A fundamental right most Americans think they have is Free Speech. It’s a bedrock of the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment is so ingrained in the minds of Americans that most would swear that their freedom of speech and religion cannot be compromised.
Welcome to the world of the HOA, where Free Speech and Freedom of Religion is trashed every day. There are high court decisions which are often quoted as giving the typical HOA the right to deny your First Amendment freedoms. Google “Twin Rivers decision” to find a significant State Supreme Court decision which essentially says you don’t have the right to inform your neighbors about your political beliefs.
Another reported HOA Embezzlement (one of tens of thousounds of such cases) and this one is almost amusing. Police in West Melbourne, Florida arrested 67 year old Sandra Blumberg. She was the treasurer for Hunter’s Creek Homeowner Association in West Melbourne.
Police say Mrs. Blumberg wrote checks to herself from neighborhood HOA funds in an effort to recover money she had lost on Lotto Scratch-Off tickets.
Lovely, isn’t it?
Mrs. Blumberg must have thought she deserved the extra money for all the hard work she did for her neighbors. HOA officials, in case you don’t know, are routinely instructed by HOA officials never to talk to the media. Makes you wonder why.
OK, so you were incautious enough to buy a house in an HOA neighborhood. Now you realize you’re about to get sued for some offense against a member, or even non-member.
Concerned owners, of course, need to communicate with their neighbors about how much they’re going to lose in this lawsuit. Those HOA do-gooders have just handed out some brochures to get all the lawsuit victims on board.
Oops! Those HOA do-gooders have just lost their attorney-client privilege. All privileged documents now have to be turned over to the suing attorney, all legal strategies, all incredibly personal information that might have used to defend the HOA against the suit.
I’ve said it before, and will probably say it again, but every person interested in the HOA debate should see this guy’s website. I’ve never met him, although I’ve spoken to him on the phone once. He has some incredibly interesting insights that make me extremely jealous, i.e., I wish I had thought of them first.
Do yourself a favor and bookmark RightToOwn.org. Dear God, I wish I could plagiarize!
Also, encourage this guy to write a book. He’s articulate, intelligent, and a book or documentary from him could help us in the war to make the HOA movement fair, honest and responsible, three of the characteristics which are absolutely non-existent today.
The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that 14 more people have taken plea bargains in the FBI’s HOA corruption investigation. That brings the total to 24. This four year investigation has taken way too long, far longer than most. But after its bumpy start, federal agents really started homing in on the fraudsters who’ve cheated so many Las Vegas homeowners and stolen their home equity, costing them their life savings and their homes.
The real tragedy of winding this investigation up early is that hundreds of homeowners who lost their homes will sit and wonder, “what to do?” They’ve been cheated of their entire life savings. But they don’t know who to contact to try to get it back.
