2026-08-21 · Delaware · Courts

A Kent County homeowners association reached 99% conveyance and stayed under developer control for two decades with one director; lost its corporate existence for years of unpaid franchise taxes; and, on the allegations before the Court of Chancery, continued to invoice owners and sign cheques on its account after that sole director died. On May 20, 2026 the court allowed the case to proceed.

Colston v. The Greens at Wyoming Homeowners Association, C.A. No. 2024-0063-CDW, is a report by Magistrate in Chancery Wright denying both the homeowner's motion for default judgment and two defendants' motion to dismiss.¹

Read this caveat before the facts

The court states expressly that it “has not engaged in any fact-finding,” and that it read a self-represented plaintiff's filings with “forgiving eyes.” Everything factual below is an unproven allegation. We are not naming the individual defendants; they appear in the public caption, and the allegations against them are unadjudicated.

What is alleged

The Greens at Wyoming, in the town of Wyoming, is governed by a recorded Declaration of Restrictions tasking the association with operating and maintaining the community's common areas and stormwater management areas, enforcing deed restrictions, and collecting assessments.

The community is at 99% conveyance. Per the complaint, the association has nonetheless remained under declarant control since its formation in 2005, with a single director. It was voided by the State in the latter half of the 2010s for failure to pay annual franchise taxes; its last franchise-tax report was filed in 2015.

The alleged conditions: trash in ponds and on streets; stormwater ponds and ditches out of compliance with State requirements; unpaved or incomplete roads; missing traffic and safety signage; unmaintained common areas; inconsistent budgets given to different residents; and a $44,329.59 loan taken against the association whose purpose the plaintiff wants identified.

The Town of Wyoming's mayor wrote of “many years” of resident complaints and “a general dereliction of duty on the part of the developer in its stewardship of a neighborhood it profited from developing.”

1. Colston v. The Greens at Wyoming Homeowners Association, C.A. No. 2024-0063-CDW, Report Denying Motion for Default Judgment and Motion to Dismiss (Del. Ch. May 20, 2026) (Wright, Mag.) ↩
2. 25 Del. C. ch. 81, subch. III — Management (§§ 81-303 declarant control, 81-307, 81-308, 81-318) ↩