George Staropoli is one of the most astute and most articulate people in the national Homeowners Rights movement. The link below is his take on the historic HOA battle going on in North Carolina. Have everyone you know read his post!
In my forty years doing investigative reporting for all three major networks, I don’t think I remember even hearing of a Homeowners Association problem more than once a decade. All of a sudden that’s just about all anyone’s talking about.
There are newly proposed bills in Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina, California and a half dozen other states I can’t immediately bring to mind. Most of these proposed laws are aimed at curbing the rampant abuse by Homeowners Associations against individual homeowners.
Did you get that? HOA boards abusing homeowners? Individual citizens who theoretically should have certain God-given rights under the Declaration of Independence and the entirety of the U.S. Constitution?
At what point in our history did we lose those rights? Why are we having to go state-by-state, facing down a self-admitted 44 billion dollar HOA management industry in an effort to claw back what was already ours? And how did this 44 billion dollar HOA management industry arise? Why didn’t we see it coming?
Oh there were a few folks hoisting the storm warning flags, Evan McKenzie, George Staropoli, Jan Bergemann, Johnnie and Beanie Adolph and a few others who were just as important. But where the hell were we, just lollygagging in the surf as the hurricanes approached?
I have to admit I was dumber than dirt just a few short years ago. But suddenly I’m finding myself blown away by this evil wind we call supervised living. It was supposed to be so Utopian, so good for our souls to be living in complete peace and harmony with our neighbors, as we occasionally bowed, and scraped and paid homage to the few people who volunteered their time to become leaders of our oh-so-nicely laid out communities.
All of a sudden we saw the nastygrams jammed in our doorways, “Your grass is too long, your dog is too big, you have one too many friends parking his car on the street.” And we suddenly started getting fines if a dog (presumed to be mine) was photographed squatting in the Open Space, or an unsupervised child was playing on the front lawn. The fines led to debt collectors and excessive attorney’s fees and sometimes even the confiscation of a home before the ink had even dried on the original mortgage.
What in Sam Hill happened? Harkening back to another Samuel whose wit and wisdom was far greater than mine, “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe when the Legislature’s in session.” (Sam Clemens)
Instead of all these individual state efforts, how about a single U.S. Supreme Court decision that rules that private non-profit corporations cannot dominate over private homes, or dictate personal behavior?
Our home is our castle. Isn’t it?
Not sure why the game of Monopoly always led to fights when we were kids. Someone would invariably cheat, the others would protest, and….there went the neighborhood!
Same thing goes on today in many American Homeowners Associations! Your new retirement community seems perfect, the dues seem about right. Suddenly, without notice the rules change. Monthly dues skyrocket from $180 to $500 a month, with even more hikes on the way.
When you weren’t watching the rules changed. They changed because a new developer or a new majority took over the HOA. Now, you suddenly find yourself foreclosed upon, or you’re priced right out of the neighborhood where you once had your dream home.
Don’t believe it?
Read the link below and weep.
It’s been an interesting evening just casually surfing around the Internet. Haven’t done that for awhile. There’s just too much work involved in researching and writing my daily blog to go back to the casual surfing that I used to do.
But I’ve noticed that the recent hacker attacks that took down and trashed my website have actually ended up scattering 300 to 500 of my past web posts all over the Internet! My old webposts used to be pretty well organized and confined just to NeighborsAtWar.com. But a search of “ward lucas” or “ward lucas hoa” show that the “gods of the Internet” never forget anything. And a trashed website actually leads to multiple sites around the world spreading the message of our Homeowners Rights Movement.
So, rather than condemn the recent hackers who caused us so much work, we’re just happy to sit back and bask in the kind of sunlight that brings enlightenment to people who’ve wondered if they’re all alone in their fight against the neighborhood ‘lawn nazis’. No, my friends, you are not alone. You are part of an awakening. You and your HOA problems are potentially viral.
“Dear God, thank You for free speech. It’s a beautiful thing. And it’s the only thing that keeps a free society free. Thank you, God.”
One of the weblogs that was lost in my recent hacker attack is going to be re-written here, simply because I have a quick break in my schedule. No, maybe it’s because I’m a little bit bored right now. But it has to do with the recent incident where Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill was outraged after being manhandled by an airport TSA worker.
LOL! I had a similar experience right after 9-11 while returning to Denver after giving a speech in New Orleans. I was dressed in my customary business suit and tie, minding my own business, when a female guard pulled me out of the line of passengers for ‘special’ treatment. I was told to stand at a spot about six feet away from my fellow travelers and spread my legs. This woman then dropped to her knees in front of me and began the patdown of all patdowns. She touched places that haven’t been touched since my honeymoon. I was speechless. The nearby passengers were speechless.
When this woman had thoroughly handled all my potentially dangerous body parts she instructed me to return to my place in the line. Talk about shock and awe. The passenger right behind me whispered in my ear, “Well, did she find out if you’re circumcised?”
Every word of that story is true.
Back to Senator Claire McCaskill. It’s interesting to hear you whining about the TSA, Senator. But now you know what the rest of us have had to endure for the past 12 years!
