Tensions are mounting at Drax Hall Country Club in St Ann as a number of homeowners accuse the gated community’s homeowners association (HOA) of poor governance, and lack of transparency and accountability, a situation they claim is so severe that it has forced some residents to sell their properties.

“We have been having challenges with successive boards because of a lack of training or personality issues. They refuse to follow proper governance of an HOA,” homeowner Dr Tanika O’Connor Dennie, who also served as a board member in 2021, told Observer Online.

“It started with the board that I was on, where they selected the chair, and she unilaterally blocked all of us from the email. We didn’t know what was going on. We couldn’t see the books,” O’Connor Dennie continued. “They had a clique, which was about five of them, and they would do pre-meetings to decide on things, and then the other two of us that wanted greater transparency and communication would not be privy to the information.”

According to O’Connor Dennie, the current board, which is led by chairman Andrew Sewell, continues to operate in a similar manner, with only a few individuals having access to financial information.

“We are still going down this road where it’s personality-based. So, rather than being professional, when you ask for transparency and accountability, they start doing personal attacks,” she alleged. “Things like using their personal emails to do things and using the resources of the community for their own personal benefits, and they don’t really see anything wrong with it.”

O’Connor Dennie further alleged that the voting process to elect board members and a chairperson is flawed and involves a proxy system where board members canvas uninformed homeowners.

“The board members who live in Jamaica and live in the community, they go around and collect proxy votes from people and the people they usually collect the proxy votes from are not involved in the WhatsApp groups, so they don’t know what is happening there. They are writing their own names in the proxy votes that the person is voting for, and that is how they advance their election,” she explained.

What’s worse, according to O’Connor Dennie, unresolved infrastructure issues combined with the alleged lack of accountability of those in governance could hurt the reputation of the community.

She claimed there have been long-standing structural issues, including a damaged wall at the location that is in need of repairs, which has been brought to the board’s attention, but little action has been taken.

“Draxhall is a very quiet community. It has a lot of potential. It’s gorgeous, but because they put personality above professionalism, they’ve shut out board members that are truly brilliant who would have benefited the community, and there are some long-standing repairs [not] happening as yet because of it, and we’ve spent money unnecessarily,” she said.

Another homeowner, Sandra Williams, expressed frustration over what she indicated was a 35 per cent increase in maintenance fees over a short period without any visible improvements in the work being done in the community.

“We are querying why our landscaping bill is $420,000 per month, when it is our workers who are doing most of the job. They just have one guy who comes in, cuts the lawn, and then our guys scrape, blow, bag, and so forth, and we’re paying $420,000. So there are so many things shrouded in secrecy when we ask for transparency,” Williams said.

“We’re badgered, pickled, and gaslit on the chat, and that is it. If you see the road coming in, it’s such a beautiful community, but it’s just so terrible. We’ve been asking for it to be fixed,” she continued, adding, “Our maintenance went up, we were at $8,500, it went up to $10,000, just recently it went up to $13,000, and nothing is changing much. We honestly can’t see where the money is going.”

According to Williams, many homeowners feel powerless and frustrated, despite repeated letters and complaints aimed at improving governance within the community.

“People come back to call this home, and people have sold their homes because of the toxicity. They sold their homes not for profit; they sold it because they can’t deal with the toxicity. Some people don’t bother to come; they just rent the property, they can’t be bothered. It’s very toxic,” she said.

Meanwhile, attorney-at-law Misha Powell, who is also a homeowner at the gated community, told Observer Online that she moved to file a lawsuit in 2025 against Draxhall Country Club Limited and several current and former directors, seeking accountability for what she describes as ongoing governance breaches.

“I have filed a lawsuit against the directors. It’s currently still in litigation. It’s making its way through the courts. I really just want people in Draxhall Hall Country Club, mainly the directors, to take their jobs seriously. I want them to realise that when you don’t follow the laws, and when you don’t follow procedures, you can be sued, and that suit could result in monetary penalties,” Powell said, adding “I think unless there’s a stop to what’s going on, we’re just going to continue to dig ourselves into a deeper hole.”

Some of the issues at the complex, according to the US-based attorney, include a collapsed perimeter wall and a sewage challenge she said has been identified years ago but still unresolved.

“We have some major structural issues. We had a wall that collapsed on one side of the community. In fact, I think the board at the time was warned that there were some structural integrity issues with that wall, and [Hurricane Melissa] took it down. So now that area is compromised. As far as I know, it’s been creeping up in the air, and nothing has been done,” she alleged, noting that the board refuses to hire an engineer to address the issue.

Additionally, the attorney said: “We had a sewage issue that I brought to their attention many years ago. It’s been over four years where we had someone look at that sewage area and determine that it needed to be addressed. At the time, I was a director, and we reached out to the developer. We reached out to NEPA [National Environment and Planning Agency]. We reached out to a whole bunch of people asking for advice on how to address the sewage area, and then when I passed on the torch to the next board, I told them this was a major issue that they needed to address and deal with, and it just fell to the wayside. As far as I know, nothing has been done.”

Powell is calling for stronger legislation and oversight to protect homeowners of gated communities, especially as more Jamaicans living overseas look to return home permanently.

“Jamaica needs to come up with comprehensive gated community laws,” Powell said, adding “it’s very disappointing to see what’s been happening in that community.”

Multiple phone calls and messages from Observer Online to the chairman of the Draxhall Country Club, Andrew Sewell, went unanswered up to the time of publication.