The litigation

Jeffery Dean Atkins and Dennis Ray Simpson v. Hot Springs Village Property Owners Association, No. 63CV-24-477, was filed in Saline County Circuit Court on April 9, 2024. It is a putative class action alleging the POA violated the Declaration. It remains open.

The docket shows an answer filed in May 2024, a notice of hearing in January 2026, entries of appearance in March 2026, a motion to substitute counsel in April 2026, and — the entry worth noting — an order of recusal on May 13, 2026, the case having previously been before the 22nd Circuit, Division 3. Plaintiffs are represented by Colin C. Heaton and C. Burt Newell; the association by Amy Cannon Markham and Johanna Baker Wade of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings.

We have not obtained the complaint, so this column is not characterising the specific allegations beyond what the docket records, and no ruling on the merits has been reported. A recusal is a scheduling event, not a signal about outcome.

The wider question these numbers sit inside

The perennial Hot Springs Village dispute is assessments on unimproved lots, and the fee schedule shows why. An owner of a vacant lot pays $618.96 a year and consumes almost no services. In a development platted at a scale the market never absorbed, thousands of such lots exist, and the arithmetic of who subsidises whom is the argument that keeps returning.

Arkansas law does not resolve it. There is no state statute governing planned-community assessments; the recorded Declaration is the authority, and Arkansas courts construe restrictive covenants strictly, resolving doubts in favour of the free use of land, while reading plain language for its plain meaning. That places a great deal of weight on the specific words of the instrument, which is exactly where a case like this ends up.

What else the board did this year

The POA adopted new Residential Rules and Regulations on February 25, 2026, with corrections at sections 2.6 and 2.7, and a revised Policy Guide on March 25, 2026. Both are board-adopted instruments rather than amendments to the Declaration, and both are the layer where day-to-day architectural and use rules actually live. Owners tracking what changed should read the corrected sections rather than the summary.

The fee schedule also carries a $50 rental registration fee — a reminder that the Village registers rentals, which matters for anyone letting a property short term.

And a question the Attorney General was asked about the Village

In December 2025 Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin issued Opinion 2025-052, at the request of Representative Richard McGrew, on whether Hot Springs Village could become a water authority under the Water Authority Act as amended by Act 736 of 2025.

His answer draws a line that applies to every Arkansas association: the Village itself cannot, because as an unincorporated community it has no legal status at all. The POA might, because it is a nonprofit corporation. Two conditions gate it — a factual finding by the Natural Resources Division Director that the POA supplies water “to or for the benefit of members of the general public,” which is doubtful where it serves only Village residents, and, for formation as distinct from conversion, a second joining entity.

If it happened, the POA would gain eminent domain, tax-exempt bonding and ad valorem exemption for its water projects. Nothing indicates it has been pursued.

What to watch next

Three things. Whether a new judge is assigned in Atkins and the case reaches a certification ruling — class certification, not the merits, is the decision that would matter most to the membership. Whether the 2027 fee schedule, due around December, applies the escalator again or the board seeks a member vote for a step increase. And whether the water-authority question is ever put to the Natural Resources Division, which would be the first real test of how the amended Act treats a member-serving association.