Tag Archives: Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

The Best HOA Bill Of Rights

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Jonathan Friedrich is legendary in Nevada. He’s a longtime and tireless Homeowners Rights advocate and lobbyist who’s fought the HOA movement, led anti-HOA demonstrations, and has frequently proved to members of the news media that organized crime in the HOA movement is not a fiction. And by some miracle, he found himself appointed by Governor Sandoval to the Nevada commission that oversees the managers and management of Homeowners Associations.

In the past few years several people and organizations have tried to compose a Homeowners Bill of Rights. Excellent proposals have been made by Arizona’s George Staropoli and Illinois Professor Evan McKenzie. But in the opinion of this blogger, Jonathan Friedrich’s version is the most aggressive.

The link is below. Print it out, save it, distribute it to neighbors. As you read this, please understand that this one man is standing up against what may ultimately be proved to be the most massive organized crime conspiracy in the country’s history.

http://tinyurl.com/lvuufer

or:

https://sites.google.com/site/hoacorruption/homeowners-bill-of-rights-1

Sometimes,the Good Guy Wins!

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Florida’s Jan Bergemman is one of the early heroes of the homeowners’ rights movement. For many years, he’s had his sights set on putting rules in place that would stop the mindless unregulated tyranny in Homeowners Associations. Jan describes himself as a “retired chef from Germany.” But he’s worked tirelessly in his state to try to wake people up to the organized crime syndicate behind the Homeowners Association Movement.

This blogger was skeptical, at first, when reading about proposed new anti-HOA laws in Florida. “Impossible!” I thought, when finding that common sense laws were being suggested in the original ‘tyranny state.’

But Bergemann & Company came through and beginning July 1st, the state began regulating and trying to control some of the wildly out-of-control fascism that rules many Florida HOA communities.

First step: registration of all HOAs.

Second step: No homeowner can lose his home to HOA foreclosure when his dues are late!

Third step: Homeowners actually get the right to inspect documents in their own HOA. Sadly, this had to be legislated. It shows how outrageously out of control secretive Homeowners Associations have gotten.

Fourth step: Husbands and wives on the same board are a conflict-of-interest! Wow!

Fifth step: HOA board members and managers cannot personally profit when awarding contracts. If this one sticks, it’s huge. A first in the entire nation.

This is all what Arizona’s George Staropoli has long termed “The Enlightenment Movement.” I like that term, but I don’t have the guts to steal it from George.

Whatever term is used, this is like changing the course of a wayward ocean liner. It can’t be reversed immediately. It takes time, effort and risk to right the ship-of-state.

But Jan? Congratulations! I never would have predicted your victory on behalf of all homeowners. Jan’s website is  http://www.ccfj.net

The Orlando.com article is linked below.

http://tinyurl.com/om64l9q

 

Have We Lost Our Minds?

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
This story may serve as a mind-bending psychological trip when a prospective homeowner has to “win” over the board to be granted the right to buy into a place to live. 
 
Medical students stress over the LSAT, MCAT, and Step One, Two, and Three before they qualify for a medical degree. All of those tests induce stress beyond comprehension. But it’s more understandable when you realize these positions require a great deal of commitment and little room for error.
 
Many prospective home buyers are going through similar agony over their “interviews” with co-op boards as if acceptance into one of these places could mean life or death.  Are they really providing employment details, financial records, and having their pets “interviewed” just to be able to put a roof over their heads?
 
What if they get laid off, change jobs, or their company agrees to a merger that doesn’t meet the acceptance of the board?  Or their dog goes to a new groomer and the new haircut isn’t to the liking of the uppity board president?  What happens if their uncle’s cousin is convicted of bank robbery?  Could these changes push these “lucky” homeowners into homelessness?
 
Ridiculous.  Outrageous.  Insane.  Who would, and why would, anybody ever sign on to such nonsense…and pay for it? 
 
 

Little Pleasure On Pleasure Island

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People move into lush-looking Homeowners Associations thinking they’ve bought a little slice of Utopia. But few people know that there really is no workable Utopia in this life. In fact, the original Utopia, written five centuries ago by Sir Thomas More, was actually a farce; a comedy about the inability of the human race to get along with one another. Homeowners Associations founded along the same lines of More’s Utopia have built into their own structure the probability of failure and decline into despotism and tyranny.

There’s an old bit of survivalist wisdom that teaches if three men go into the wilderness, two will always turn against the one. So any government which is allowed to use tyrannical rules against a minority is doomed to failure, disaster and a complete loss of justice. In fact, the genius of our country’s Constitution is that it doesn’t create a ‘majority rules’ ethic. It’s not a Democracy. It removes the people several steps from the rulers, and it divides the rulers into several separate but equal bodies of government. Our Congress is divided into a House and Senate. But the two must work together to pass legislation. The Executive has veto powers over Congress, yet Congress has the ability to overpower the Executive by gathering together a super-majority. And when everything goes to Hell in a hand basket, there’s a Supreme Court which can overturn or delay the implementation of bad legislation. All states except Nebraska have a similar structure (Nebraska has a unicameral instead of a bicameral legislature).

With all this in mind, we sadly turn our eyes to the Pleasure Island Mariner’s Cove Homeowners Association near Port Arthur,Texas. We’ve discussed Pleasure Island before. Like every other HOA in the country, Pleasure Island is just one vote away from disaster. If an HOA attorney needs a little extra cash, he advises the board to use minor violations of covenants to fine, seize and foreclose on straying homeowners.

Deborah Dommert got behind on her HOA dues. Then the late fees and legal bills started rising too quickly for her to catch up. Remember that HOA covenants invariably order a homeowner to pay all the legal bills of the Homeowners Association. And like thousands of other homeowners across the country, she now faces the seizure and foreclosure of her home. She has no court of last resort. She has no Congress which can pass laws shutting down these neighborhood tyrannies. She is without access to real justice.

HOA attorneys are taught by huge HOA management conglomerates to never allow a homeowner to negotiate a way to catch up on dues. In national legal seminars, attorneys learn how to boost their income by abusing those who can’t afford legal representation.

Deborah Dommert will most likely lose her home. But some investor in future weeks or months will make a tidy fortune out of her personal disaster. The investor might even turn out to be a close ‘friend’ of the HOA board or law firm.

The biggest disaster of all is the loss of personal freedom for all of us.

http://tinyurl.com/ln2pxdk