Regular readers of this blog know that I never brag. And I’m never one to offer hyperbole. <smirk>
But I think MY proposed Homeowners Bill of Rights is the best one out there. It reads simply:
“All Homeowners Associations are governments, subject to all constraints in the U.S. Constitution.”
Enough said.
The following definition is taken directly from the FBI Glossary. No further comment is necessary.
Organized Crime
The FBI defines organized crime as any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, or extortion, and generally have a significant impact on the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/glossary
It’s so much fun to a see a prediction come true. For several years, now, I’ve been talking about the coming wave of inexpensive drones; flying machines equipped with incredibly clear spy cams. They’re light as a feather and designed to be astoundingly invasive. If you and your gal pal or boy toy use the backyard Jacuzzi at midnight, understand that your underwater antics are going to be displayed at the monthly HOA board meeting. From five hundred feet in the air you’ll be able to count the freckles on your lover’s shoulders. At night!
If you leave your second story bedroom shades open, these spy cams can hover and record all the action.
“Not fair!” you rant. “Not fair!”
Well, get used to it, folks, because the FAA doesn’t regulate these spy toys. Unless you’re invading federal air space there are no rules at all. And if your backside shows up on the community center’s big screen how are you going to stop it? Invasion of privacy? Heck, there’s a long list of Homeowners Associations that routinely violate privacy. Some California HOAs are doing unannounced inspections of the interior of members’ homes. It’s all in the name of stopping hoarders, of course.
Slander? HOAs routinely slander targeted homeowners. Your extra pounds aren’t slander because you did it to yourself.
Harassment? Forget about it. The ‘H’ in HOA means harassment.
Remember all those covenants and standards that you signed on your real estate documents? Well, hidden inside those documents is a clause that lets your HOA board change the covenants at will and as needed. If your HOA needs to force a targeted homeowner out (think race, religion, gender bias, marital status) then it will do so. Your lawsuit against the HOA will cost you a bloody fortune, and in the end it’ll be tossed out of court because you gave your permission to your HOA to sue you. Not only that, you agreed to pay all your HOAs legal expenses.
So, hot tub lovers, start dieting now. Your privates are no longer private.
As if you didn’t need one more reason to never ever buy into an HOA!
The zoning department in Chesterfield County, Virginia has filed suit against the Edgehill Condominium Association for massively ignoring county zoning and building laws. Usually, Homeowners Associations sue their own members for not properly maintaining their units. But finally….finally, a zoning department is actually doing its job and forcing an association board to clean up its own dirty work.
City and County building codes are far superior and far more fair than a Homeowners Association throwing around its tyrannical edicts against homeowners it presumes to be guilty of one violation or another. Now, a zoning board is finally doing its lawful duty… suing an HOA board for misconduct.
Sure, the individual homeowners will end up getting stuck with the tab. They always do. But in this case the homeowners won’t get stuck with phony fines, liens and artificially jacked up legal fees.
Very quick update: This blog passed a mile marker last week in numbers of readers.
23,000 unique readers
107,000 visits
1,266,000 page views
This is a relatively new blog and doesn’t count the numbers on the old WordPress site, which was apparently trashed the same day a couple of other homeowners’ rights websites were hit.
But these numbers, while not really huge, do mean something. They mean that more and more people are waking up to the national HOA scam. Our movement is growing and I deeply appreciate those of you who work tirelessly to enlighten naïve neighbors and friends.
