More and more Homeowners Associations around the country are actually demanding and getting police powers. Most homeowners are standing idly by and letting it happen.
In Illinois, in Colorado, in Florida and elsewhere HOA boards are purchasing traffic radar equipment and handing out speeding tickets. Fines against speeding homeowners can run anywhere from 50 to 3500 dollars! All by itself, that’s an outrage. But like gasoline thrown on a campfire, HOAs are actually fining homeowners when their guests are caught speeding!
As crazy as it seems, a case bubbling through the court system in Illinois has actually made it to that state’s supreme court.
Homeowner Ken Poris lives in the Lake Holiday Property Owners Association. Four years ago he was issued a ticket for going 34 in a 25, and he’s been fighting it ever since. He wasn’t pulled over by the cops. He was pulled over by the HOA’s private security guard. The guard even confiscated Polis’s driver’s license. The Lake Holiday HOA claims it has an unrestricted right to fine homeowners, EVEN IF THE HOMEOWNER HIMSELF WAS NOT IN THE CAR!
This private security guard’s radar was not even licensed as required by federal law.
Something has gone seriously awry in the American Homeowners Association Movement. If you, Dear Reader, are not screaming from the rooftops about this fraud, this complete collapse of Constitutional rights, then you will mightily deserve the society you get!
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/39/3956.asp
If you think that’s bad, here in Virginia HOAs are allowed to have their own police departments. Meaning guns, badges and arrest powers!
How are your HOAs incorporated there? Private non-profit corporations? Towns? Some other entity?
A private non-profit corporation is like Goodwill, or the Alzheimer’s Association. Can you imagine Goodwill employees or Alzheimer’s Association volunteers walking around with guns, badges and arrest powers? Sounds like a great new sci-fi movie. Anyway, my question in the top line is a serious one.
Lake Monticello isn’t a municipality so I think they’ve got to be private. According to their website “Lake Monticello’s Police officers are appointed by the Circuit Court and have full arrest powers and responsibilities. Police officers must successfully complete the Virginia mandated training prior to receiving State certification as police officers.” How they get away with that I don’t know but when I heard about it I was amazed that an HOA could have it’s own cops (rather than mere security guards).
I am suing my HOA because it “invented” the power to fine residents here. I am waiting to hear whether the courts in Massachusetts are willing to take this up…will keep you posted!
Sorry to hear about your conflict. Lots of HOAs are “inventing” those powers, but a close look at the by-laws may show that they do have the power to “enforce” covenants. Before you throw money at lawyers, however, it might save you a bundle to see if any Massachusetts courts have made rulings favorable to homeowners. I appreciate your fighting spirit, but a lot of people (including me) have wasted money on lawyers who will take you for a ride if they suspect you’ll be willing to ride.
I have spent very little as I am doing this pro-se. I can send you the section of the brief covering the fine issue if you like.
There have actually been two very good decisions by the Supreme courts of Virginia and Rhode Island that declare HOA fines to be un-constituional. I cite them in my brief.
Fines are a governmental power, and that power should NEVER be delegated to private groups such as HOAs. When an HOA attempts to foreclose on a homeowners property to collect those fines, it violates the Constitution….at least in those two states. I hope that Massachusetts soon follows.
I understand that you will be appearing on the radio show On the Commons.
I will be tuning in to listen!
Mike Reardon
Hi Mike. I hope you like the book. It should be in your hands momentarily. Yes, the Virginia decision was a great one. I still need to read the Rhode Island decision. The HOA in Virginia is an extremely troubled one, and needs to be investigated top to bottom. How can an HOA not provide each and every member with dollar for dollar acountability?
I am looking forward to reading your book. As far as how HOAs have become so out of control, look no further than the lawyer who is embedded in the system like a tick.
The Community Association Institute, with 57 chapters across the country, actively lobby the legislature of every state to maintain the status quo of no oversight, regulation or constraints on HOAs. The few laws that apply to HOAs have no enforcement to accompany them, rendering them useless.
The CAI represents not a single HOA, but the service providers, primarily lawyers who profit from the system.
The CAI firm here in MA brags on their website that they represent almost 4,000 CIDs in the Northeast.
It is reprehensible that these bottom feeders can “buy” (or prevent) legislation so easily.
There is a 40 billion dollar cookie jar in these CIDs across the country, and the CAI will fight tooth and nail to keep anyone from minding the store.
The CAI vigorously promotes nonsense propaganda about how wonderful these places are while the equity in our homes and the money in our wallets fuels the entire pathology.