Tag Archives: HOA Abuse

Huge Victory for California Homeowners!

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The California Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court decision which would essentially prevent the CAI (Community Associations Institute) from controlling the outcome of all board elections in Homeowners Associations.

Truly, the CAI has emerged as one of the nation’s most disgustingly evil-minded institutions. CAI claims it represents homeowners, although sometimes it refers to ‘stakeholders’. What CAI really represents is a massive and growing cash diversion from private homeowners to tort lawyers and service providers. When a homeowner gets into a beef with his or her HOA, CAI refers the case to its own secret closet of favored tort lawyers. But the ‘California dance’ by CAI was just beyond belief.

California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled that an HOA which takes a position or becomes an advocate for a certain board candidate or ballot measure must provide “equal access” to opponents. This includes access to any means of publication including HOA websites, bulletin boards, community meeting rooms, newsletters and any other publication routes. CAI lawyers, of course, went ballistic.

Equal access? Who the heck ever heard of such an outrage? Equal protection? That’s for U.S. citizens, certainly not the citizens of HOA Amerika.

Twenty four California law firms filed ‘Friends of the Court’ briefs to the California Supreme Court begging the justices to overturn that stinking ‘equal access’ judgment. Count ’em: Twenty four law firms, each one of them sucking at the teat of the HOA lawsuit machine.

For a very brief background on this lawsuit, the Beachwalk Homeowners Association board figured out a sneaky way to get CAI affiliated members elected to the board. If the CAI-guy didn’t win, they’d just keep holding elections one after the other, advocating all the way until the homeowners got weary and finally gave in to the constant political propaganda and elected the previously chosen CAI-guy. These 24 HOA law firms, by filing such Friends of the Court briefs, demonstrated they were absolutely behind such odoriferous tactics. Remember the old Soviet Union where voters could vote, but there was only one candidate on the ballot? Well, the CAI-guy election tactic was Communism on steroids.

In a strange turn to Constitutional fairness and due process, the California Supreme Court essentially ruled that opponents of in-house candidates or ballot issues actually got to have the freedom to discuss alternative views. Amazing!

Any homeowner who wonders where his or her HOA dues are going, or who wonders why Homeowners Associations have become so despised by individual homeowners, should read the decision in the California case: Wittenberg v Beachwalk Homeowner Association.

Calling all homeowners: You finally won a big one! Congratulations!

(click here for California decision)

http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/G046891.PDF

 

HOA Property Values

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I’ve said repeatedly that Homeowners Associations DO NOT protect your property values. The Florida study I’ve linked below is important for all homeowners to read.

(click here for direct link to Lincoln Institute study)

https://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/2132_How-are-Homeowners-Associations-Capitalized-into-Property-Values 

 

Swing Set Stupidity

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Some things in life are just common sense. But some of life’s biggest losers specialize in perfecting the cruel art of having no common sense. In Los Altos, California, the Toyon Farm Homeowners Association is showing the world the finely honed cruelty it can inflict on a dying child.

Five year old Weston was diagnosed with terminal lymphoma. But the little guy was determined to fight back against the disease and live. His dad told Weston if he could just get well, he would give Weston whatever he wanted as a coming home present. Young Weston said he’d really like a swing set. Weston’s dad had it installed and waiting for the child’s miracle homecoming.

But the geezers who run the Toyon Farm Owners Association decided in their infinite wisdom that no accommodations could be made for a child, even one with a terminal disease. They told Weston’s dad the swing set was illegal and had to be removed immediately. Otherwise they would assess fines, lawsuits, a foreclosure and seizure of the boy’s home.

Nice work.

Classy.

The lawn Nazis at the Toyon Farm Owners Association were unrelenting. They wouldn’t even give the family a hearing. There was no middle ground, no court of last appeal. Get rid of the swingset or join the ranks of the homeless.

What do these geezers talk about during dinner after the board meeting? “Well, Honey, I kept another gimp out of the neighborhood today.”

Those of you keeping track, add one more HOA to your DO NOT BUY list. The Toyon Farm Owners Association.

It’s just market forces at work.

(click here for ABC story on the family)

 

More On The Colorado Flood

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Now that I’m out of and away from the Colorado flood I’m watching aerial video of the damage. I’ve seen some bad disasters in my life, but nothing like this one. This single cloudburst caused damage across Eastern Colorado from the Wyoming border to the New Mexico border.

Colorado has about 8000 Homeowners Associations, many of them in eastern Colorado, right in the flood ravaged areas. At some point, all those HOA members are going to be told they don’t qualify for disaster relief since the federal government considers Homeowners Associations and co-ops to be non-profit private associations where ‘homeowners’ are actually shareholders or groups of investors in a neighborhood and its common areas. They can still apply for federal loans, but by living in an HOA they have removed themselves from the ability to get federal aid. 

Congress could change that, of course, but with the country facing sixteen trillion dollars of debt there’s a huge question as to whether the feds would change the rules. Perhaps China would help us? After all, we’re their biggest customer. All those COSCO container trucks and ships you see on the roads and the seas are owned by the Chinese government. The acronym stands for “China Ocean Shipping Company,” owned by the People’s Republic Of China.

Well, I’m going back to watching video feeds. A pretty good one is being hosted right now by the New York Times.

(click here for flood video feed)

 

Another Good One by CalHomeLaw.org

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CalHomeLaw is a subscription-paid site only, and that’s a shame. But I’ll send as many people their direction as I can.

Their latest offering is about SLAPP lawsuits, or Strategic Lawsuits to Stop Public Participation. Thousands, even tens of thousands of these lawsuits are filed each year to intimidate people from exercising their First Amendment rights. People in Homeowners Associations are primary targets.

If you ask to see the HOA’s financial budgets, you’re liable to get SLAPPED.
If you question the legality of a board or management company’s actions, believe me, you’ll get SLAPPED.

If you say, “Hey, that’s not fair!” You’ll get SLAPPED. You’ve got to hire a lawyer and go to court. 

There’s a California law against SLAPP suits. The law should be federal. And it should have huge sanctions against lawyers who take part. 

There’s zero chance of that happening, since most people in Congress are lawyers who benefit from filing SLAPP suits.

Still, there is a God. And we can pray for such a miracle.