Just when you think you’ve heard the stupidest story ever about an HOA board, along comes an idiotic decision that just makes you shake your head.
It’s election season, and you’d think Texans would have a little more common sense than most people. I spent some growing up years in Texas, and I loved considering myself a Texan. But combine the words ‘Texan’ and ‘Homeowners Association’ and you just get twenty-seven degrees of STOOPID.
Shaming. It’s another word for bullying. For abusing. Often, public shaming is more hurtful than physical abuse. If you’ve never read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, then you’re missing one of most powerful works in the history of literature. And if you’re honestly in this fight against the national Homeowners Association scam then you need to read Hawthorne to begin to understand how mean and horrible public shaming really is.
When some media outlet reports on the latest outrage involving an out-of-control board of lawn Nazis, the CAI invariably sends out representatives who use the same old tire lined: “These complaints are so rare and isolate, they’re not even worth talking about.” They use that same lie whenever they testify in front of State Legislatures.
Here’s another of those “Oh, so rare,” and “Oh, so isolated” stories:
Neighborhood attempting to overthrow HOA
LOL! That’s the lie I’ve been railing against for the past half dozen years.
No, HOAs absolutely DO NOT protect property values. And across the country, homeowners are learning about that the hard way. The latest hair-raising story comes from North Carolina.
Police in Wake and Johnson counties confirm they’re investigating possible embezzlement of more than a half million dollars from more than two dozen Homeowners Associations managed by Kornerstone Community Management.
Let’s see, I’ve got a home in The Wellington HOA I’d like to sell. Oh, a special assessment? To cover all embezzlement costs? Now, where did my prospective buyer go? Guess I’ll have to lower the asking price again.
The ripples from the investigative series in the Kansas City Star continue to move across the nation. Editors at many major newspapers are undoubtedly kicking themselves for not diving into the story earlier. Beleaguered homeowners in out-of-control Homeowners Associations who’ve been victimized by the local lawn Nazis are feeling a bit of satisfaction that someone in the newspaper industry is finally looking their way. And some HOA bully boards may be looking behind them to see if investigative reporters are shadowing their activities.
