Tag Archives: HOA Hell

Another ‘Kid-Friendly’ Homeowners Association

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These stories are nauseating. Here’s another California Homeowners Association which has decided that kids are ‘Satan’s Spawn’ and need to be harassed out of the neighborhood. It’s understandable that HOA boards want kids to be safe. But I drive around neighborhoods all day long and see basketball hoops and skateboards and hockey nets. There’s rarely a story of any kid being hit in a neighborhood.

We’ve done enough in the PC world to screw up our kids’ heads. I’d far rather see kids playing basketball than getting fat playing video games.

Fie on the Whitney Oaks Community Association in Rocklin, California. Fie. Yes, I know that’s a little archaic. But it just feels good to say.

Fie!

(HOA bans overnight kids’ sports equipment)

 

 

 

Interesting Sentence for ‘Depressed’ Embezzler

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Question: If you knew you could steal $40,000 and only get a 60 day jail sentence, would you do it? $20,000 tax free dollars a month is pretty tempting, isn’t it?

Well, that’s the sentence given a 72 year old Idaho woman when she embezzled that amount from her seniors-only community, the Florida Estates HOA. She said she stole the money because she was depressed.

The sentence gets even more interesting. After her two month jail sentence she’s required to make $40,000 restitution at the rate of $200 a month. I’m not very good at math but it looks like that’s about 17 years. And she’ll be 89 when she’s finished paying. I suspect most of the neighbors she ripped off will be dead or institutionalized by that time.

Crime really does pay.

And the crooks know it.

(link to Idaho Press story about woman sentenced for grand theft)

 

Screwy Stuff From This Former Texas Senator

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I’ve written repeatedly about the ethics-challenged former Texas state senator John Carona. He’s the billionaire who owns a company that oversees about 9,000 Homeowners Associations across the country. And his rules for homeowner behavior are beyond bizarre.

One that still gets my goat is that a homeowner can be fined for the behavior of any guest who ‘intends’ on visiting his property. No kidding! A Home Depot truck was stopped for speeding. The fake officer asked where the driver was making his delivery. And that homeowner got fined because the Home Depot truck’s first stop was at that homeowner’s house.

Every time you think it can’t get any wilder, just hang around this website. It just gets crazier. I’m surprised more authors haven’t written fiction books about the HOA movement.

Stephen King, are you listening?

(link to two-part series on John Carona)

 

Don’t be a Christian in a Homeowners Association!

      5 Comments on Don’t be a Christian in a Homeowners Association!

I’ve said it before: If you live in an HOA keep your religion to yourself. The mindless, self-absorbed bullies who rise to the top in a typical Homeowners Association think it’s OK to harass people for their Jewishness, their Christianity, their sexual orientation, their race or age.

Keep in mind that HOA board members and management companies always know exactly how much equity is in your home. The more equity you have, the bigger a target you are.

Here’s a Christian family in Senoia, Georgia, who use their garage to collect Christmas presents and furniture for people living in poverty. They don’t have garage sales, the collected goods are never visible to others, there’s nothing stored on the driveway. But Barbara Walton, the property manager for the Summerfield Homeowners Association, has decided this Christian family is operating an illegal home business. She’s given the family ten days to shut their charity down or else face fines, liens, lawsuits and possible loss of their home.

I’m guessing this family has some equity in their home. And equity attracts sharks like blood in the water.

There’s a reason the phrase ‘lawn Nazis’ came about.

For shame!

(link to story on family ministry & the Summerfield HOA)

 

Committed Christian? Bad Idea To Live In An HOA!

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Most HOAs have a regulation about “No Home Businesses.” With so many people working at home on the web that’s an almost meaningless rule…except when Board Bullies want to throw their weight around.

Sure, nobody wants to live next to a neighbor who operates a sawmill in his back yard. But sometimes the local HOA Nazi gets out of control and too full of himself. You’re an author and you write books and magazine articles? That’s an illegal business. You use your computer to fill out medical forms? Illegal home-based business.

The latest outrage comes from Senoia, Georgia, where a Christian family decided to help other families in need. In their garage they collect things like bed sheets, groceries, household goods. Nothing is stored in sight of any annoyed neighbors. Every so often the family delivers the goods to those who desperately need them.

“HOME BUSINESS!” screams the Summerfield HOA. “ILLEGAL!”

When you think about it seriously, Jesus Christ would be unwelcome in the vast majority of America’s Homeowners Associations. Riff raff. Healing cripples without a license. Restoring sight to the blind without permission from the HOA. Claiming to be God, when everyone in the neighborhood knows that only the HOA president is God.

Give me a break.

(link to HOA attempt to shut down family ministry)