Not too many years ago you couldn’t get any reporter anywhere to take a critical look at the national HOA mess. Even when the U.S. Attorney started getting guilty pleas in the Las Vegas organized crime/HOA scandal, you couldn’t find many news stories outside of Nevada, itself. And there was almost ZERO coverage by the national networks. (BTW, as a long-time reporter I plead guilty of neglecting the subject)
But these days it’s not uncommon to find several probing stories a day. Some in the news media, like the one linked below, are slowly beginning to realize there really is some dirt under these HOA sheets. Someday they might even begin recognizing how deep this dirt really is.
Governor Rick Perry talks frequently about how tort reform in Texas has turned around a medical malpractice crisis.
Possibly it did work. But after reading the article linked below, ask yourself if deceptive HOA fines, liens and foreclosures in Texas shouldn’t attract the same kind of reform?
Texas is one of the top states where the HOA system has deprived homeowners of fundamental Constitutional rights.
I used to live in Texas. In fact, I grew up with the ‘Blue Book’ which was required reading for all Texas elementary school students. It taught Texas kids to be proud of their state’s revolutionary heritage and to question authority. Back then it was a thing of pride to be a Texan. But that was before the HOA Movement put millions of Texas homeowners in a death grip.
If you know someone who lives in a Texas HOA, ask him or her if they’ve observed out-of-control HOA boards and ridiculous fines and lawsuits. Or give them to link to my blog from last night about the San Antonio man who’s facing $200,000 in fines and legal fees for not keeping his grass short enough.
Come on, Governor Perry. Do the right thing! Get your HOA lawyers under control, too!
Another American homeowner is about to lose his home to his HOA.
David Moore has lived in the Huntington Place Homeowners Association in San Antonio, Texas, for eighteen years. But two years ago the neighborhood’s management company began assessing fines against Moore that added up to more than two hundred thousand dollars for alleged covenant violations. Among the violations, not keeping his grass short enough, and for a cat door built in his garage nearly two decades ago.
Moore will eventually learn that very few homeowners win this kind of fight. HOAs in Texas and elsewhere are being taught to taunt homeowners into expensive legal confrontations. Moore’s assets will end up in the hands of law firms and HOA management companies.
It’s just another example of a tort system that’s wildly out of control.
