leaving the association without enough money to cover basic expenses or repair ongoing problems such as leaking pipes.
A DeKalb County spokesperson previously told the station that the HOA was paying only about $1,000 to $2,000 toward its monthly water bill.
The unpaid balance has now climbed to approximately $5.1 million.
Because water has continued flowing to the community, Olmos reported that other DeKalb County customers are contributing to a shared fund that helps keep the service operating.
That makes the contrast in Pimentel’s case especially notable. The HOA says it is owed money by a large share of residents, yet records reviewed by Atlanta News First showed that fewer than 10 of about 100 homes had actually faced liens or foreclosure actions since July 2025.
Heard told the station that he does not decide who receives foreclosure notices and said those decisions are made by the HOA’s attorneys.
More Records Raise Questions About Heard
Olmos also reported on police and state records connected to two properties Heard owns inside Whitehall Forest, although he does not live there.
DeKalb County police have responded to those addresses at least 26 times since March 2024 for incidents that included tenant disputes, assault claims and welfare checks.
Several police reports from 2017 through 2025 identified Heard as the owner of group-home operations, while state records showed that investigators substantiated complaints in 2017 that he was running unlicensed personal care homes.
Heard told Atlanta News First that he is now in compliance with the rules governing his current tenants.
Those records do not decide Pimentel’s foreclosure case, but they add another layer to a dispute already centered on questions about governance, financial oversight and who has the authority to enforce HOA rules against homeowners.
New Georgia Law Comes Too Late For This Case
Sneed said a new Georgia HOA law is intended to create more oversight around financial records and the enforcement of fines, but it will not fully take effect until January 2027.
That means the reforms will come too late to directly help Pimentel and Cicmil in their current case.
“I’m so grateful that the laws have been changed, not soon enough to impact Ms. Pimentel, but hopefully for the next homeowner,” Sneed said.
The couple is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 23.
Castricone declined to comment after the recent hearing, while Heard told Olmos that “everything is done in accordance with the bylaws” and added that Pimentel is “the problem.”
For Pimentel and Cicmil, the immediate issue remains whether they can keep the home they bought with their savings while challenging charges they say should never have followed them from the previous owner.
The larger dispute, however, now reaches well beyond one foreclosure case, because the association trying to collect from them is itself millions of dollars behind on a basic utility bill and facing growing scrutiny over its leadership, finances and enforcement practices.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
