Millions of people around the world have opened their homes to Airbnb, the service that for a small price can find homeowners willing to share their homes for a brief time to travelers. It sounds like a wonderful idea. When a close relative of mine died in Oregon and I couldn’t find a nearby motel I turned to Airbnb for what changed from a few days to a month-long ordeal. In a neighborhood of hundreds of homes I added just one extra car to the daily traffic.
But Homeowners Associations are fascist regimes, all about complete control of the private lives of homeowners. And knowing that you can make a few bucks by a short term lease in your extra bedroom drives board members crazy.
Mind you, they probably couldn’t stop you if you had a relative come stay with you. But breathe the Airbnb brand and these lawn Nazis go bonkers.
So warn your Airbnb guests that they’ve got to swear under oath that they’re long-lost distant cousins and you’ might be able able to slip by without getting sued.
http://wkrn.com/2016/10/12/despite-metro-permit-homeowner-associations-have-final-say-on-airbnb/
This is such a bad idea. Homeowners Associations are linking arms with the credit reporting industry to hammer the credit scores of homeowners late on their HOA dues. Horrible direction for this crooked, crime-filled HOA movement to take.
Look at news stories around the country. Go back and read the past four years of stories on this blog. Look at the horrors uncovered in the Kansas City Star. Now get out your calculator and start adding up the vast numbers of lawsuits that are going to be filed by homeowners whose credit scores were wrongly lowered. When lawsuits are filed against a Homeowners Association, who pays? And don’t say “the insurance company.” Ultimately, homeowners across the country will be forking over millions, hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for legal costs and judgments. Can you say, “Special Assessment?”
(link to excellent column about HOAs and credit reporting)
Believe it or not, those are the marching orders in many Homeowners Associations. Communities with young people are very popular among prospective home buyers. It’s rare that a young family will seek out neighborhoods with a lot of elderly people. Thus, HOA boards will use every trick in the book to get rid of members of the Old F-rts Club. Instead of trying to work with an older homeowner to get dues collected, many just fine, lien and foreclose.
The commentary linked below is a tragic one. But we hear it time and time again. Welcome to HOA Amerika.
http://cgmlawgroup.com/foreclosure-hoa-fees/
One of the country’s best Homeowners’ Rights bloggers….perhaps THE best is Deborah Goonan. Her blog is Independent American Communities. Articulate, wise, informed. In short, I’m wildly jealous of her! Maybe in the next lifetime I’ll be reincarnated with her brain.
In any event, her current post, linked below, is one you should print out and keep copies in a file folder where you can quickly find it to hand out to friends.
10 tough questions for opponents of HOA reform
It’s unsettling how so many tens of millions of people have just blithely wandered into the Homeowners Association experience without thinking. And so many people think they’re getting such a deal by being one of the first to believe the developer’s promises and move in.
Hoo, boy. A number of prospective homeowners bought condos in a residential skyscraper under development in San Francisco. The developer just didn’t tell them all the relative facts; that one side of the building has sunk sixteen inches into the ground and the building is tilting.
Wow!
In an earthquake-prone city these homeowners are now wondering if the next quake will send their building on Mission Street…right down the middle of Mission Street, And there’s word the developer has known about this problem for the past seven years! That’s honesty for you.
I’m not sure who’d want to live in San Francisco, anyway. Yes, I’ve been there on multiple occasions. And yes, the restaurants are great. But with earthquake experts warning Californians that ‘The Big One’ might be a little closer than anybody thinks, yes, I’d rather live with the risk of Colorado blizzards than California temblors.
(link to story on leaning tower of Frisco)
