Tag Archives: HOA Hell

The Death Of Common Sense

      No Comments on The Death Of Common Sense

Living in Colorado, I know there’s a big problem in this state with coyotes killing pet cats and dogs. Driving up and down suburban boulevards you see countless posters asking for people to help find a missing pet. In almost every case the pets have been killed by coyotes. And it’s not just small pets, either, it’s German shepherds, boxers, even pit bulls and mastiffs. When a pack of coyotes starts ‘harvesting’ there’s no breed of dog that can’t be easily taken down.

Some communities in Colorado have populations of mountain lions that exist primarily on household pets. In fact, the Division of Wildlife says Colorado has a population of between 5000 and 8000 mountain lions. The attacks are bold. It just amazing that more humans haven’t been killed by wildlife.

Nevada’s KTNV Hall of Shame report by Darcy Spears shows there’s an easy way to end backyard pet killings. But Homeowners Associations across the southwest refuse to recognize the solution: a four inch high fence top roller that prevents predators from jumping fences. It’s easy. It’s inexpensive. It’s certainly not a threat to power-hungry HOA board members.

But in HOA Amerika, self-interested board members don’t seem to be interested in welcoming sensible solutions to neighborhood problems. Their personal power trip is sometimes just beyond reason.

(link to KTNV story on solution to pet killings)

 

Indiana Residents Fighting Eminent Domain for Private Development

      No Comments on Indiana Residents Fighting Eminent Domain for Private Development
guest blog by Deborah Goonan

I follow Institute for Justice on social media. See the link below for their recent press release about the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood of Charlestown, Indiana. This is yet another case where the city seeks to declare several city blocks “blighted” and to use state grant money to purchase 350+ homes for the paltry sum of $6000 each.

According to a June television report (link below), which includes interviews with Pleasant Ridge residents and Charlestown Mayor Bob Hall, early plans for development are to create a mixed use neighborhood consisting of duplexes, single family homes and affordable housing for seniors. In other words, probably another HOA, this one subsidized by tax dollars.

In June, Hall was quoted as saying that owners would not be “low-balled” on prices offered for their properties. At that time, Hall said owners would only be offered up to $15,000 from grant funds, and developers would have to contribute the rest toward market value. So the proposed offer price has already dropped by $9,000 in just 5 months, with no mention of Developer contribution.

The bottom line is that private developers want the land, so they can build new properties. The Mayor wants to collect higher tax revenues. Instead of dealing with individual properties that are in need of being condemned or demolished, the plan is to raze the entire neighborhood and displace hundreds of residents. Once again, the Supreme Court’s twisted definition of “public use” comes back to haunt American citizens. Fortunately, Indiana’s laws stipulate that eminent domain cannot be used for private development.

I find the following statement from the Mayor’s office particularly interesting,

“This area was declared blighted in 2002 in connection with a revitalization grant received then. The housing in this area was temporary housing bought by the army to house workers at the ammunition plant in 1940,” the mayor’s spokeswoman, Geneva Adams, said.  “They were not meant to be permanent housing. The decline of these structures is evident as you drive through the area.”

Has Ms. Adams taken a close look at the construction quality of many modern homes? I would be willing to bet that the majority of them will not stand the test of time as well as the Army’s temporary housing that is now 74 years old.

(link to Institute for Justice news release)

(WLKY-News video of Pleasant Ridge and Charlestown Mayor, June 2014)

(WDRB coverage from earlier this year)

Dumber Than Dirt In Delaware

      9 Comments on Dumber Than Dirt In Delaware

The Maple Hill Homeowners Association is becoming the laughingstock of Bear, Delaware. There are only 23 homes in this HOA, but these idiots have picked the most unbelievable fights with each other and have made their own neighborhood toxic to anyone thinking of buying a home there.

Dues are cheap. About $280 a year. But the petty bickering and the downright nastiness has churned up more than $45,000 in legal fees as various neighborhood crybabies run to the courts to try to get their problems solved.

Ken and Joanne Holbert have tried for years to pay their homeowners association dues by sending checks to the HOA’s mailbox. The president, Jutta Douglas, refused to accept the certified mail in a patently obvious effort to slander the couple with terms like “deadbeat” and “freeloader.” Those actually are actionable terms and the Holberts could probably win a good-sized slander lawsuit.

The numb-skulls at Maple Hill then filed liens against the Holberts’ home. Under Delaware law, you don’t even have to notify a homeowner that a lien has been filed. Just file and foreclose. It’s mean. It’s vulgar. It’s the kind of thing that’s led to violence in a number of other states.

A couple of Delaware politicians are talking about creating an Ombudsman’s Office to deal with petty strife like the viciousness in Maple Hill.

You can fix a law. You can change the way that some HOAs operate.

But you just can’t fix stupid.

(HOA disputes in Delaware)

 

Another Flag Fight

      2 Comments on Another Flag Fight

It always saddens me to see these stories. But with the number of flag fights going on around the country, is it any wonder that many of us think of the HOA movement as fundamentally anti-American? The latest is the Fieldstone Homeowners Association in Greenfield, Indiana.

(another veteran slammed for his flagpole)

 

Balance of Power in U.S. Senate Based On HOA Chickens?!?

      1 Comment on Balance of Power in U.S. Senate Based On HOA Chickens?!?

Some stories are just too weird to embellish, even for the sake of humor. But the U.S. Senate seat from Iowa may boil down to a neighborhood dispute over chickens.

Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley is running for Senate in a razor thin race. Braley has a vacation home in the ritzy Holiday Lake neighborhood in Brooklyn, Iowa. Covenants in the neighborhood say, “No animals or birds other than household pets can be kept in the subdivision.” But one of Braley’s neighbors (also a registered Democrat) keeps chickens on her property as ‘therapy animals’ for mentally handicapped youngsters.

The chickens apparently strayed into the Braley’s yard and litigation was threatened. The owner of the chickens tried to make amends with a gift of eggs, but the Braleys wouldn’t have any part of that.

Now, there’s a hot new Iowa Republican attack ad with some talking chickens making fun of Braley’s threatened lawsuit. You can read the rest of the details at the links below, but the story is just too ridiculous for words.

If the balance of power in the U.S. Senate shifts in this election, finally, FINALLY folks in Congress might start talking about the idiocy and meanness of neighborhood disputes in Homeowners Associations.

(talking chickens ad)

(washington post take on the chicken dispute)