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.
I don’t get too many emails from homeowners in Michigan, but there’s a big HOA controversy in that state right now. A new couple applied to their Livingston HOA to have their home construction plans approved. They were. Then the couple was asked if they could move their proposed home a few feet to save some trees. They did. After spending 200,000 bucks to build their foundation and do the framing they were hit with an HOA lawsuit, claiming they moved their house without permission.
Now the whole neighborhood is torn apart. There’s vandalism, there’s a petition to recall the board. But this new couple will forever live with the shame of having caused all this ruckus.
Shaming. It’s probably the most vicious weapon that HOA Nazis have in their evil arsenal.
(link to Livingston Daily story on the HOA feud in Michigan)
Organized crime is endemic in the HOA industry, absolutely woven throughout the faulty fabric of the whole structure of Homeowners Associations. Racism, bribery, blackmail, criminal harassment, theft, extortion, embezzlement, phony liens and foreclosures.
If you go back through five years worth of blog posts on NeighborsAtWar.com you’ll see hundreds, even thousands of posts and links to stories of criminal activity in Homeowners Associations in virtually every state in America. Board members, treasurers, management companies, HOA lawyers, even the federal racketeering convictions of 43 HOA officials in Nevada. It’s a vast criminal empire that only recently is beginning to attract attention from the nation’s news media. So this next paragraph and the associated link shouldn’t surprise you much.
Sperlonga LLC, a data collection firm, has now made a deal with Equifax to begin adding HOA dues and payment history to the credit records of homeowners. Your late HOA payments, whether real or phony, will now have the same weight on your credit report as bank loans and auto payments. Welcome to the future, Bunky!
(link to press release by Sperlonga Data)
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:
http://counton2.com/2016/08/22/neighborhood-attempting-to-overthrow-hoa/
I’m no big fan of court decisions that favor big banks, in fact, I’m a bitter critic of some of the financial scams the big banks run. But the latest one in Nevada is no miscarriage of justice.
A lower Nevada court had ruled that investors in foreclosed HOA loans had a super-priority right to grab up a foreclosed house for a few thousand measly bucks, and cancel the loan the original mortgage company had given the homeowner. For a few thousand bucks you could just ignore the entity that loaned the original homeowner the half million it took to buy the home in the first place.
I despise crooked banks, I’ve been personally victimized by a crooked bank. But still, the phrase ‘due process’ is woven into our Constitution. And due process is supposed to be accorded equally to all citizens and all corporate entities.
The decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will obviously be challenged. The 9th Circuit is famously the most liberal Court in the nation and overturning 9th circuit decisions is almost pro- forma for lawyers. So it’ll be interesting to see what direction this decision goes. With a 4-4 tie in the U.S Supreme Court the whole matter could boil down to which Presidential candidate comes out on top three months from now. If this decision is delayed by the lack of a deciding vote by the High Court’s pending 9th member it very well could stand as is.
(link to Las Vegas Review-Journal story on overturning of Super-priority lien)
I’m really good, aren’t I? I should go into business as a professional psychic! Just a few days ago in a blog post headlined, “Fire That Reporter, Judy Thomas,” I predicted that the powers-that-be would come down like a sledgehammer on the reporter who wrote the fantastic HOA series in The Kansas City Star.
It’s starting, just like I said it would. Linked below is an internal column by the Community Associations Institute, (CAI). It’s so typical of the rank distortions by CAI whenever they refer to homeowners rights advocates. The KC Star’s series was not only incredibly accurate, but it was also fair and balanced. The national Homeowners Association scam is so far out-of-control that a typical reaction to the phrase, ‘homeowners association’ is a couple of raised eyebrows. It’s hard to find a single person who hasn’t heard horror stories about HOA life.
The more you learn about CAI, the more you learn to distrust anything they say. In fact, CAI should really change it’s name. The acronym, ‘CAI,’ sounds too much like ‘lie.’ I’m open to suggestions but I kind of like HOAs-For U. That makes for an even more accurate acronym.
(link to CAI column blasting Kansas City Star series)
