All those board members and lawyers are having another annual convention, all at the expense of homeowners across the country. This time they’re gathered in the shadow of ‘the Sleeping Giant’ in Scottsdale, Arizona. Only the best for our CAI, right?
You’d think they could save some money by holding their convention in a motel in Boring, Oregon. But, no, they desperately need to spend homeowners’ money in the fanciest resort in the U.S.
To legislators at the state and federal level, and housing policy makers, CAI (Community Associations Institute) presents itself as the sole authority on HOA issues, and an advocate for homeowners. In reality, CAI is a trade group that represents the interests of businesses that serve – or exploit – homeowners and residents in mandatory associations.
CAI’s recently published white paper on Association Governance reveals its true agenda – to perpetuate blind acceptance of the Association Governance as the only viable housing institution, and to simultaneously create an ever-growing need for “expert” services of managers, attorneys, and various HOA service providers.
Here’s a link to my own blog site where I take an in-depth look a few of CAI’s outrageous assumptions and objectives:
Dissecting the CAI white paper manifesto on Association Governance (part 1)
Dissecting the CAI white paper manifesto on Association Governance (part 1)
Ok, folks. Here’s an opportunity for CHPPI and state advocates across the country to fight against this sickening example of propaganda and help support bills in FL that will limit excessive fees and abuse of consumers.
NOTHING that is written in the most recent Community Associations Institute / Community Advocacy Network press release (referenced below) represents the truth.
The only “advocacy” promoted by CAI and CAN is self-advocacy for their own profit potential.
We can blow this out of the water by exposing who is behind CAI and CAN — management company CEOs and prominent law firms that make their living off of Collection services, document production services, and enforcement of covenants, restrictions, and rules.
Take note that the Business Partner’s Council membership just so happens to include Joseph Russo, owner of GetDocsNow.com – one of the industry’s corporations that directly benefits from charging unlimited fees to provide documents that are needed or required as part of the real estate sales process and title search. What a coincidence!
The premise of the CAI-CAN argument is that fees for providing necessary HOA financial disclosure information should be unlimited, and that the buyer should pay up front, so these charlatans can be assured of getting paid.
And if the buyer won’t pay up front, and the closing doesn’t happen — possibly because the buyer balks at paying artificially inflated liens on the property — then the poor homeowners will have to pick up the cost. After all, the industry fighting this bill certainly does not want to eat the cost themselves! Their Association document disclosure service is SO valuable, right?
And let’s use common sense. What affects the bottom line more for homeowners: covering some of the association’s costs for providing timely and accurate disclosures documents or dealing with thwarted sales related to excessive or surprise closing costs involving liens heavily padded with fees and collection costs?
Aren’t HOA members harmed when delinquency rates remain high due to the fact that sellers cannot unload their homes because buyers won’t pay hefty liens (and then risk being billed for more after closing)? Don’t lenders avoid financing condos and homes in associations with high delinquency rates — or at least offer less favorable financing terms?
I know plenty of true homeowner advocates read this blog. Please give me your thoughts?
References:
(link to Florida House Bill 203)
(link to Florida Senate Bill 722)
It’s been forty years since the last syndicated Pogo comic strip. My headline is a bad re-write of the famous Pogo line. But it happened to me at a gathering of authors and publishers last weekend. A very attractive young lady approached me and said, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about your book, Neighbors At War.” That’s not an extraordinary experience. I’ve been approached by many other authors at such events. But it’s what she said next that stunned me.
“I am C.A.I.”
“Huh? What?”
“I am C.A.I. The Community Associations Institute. I’m their spokesperson. And we all know about your book.”
“Well, you’re the enemy,” I told her. She said she’d only been working with them for the past year and said the organization was working to change it’s image.
“Absolutely not possible,” I said. “The only thing you can do to improve your image is disband, dismantle the entire warped structure of Homeowners Associations and start over with a new organization of communities that respect and honor the U.S. Bill of Rights.
What’s really hilarious is that several other authors/writers gathered around us and began supporting me with their own stories of HOA horrors. One or two of them were former HOA board members and said they quit because of the bullies on the board. How weird is all that?
Anyway, we later exchanged cards. I told her if she and her buddies would actually read my book I’d agree to pay for lunch. I’m not sure if that’ll ever happen but it was an amusing way to spend a Saturday picnic.
This one is just too delicious not to post. When you live in a Homeowners Association that’s squandered $700,000 bringing the neighborhood close to bankruptcy, what do you do? That’s easy. You get involved in porn!
Huh?
Yeah, you hire a property manager who’s been fabulously successful at writing kinky sex books.
That’s what the Woodlake Community Association in Chesterfield County, Virginia did. The community has been ripped apart by financial mismanagement. When the HOA board and property manager quit earlier this year they hired Bethany Halle, an author of 70 novels ranging from exotic to erotic. And she’s actually made some best seller lists with books about gay sex.
Fifty Blades of Gay?
No, I just made that up. But heck, as the new manager of Woodlake Community Association she’ll undoubtedly be exposed to lots of new material for future books.
Beating around the bush a little more, a great subject for a dirty book would be the huge HOA scandal in Las Vegas that’s sending up to forty people to federal prison.
Fifty Raids a Day? (big groan!)
Actually, hiring a sex-and-bondage author is probably an outstanding move by this financially strapped community. Bethany Halle is obviously a good business person and has been an HOA manager for many years, successfully straddling two very different professions. What’s not to love?
(link to Chesterfield Observer story on new HOA manager)
