A 2019 spat over short-term rentals in a northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood escalated from email arguments, to a homeowner’s bankruptcy and a twice-appealed lawsuit climbing toward potential review by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Adewale “Wale” Tawose, who bought a house in the SilverHawk neighborhood in 2015, contacted the homeowners’ association before using it as a short-term rental in 2019. Working under what Tawose believed to be the HOA’s posted rules, he rented it through Airbnb and Vrbo when he stayed in Texas for work.
Soon, however, Tawose received notice from leaders of the SilverHawk HOA that placing his house on the home-share market violated the neighborhood covenant, even though it did not mention short-term rental arrangements. Both parties held their ground during extended email exchanges and tense discussions.
Eventually, the SilverHawk Homeowners Association filed a lawsuit against Tawose in 2021, arguing that renting his home violated the neighborhood’s restriction on business uses. With Tawose representing himself “pro se” after dismissing hired attorneys, the case went to a bench trial in January 2024, with Oklahoma County District Judge Sheila Stinson ruling in the HOA’s favor.
Further infuriated, Tawose appealed Stinson’s ruling last year. In July, an Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals panel overturned Stinson’s decision in a 2-1 ruling, finding the HOA’s covenant ambiguous and that Tawose’s “use of the property” as a short-term rental cannot “constitute a nuisance or violate the declaration” in and of itself.
“There are two viable interpretations of the covenant at issue,” Judge Gregory Blackwell wrote for the majority. “SilverHawk contends that Tawose’s rental income and profit are evidence of a ‘business;’ meanwhile, Tawose asserts that renting his home to guests constitutes a use of the property for ‘private residence purposes.’ In light of these two conflicting interpretations, we similarly find that the covenant at issue is ambiguous.”
With the SilverHawk HOA appealing that decision to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Tawose’s victory this summer hardly became a reason for him to celebrate. Instead, he is attempting to revive his dismissed countersuit against the HOA and some of its members in Texas, while also bemoaning the process that turned a computer engineer into a seasoned courtroom combatant.
“Over five exhausting years, the very institutions meant to protect homeowners betrayed me,” Tawose said. “In the end, I had to file for bankruptcy to protect my home. This fight drained my resources, tested my faith, and nearly broke my will — all while I worked full time. I endured relentless stress and sleepless nights — the kind of psychological and financial strain lawsuits inflict on anyone caught in the system.”
Covenant disagreement, miscommunication sparked multi-year litigation
After Stinson ruled against Tawose in February 2024, he said he stopped renting his property despite looming financial hardship.
In June 2024, Stinson awarded the SilverHawk HOA legal fees and court costs totaling $152,282. Combined with an assessed HOA fine of $8,258, Tawose said the impact of the judgement forced him to file for bankruptcy.
“They put a lien on my home immediately, even before an order was entered, which they cannot do,” Tawose said. “And what they did is they tried to foreclose on that lien.”
With permission from the bankruptcy court, Tawose appealed the case in April of this year and prevailed in July. When it ruled in favor of Tawose in July, the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals remanded the SilverHawk HOA lawsuit back to Oklahoma County District Court for potential proceedings over whether some specific action from Tawose’s rental efforts had violated the neighborhood covenant.
Before that might take place, however, the HOA has asked the state’s highest civil court — the Oklahoma Supreme Court — to review the rulings because the case “presents a novel legal issue of increasing public policy concern for which precedential authority does not yet exist in Oklahoma.”
Still representing himself in the legal process, Tawose said he is “refusing to let corruption win.”
“My appellate victory, especially as a pro se litigant, proves that persistence matters,” he said. “I speak out now so that what happened to me never happens to anyone else. Justice should never be a privilege of the powerful. It must be a right for everyone.”
‘You will tap out before we do’
The saga sitting at the Supreme Court’s door began six years ago when Tawose decided to offer his home as a short-term rental while working a hybrid job. His work for a financial firm sometimes required him to be present in Texas, and he had a mortgage to pay off.
When Tawose was needed on-site at Charles Schwab in the Lone Star State, he stayed in an apartment nearby. Otherwise, Tawose said he maintained residence at his home in the SilverHawk neighborhood.
Court records outline how Tawose approached his idea.
In October 2019, Tawose sent a message through the NextDoor app to SilverHawk HOA’s then-board president, Autumn Harting.
“I just had a baby last week so am not on my computer these days,” Harting answered. “Your email was forwarded to the rest of the board so that someone else can double check the CCRs and respond. May be a day or two. I’ve been through the covenants backwards and forwards and don’t remember any restrictions on short-term rentals.”
Following Harting’s response, Tawose sent another email to the vice president, treasurer, secretary and director of the HOA.
“My request was for the HOA policy on short-term rental,” Tawose wrote. “I have read covenant restrictions and it doesn’t say it is restricted. I have also gone on the city website and it says it’s OK. I just want to make sure I have [left] no stone unturned as far as what is permitted.”
Amanda Lunsford, the HOA secretary at the time, replied all on the email thread.
“I am not sure if anyone has responded to your request yet, but the HOA does not restrict rental properties in SilverHawk,” Lunsford wrote.
Lunsford later said in her court testimony that Tawose’s question was “vague.”
“He was asking kind of a vague question about if rentals were allowed, and he said he did his own research and didn’t find anything in the covenants. I saw that nobody had responded, and I didn’t like that,” Lunsford said. “I didn’t want him to feel like we hadn’t seen his email or he was being ignored, so I went ahead and answered that question that there is nothing in the covenants that talk about rentals.”
Tawose began offering his home as a short-term rental with restrictions in place to enhance safety, such as running background checks on guests, installing eight cameras around the property, installing a noise monitor and limiting the number of guests allowed to stay at the home to six at a time.
Matthew Winton, the attorney for SilverHawk, told NonDoc he would not comment on ongoing litigation. The HOA members listed on SilverHawk’s website did not return requests for comment.
According to court transcripts, Winton attempted to argue that delays over the discovery process in the lawsuit had been to Tawose’s financial benefit, so he could continue renting the property as months dragged on.
“There’s only one party and one witness that you heard testimony from who’s made money at any moment throughout these proceedings,” Winton said.
Tawose denied that he was profiting from continuing to litigate the case.
“Now he’s mentioned as far as the ‘delay, delay, delay’ in this case. I have no reason to want to delay this case,” Tawose said. “They chose to say: ‘No. We admit we were wrong, but we don’t care. We’re the HOA. We have more money than you do. We will take you to court, and you will tap out before we do.'”
‘I did not realize this was going on’
In his court testimony, former HOA treasurer Mark Grant said he discovered Tawose’s short-term rental around March 2020 when neighbors conversed about a sexual assault that had occurred in another short-term rental in the neighborhood.
“Turns out, the neighbors nearby knew it was being rented out but didn’t say anything. But now we have this sexual assault being complained about,” Grant testified. “So in my shock, because I did not realize this was going on in my neighborhood, (…) I went to Airbnb and Vrbo, which is the competing rental site, and I found three houses in our neighborhood that were being rented out.”
While listed leaders of the SilverHawk HOA did not respond to emails, social media messages and notes left at their homes seeking comment for this article, Grant answered his door and briefly discussed the lingering litigation with NonDoc.
“In Oklahoma City, if you run a short-term rental, 30 days or less, is considered a hotel business,” Grant said Sept. 23. “Our HOA rules say no businesses in the neighborhood. So we sent (the short-term rental operators) a notice that [they] need to stop. All the others that were running stopped. [Tawose] did not.”
Grant said Tawose’s decision to continue renting the house implied that “in his mind, he’s 100 percent right.”
“Which is fine,” Grant said. “He has the right for [his day in court].”
Still, Grant said Tawose should have acquiesced to the SilverHawk HOA’s requests by virtue of buying a property within its covenant.
“If you don’t want to live in a HOA neighborhood, then don’t live in one. Go live somewhere else, because there’s plenty of non-HOA neighborhoods,” Grant said. “So I don’t understand, you know, why? Why would you do this? (…) The smart money would be on just selling the house, getting out of here, settling with the HOA, and just forget we ever existed.”
At trial, Tawose argued that he was following the SilverHawk HOA covenant, which did not prohibit short-term rental activity.
Nonetheless, in June 2020, Tawose received an email informing him otherwise and that the HOA intended to take legal action against him. Tawose contacted Grant and asked to see where in the covenant such rentals were prohibited. Grant replied, citing the section which prohibits commercial use of properties.
In court, Tawose pressed the issue of why his short-term rental constituted a violation.
“Rentals of 31 days or more do not require a business license, and therefore, are not considered a business,” Grant testified. “When you asked initially, [Amanda] Lunsford’s reply was incorrect. We welcome rentals used as residential properties.”
The 2020 email discussion confirmed Tawose held a Home Sharing License from the City of Oklahoma City, since the neighborhood is technically within Oklahoma City’s limits despite displaying an Edmond address. The email exchange closed with Grant saying HOA leaders would be in touch.
Airbn-booming
Short-term rentals are starting to spur stricter regulations nationwide, as well as in Oklahoma City. Usually facilitated through Airbnb or Vrbo, these rentals can reduce the supply of permanent housing in local markets and have contributed to housing shortages by inflating rental rates.
Large-scale developers purchase residential property with profit in mind, as short-term rentals can generate three times the profit of long-term renting, according to Bloomberg.
In June, the Oklahoma City Council raised the cost of a short-term rental license from $300 to $1,100. The council also added software to identify unlicensed rental hosts.
Tawose said he did not receive further communication from Grant, so he continued renting. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grant testified that SilverHawk leaders assumed Tawose had closed his short-term rental, which caused a period of silence between Tawose and the HOA.
Grant testified about his own adherence to the SilverHawk covenant’s rules during the pandemic.
“During COVID — my husband is a hair dresser — all salons were closed down,” Grant said. “We do know of some of our friends who also were cosmetologists, and they actually operated out of their home, but we didn’t. We knew that it wasn’t allowed, and the extra traffic wouldn’t be allowed. So basically he shut down his business.”
In February 2021, Tawose received a lien warning letter informing him of $1,375 due in fines for covenant violations.
After months of back and forth between Tawose and board members, the SilverHawk HOA filed suit in November 2021. By then, Grant had left his role as HOA treasurer owing to additional responsibilities at his job, and Brian Bowman succeeded him.
Bowman testified he attempted to check SilverHawk for Airbnbs before purchasing his home, but he said he encountered a technological snag.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to work the Airbnb website. I didn’t know that pins on the map on Airbnb are not exactly where the house is, so I thought there were no Airbnbs in our neighborhood when we purchased our home,” Bowman said. “They were pretty prevalent in coastal Virginia, where we had moved from. It was most certainly a problem there that they were used for college parties quite often. There was always some type of police bust going on at them that you were reading and hearing about on the news, so I did not want to be anywhere near that.”
Bowman further testified that the ongoing litigation put off improvements to the neighborhood.
“We’ve held off on adding any real amenities to the neighborhood that people are asking for or fixing our current amenities,” Bowman said. “We’ve tried to not spend any of the money we use for the owners because of this (litigation).”
Lunsford, who lived behind Tawose, also testified to guests in the home being a nuisance. Lunsford said different groups of people would come in and out of the home on weekends, hosting parties, drinking and smoking marijuana.
Though Lunsford said she did not report Tawose because she does not like to “ruffle feathers,” she testified about safety concerns for her children while Tawose’s guests used his backyard.
“I don’t want to be [in my backyard] with random people,” Lunsford said. “If they’re not there, that’s fine. But when they are there, ‘No.'”
As Tawose waits to see whether the Oklahoma Supreme Court decides to hear SilverHawk’s challenge of his Court of Civil Appeals victory, the Nigerian native is left to wonder about the “American dream” he spoke about during his trial.
“Now what is this case about? On Jan. 15, 2015, I bought a house — an American dream everyone would want to have. And the only mistake I made is I had the audacity to rent my home,” Tawose told the court. “This case is not about it being a business or not a business. This case is about dictatorship.”
