Yes, indeed, certain Homeowners Associations are actually doing unannounced mandatory inspections for hoarding. Among the items not to be hoarded are books! Scary, isn’t it?
I have to make a confession here. I hoard books. I still own just about every book I ever read. None are piled on the floor, but my shelves are packed. Somehow, I just thought my grandkids might someday wonder how their old grandpa got the nutty ideas in his head for some of the directions in life he took.
Homeowners in the South Seas Condominium on Marco Island, Florida, may soon have to pay a hefty special assessment because of a particularly boneheaded decision by their HOA.
The Feds have consistently said that service dogs are covered under the ADA. An HOA doesn’t get to claim they are pets, if the dog is actually performing services for a disabled person. But this particular HOA obviously doesn’t ‘get it.’ They will.
I had an odd phone call from a friend late last year, a few weeks before my book came out. I won’t share too many personal details, but this gentleman is retired, a wonderfully decent man who is well-loved in the community.
But he was next to tears as he said, “Do you know anything about Homeowners Associations?” With what I’ve been through over the past few years, I almost had to laugh. But I asked him to continue.
This blogger has repeatedly said that embezzling in American HOAs is almost universal. There are no controls, and where there are no controls human beings universally drop to their lowest ethical level. Another example popped up in Davenport, Florida.
HOA president David Meadows has been arrested for allegedly stealing a half million dollars from his Homeowners Association. One resident, Danielle Groth, says it’s routine for her HOA to charge $100 a day for such things as cigarette butts on the ground to kids’ toys in the yard or the wrong style of window blinds.
