Tag Archives: HOA Hell

The Ghost of Christmas Past

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guest blog by Dave Russell

In 2011 a friend of mine sent me a news report about 3-year-old Cooper Veloudis who has cerebral palsy. Cooper’s therapist suggested that a playhouse be built in the backyard of the family’s home. The playhouse cost about $5000.

However, the Andover Forest Homeowners Association in Lexington, Kentucky, said little Cooper’s house had to go because the HOA says it’s a structure and is prohibited. Cooper’s parents were fined $50 a day until they complied. What the HOA didn’t say is that there are other such structures in the same development. But nobody seemed to really care about those.

This story literally kept me up at night thinking that little Cooper was basically being foreclosed upon by the HOA. Where were the folks down at Fair Housing or the Americans with Disabilities Act people? Couldn’t anyone have stepped up to the plate and defended this little tykes therapy house?

As usual, the Homeowners Association won, and little Cooper’s playhouse was ‘foreclosed’ upon by the big, bad and powerful HOA. Somehow, this story still haunts me like the Ghost of Christmas Past, but also reminds me to be a little more understanding with the children in my own HOA community.

I sure hope I’m not the only one who’s haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past. In time, just like in the Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, each board member and the pond-scum attorneys who represented Andover Forest Homeowners Association deserves a visit from one of Dicken’s ghosts.

If you are going to watch the news report linked below, you might want to have a Kleenex handy. I sure needed one.

(link to disabled boy’s therapy home on KTSM-TV)

 

A New HOA Book Comes Out

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More and more people who’ve been burned by their Homeowners Associations are going public with their horror stories. The latest is from a resident of Las Vegas, Robert Stern. His book is entitled, “HOA Wars: What Happens in Vegas Can Happen Anywhere.”

Stern owns several houses in different parts of the country. But because he travels among them he’s run afoul of HOA boards that raise complaints that a Stern home isn’t being properly maintained. This, despite the fact that he pays dues which are supposed to pay for property maintenance. For retired people (who are often the ones targeted by abusive HOAs) being a snowbird can be dangerous. Some HOAs, notably in Nevada, have actually outlawed homeowners who aren’t full time residents.

Yes, folks, the HOA movement is getting scary. But it’s encouraging to see more and more people step up and tell the world about their own HOA nightmares.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something sometime in your life.” -Winston Churchill

(link to Stern’s new website on HOA Wars)

 

Drone Pic of Naked Grandma Up On Billboard!

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Oh, my Lord! I knew it would happen, and more are coming.

An Australian grandma sunbathing topless in what she thought was her private backyard has ended up on a Real Estate billboard.

The Realty drone was snapping pictures of the house for sale next door. It published them on billboards without a second thought.

The thong-wearing granny is having lots of second thoughts as she realizes that her privacy is a thing of the past.

(peeping tom drone in Australia)

 

Judge Rules Frisco City House Can Stay in HOA While Civil Case Pending

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

On October 31, 2014, a District Judge in Texas ruled against a demand by a Homeowners Association that a group home in the neighborhood be shut down. City House has 8 residents, young women who would otherwise be homeless. But the legal battle is not over.

A report from the Dallas News which discusses key arguments in the dispute is linked below.

Chad Robinson, who represents the Plantation Resort 2 Homeowners Association, claims that neighborhood deed restrictions require that homes only be used by single families, people related by blood or by law. He acknowledges there are exceptions for such things as nannies or single renters. But he says eight unrelated women in a transitional living program cannot be considered a single family.

Monica Velazquez, attorney for City House, argued that the non-profit transitional living program operates similar to a single-family unit. “It’s what the home is being used for, not who gets to live inside.”

Darlene Horan, HOA Board member and Real Estate Agent, offered the usual, predictable testimony that if the rules aren’t followed, home values will plummet.

But where is the evidence behind such a claim? And what is the underlying intent of this testimony?

Ms. Horan’s argument is eerily similar to fear-mongering marketing claims of the 1940s-1960s – that families who are ‘different’ from the norm will ruin the neighborhood for everybody. “There goes the neighborhood!” The old fear tactic being used again, albeit in more covert fashion.

Instead of fretting about racial diversity, per se, now some HOAs are fretting about “single family use,” and attempting to conjure up a new definition of family designed to exclude certain types of households from moving into Utopia.

You can be certain that the City House residence will remain a target of this HOA board while a civil case is pending.

(link to Dallas Morning News story on City House)

 

Tragic Loss Of Personal Rights

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On this blog we rant and rave about the alarming loss of Constitutional rights in our covenant controlled communities. 65 million people have moved into these neighborhoods having no idea how arbitrary and illegal these petty dictatorships can be.

In tonight’s blog and link I’m going to stray way, way over the line and suggest that anyone concerned about the dramatic loss of our 240 year old Constitutional Republic watch a documentary that was published on YouTube a year ago.

As a lifelong journalist, I’m not much of an alarmist. Yes, I watch and read material from the left and the right, the liberal media and the conservative. And I am usually thoughtful as I mull it all over. But I’ve always been more of an observer than an activist.

That being said, somehow I missed the documentary linked below. It pulled material from FOX News, CBS, ABC and various liberal and conservative commentators and sources. It looks at the loss of personal rights over the past ten years. In the name of terrorism a massive bureaucracy has emerged which is doing things that would have been incomprehensible fifteen or twenty years ago. Technology has essentially made privacy and personal rights obsolete.

Be forewarned, if you’re timid this may cost you a few hours of sleep.

(link to documentary on government overreach)