There’s no other word to describe it. As the husband of a severely handicapped woman, I seethe with anger whenever I see abuse of the elderly, or abuse of the handicapped.
A lawsuit has just been filed in Las Vegas, Nevada by two handicapped elderly women, both military veterans, who are being hounded out of their HOA because they bought a van to accommodate their respective disabilities.
Illegal Handicap Van
Board members of the Spanish Steps Lakeside – Park View Estates Homeowners Association have decided the van used by the women is an illegal commercial vehicle despite the fact that it has handicap placards. The women have endured two years of threats, fines, liens and lawsuits.
Is the Americans with Disabilities Act not written in clear enough language for HOA bullies to understand? I guess once you’re elected as a gorilla on the HOA board, your DNA actually undergoes changes. At any rate, the lawsuit linked below is worth reading.
Bill Fry, an officer with the Army National guard, was returning from fighting in Iraq. All of a sudden he learned his HOA, The Spring Lake HOA of Mineoloa, Texas, had filed a lawsuit against him and his family because they put up the swingset to keep his kids company while he was gone.
It’s not an outrageous swingset. It’s not candy apple red and doesn’t flash with florescent colored lights. It’s just a nice wood and canvas politically correct swingset. But the officials at Spring Lake have gone apoplectic. They want it taken down, NOW!
Fry says the HOA approved the swingset before he left for Afghanistan. But the new board claims Fry’s wife didn’t get final approval and obtain final plans. It’s not that the swingset is wrong. It’s that someone on the board had a bruised ego because she wasn’t personally asked for her permission. There’s a chapter in my upcoming book, “Neighbors At War” which scientifically shows the changing chemistry in the brain when someone feels they’re not being awarded enough power over others.
In any event, whatever compromise Fry attempts to make, the HOA turns him down flat.
Spring Lake HOA, in Mineola, Texas. It might be nice to visit. But I sure as Hell wouldn’t want to live there.
