Tag Archives: Federal investigators

Holy Smoke! Where’s The Fire?

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In my forty years doing investigative reporting for all three major networks, I don’t think I remember even hearing of a Homeowners Association problem more than once a decade. All of a sudden that’s just about all anyone’s talking about.

There are newly proposed bills in Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina, California and a half dozen other states I can’t immediately bring to mind. Most of these proposed laws are aimed at curbing the rampant abuse by Homeowners Associations against individual homeowners.

Did you get that? HOA boards abusing homeowners? Individual citizens who theoretically should have certain God-given rights under the Declaration of Independence and the entirety of the U.S. Constitution?

At what point in our history did we lose those rights? Why are we having to go state-by-state, facing down a self-admitted 44 billion dollar HOA management industry in an effort to claw back what was already ours? And how did this 44 billion dollar HOA management industry arise? Why didn’t we see it coming?

Oh there were a few folks hoisting the storm warning flags, Evan McKenzie, George Staropoli, Jan Bergemann, Johnnie and Beanie Adolph and a few others who were just as important. But where the hell were we, just lollygagging in the surf as the hurricanes approached?

I have to admit I was dumber than dirt just a few short years ago. But suddenly I’m finding myself blown away by this evil wind we call supervised living. It was supposed to be so Utopian, so good for our souls to be living in complete peace and harmony with our neighbors, as we occasionally bowed, and scraped and paid homage to the few people who volunteered their time to become leaders of our oh-so-nicely laid out communities.

All of a sudden we saw the nastygrams jammed in our doorways, “Your grass is too long, your dog is too big, you have one too many friends parking his car on the street.” And we suddenly started getting fines if a dog (presumed to be mine) was photographed squatting in the Open Space, or an unsupervised child was playing on the front lawn. The fines led to debt collectors and excessive attorney’s fees and sometimes even the confiscation of a home before the ink had even dried on the original mortgage.

What in Sam Hill happened? Harkening back to another Samuel whose wit and wisdom was far greater than mine, “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe when the Legislature’s in session.” (Sam Clemens)

Instead of all these individual state efforts, how about a single U.S. Supreme Court decision that rules that private non-profit corporations cannot dominate over private homes, or dictate personal behavior?

Our home is our castle. Isn’t it?

 

Don’t Like The Blogger? Sue His Butt!

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They’re often called SLAPP lawsuits, a frivolous suit filed just to shut up an annoying critic.  The acronym stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” SLAPPS were sometimes used by major companies to hush up environmentalists. Sometimes it was used the other way around. The bottom line was that lawyers were hired to cause the other side great expense and great anxiety, nothing more, nothing less.

SLAPP lawsuits have made their way into the world of Homeowners Associations, too. If you don’t like the neighborhood critic, just hammer him with a SLAPP lawsuit. But there’s a troubling little annoyance called ‘The First Amendment’, and a troubling little Supreme Court decision called ‘New York Times vs. Sullivan’ that essentially says if you’re a public figure you’ll get nailed if you try to jam up the Free Speech rights of the neighborhood critic. A public figure has to be able to prove ‘actual malice’ in a lawsuit against someone who’s just expressing an honest opinion about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s more complex, of course, but I go into the subject in detail in my new book, “Neighbors At War!”

But the commentary linked below shows that it can be very expensive for an HOA board member to use neighborhood monies to fund a lawsuit against the local loudmouth. Nobody wins in these idiotic SLAPP lawsuits. Everybody loses, that is, with the exception of the lawyers who file and defend  such lawsuits. They always make money. That’s why there are so many lawyer jokes in the public discourse.

The wisest words in the story linked below: Get over it. Move on.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/technology/florida-homeowners-association-sues-resident-critical-blog-comments-seeks-identity

Are Texans Stoopid?

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What’s difficult to understand about the word ‘accountability’? Texas is one of a number of states where legislation is pending which would reign in the massive power of private HOA management companies. Homeowners in Texas, and elsewhere, are tired of being ripped off by arbitrary fines, punitive social controls, predatory towing of vehicles, confiscatory debt collection practices, abusive lawsuits, and massive embezzlement from the budgets of Homeowners Associations.  This is not a hard problem to understand. Your home is your castle. Isn’t it?

But on the other side of the accountability aisle are State Representatives and Senators who’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars for supposedly ‘managing’ planned communities. They hover like birds-of-prey over the neighborhoods they supervise, and the moment any weakness is spotted they swoop down and make a kill strike on a beleaguered homeowner, liening his home and selling it at auction before the homeowner can even catch his breath.

As good as this pending bill is, it doesn’t have a ghost of a chance of passage. The powers that be rake in too much money. An accountability bill would murder their profit margins.

I used to live in Texas. I never thought Texans were stupid.

Maybe they are.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/09/hoa-accountability-bill-stirs-debate-capitol/

 

Monopoly? (guest blogger, Nila Ridings)

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Not sure why the game of Monopoly always led to fights when we were kids. Someone would invariably cheat, the others would protest, and….there went the neighborhood!

Same thing goes on today in many American Homeowners Associations! Your new retirement community seems perfect, the dues seem about right. Suddenly, without notice the rules change. Monthly dues skyrocket from $180 to $500 a month, with even more hikes on the way. 

When you weren’t watching the rules changed. They changed because a new developer or a new majority took over the HOA. Now, you suddenly find yourself foreclosed upon, or you’re priced right out of the neighborhood where you once had your dream home. 
 
Don’t believe it?

Read the link below and weep.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-03-17/news/os-lk-lauren-ritchie-homeowner-associations-20130317_1_homeowner-association-levy-fees-subdivision

 

 

Thank You, Hackers! Thank You!!!

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It’s been an interesting evening just casually surfing around the Internet. Haven’t done that for awhile. There’s just too much work involved in researching and writing my daily blog to go back to the casual surfing that I used to do.

But I’ve noticed that the recent hacker attacks that took down and trashed my website have actually ended up scattering 300 to 500 of my past web posts all over the Internet! My old webposts used to be pretty well organized and confined just to NeighborsAtWar.com. But a search of “ward lucas” or “ward lucas hoa” show that the “gods of the Internet” never forget anything. And a trashed website actually leads to multiple sites around the world spreading the message of our Homeowners Rights Movement.

So, rather than condemn the recent hackers who caused us so much work, we’re just happy to sit back and bask in the kind of sunlight that brings enlightenment to people who’ve wondered if they’re all alone in their fight against the neighborhood ‘lawn nazis’.  No, my friends, you are not alone. You are part of an awakening. You and your HOA problems are potentially viral.

“Dear God, thank You for free speech. It’s a beautiful thing. And it’s the only thing that keeps a free society free. Thank you, God.”