RULED BY THE HOA MAFIA!
The National HOA Scam is as close to ‘all things Mafia’ as it gets. Get it through your skulls, people! Homeowners Associations are organized crime. It used to be illegal to go door to door threatening to break glass, bust up a business, scare customers if the business owner didn’t pay his weekly extortion to the mob.
An interesting book in my past reading was “Jimmy the Weasel.” You don’t have to read the book. Just read the Wiki article linked below about the life of Jimmy Fratianno, mob boss of the West Coast. And see if his kind of extortion isn’t an exact parallel of the crap that goes on in Homeowners Associations. Threats, extortion, property damage, mob-controlled living environment. The most powerful story, though, is about the homeowner in Sarasota who was victimized by her HOA mob.
You think I’m exaggerating? Read the links below!
(link to background of Mafia boss Jimmy The Weasel. He should have been an HOA board member)
Some of the comments on the Sarasota article cite not being on the Board as the problem. I take issue to that because many of us have work and other constraints that prevent us from being on the Board. For example, I work nights and would have to take vacation leave to attend every Board meeting. Realistically I am NOT spending all my vacation days on HOA business. Sorry I am not. When I suggested meeting electrically or setting up some type of online forum for residents to discuss issues online I was met with hostility and “that’s not possible.” Whenever I do take time off from work to attend a meeting the Board chides us for not coming to meetings or for coming to meetings only to complain. This whole setup is wrong. We shouldn’t have to come home from work to MORE WORK.
The Hoa president in the community I live has been harassing me since I’ve moved in and bought this condo on 2012. My friend and I have discovered that over 40 thousand dollars is not reported in the yearly budgets. The board members own properties they rent out but they have not reported the rental income in years. The president and other unscrupulous board members have lied repeatedly forging serious malicious false accusations just to force me move out. They’ve started sending bills with illegal fees trying to force me to pay, they have destroyed and removed bushes and plants although the rules say that owners are entitled to have plant in the mulch non grassy areas they’ve refused to fix things and replace the bushes trying to blame me for the damage. They have towed our car for no legitimate reason. Abusing and selective enforcing! Tyrannical! They have made our lives a hell spreading false gossip about us trying to get the community against us even going door to door to recruit people against me. I am currently facing arbitration because of these evil and greedy lying board members. They are like a mob yes the president was found with a gun in the local airport. I’ve never seen dishonesty greedy and evil like in this condo community in Dr. Phillips Florida.