Tag Archives: Ward Lucas

Chikungunya Virus In Our Neighborhoods

Bouncing around the HOA warrior network right now is an interesting email from future Congressman Andy Ostrowski. He’s concerned that our political impact will be diluted because only 20% of Americans live in HOA gulags. He says to get any rational national reforms enacted we need to appeal to 80% of the voters. Reading the current Science News article on the Chikungunya virus gave me an inspiration. If it’s too juvenile a corollary then please forgive me.

Chikungunya is a nasty virus that’s made its way from Southeast Africa and Asia to America. It’s a horribly painful disease that can leave an infected victim with massive joint pain that lasts for years. If it infects babies 20% of them can become permanently disabled. In a matter of weeks it can infect hundreds of thousands of people, even up to 20% of the region where it’s spreading.

The virus spreads through mosquitoes and now for the first time it’s hopped from one species of equatorial mosquito to the tiger-striped mosquito that can be found in many parts of America. Now, if only 20% of the population gets infected, should the other 80% be concerned? Absolutely, say scientists at the Centers for Disease Control.

The HOA virus is another nasty disease that only infects about 20% of the population in this country. It’s spread by lawyers and is rapidly mutating and hopping to other hosts like property managers, Realtors, judges and low-level politicians. This disease is another one that’s spreading rapidly. Should the remaining 80% of homeowners be concerned? Absolutely.

The remaining 80% tell themselves, “I’ll never get infected. I’ll never live in a Homeowners Association. I’ll never have to deal with a relative’s estate that’s located in an infected zone.” Yet a simple job change, the desire to move to a warmer climate, any number of life’s challenges can put you into right into the middle of a zone where the HOA virus is epidemic.

Yes, absolutely, the 80% should be concerned.

(Science News article on runaway Chikungunya virus)

 

 

 

Give This To Your Lawyer!

No one is more insightful or articulate than Arizona HOA warrior George Staropoli. When he comments on an HOA issue, you really want to stand up and pay attention. He’s written an incredibly interesting analysis of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that he says could ultimately have a direct impact on the national HOA scam. I would do a disservice to him if I tried to sum up his argument.

I would also do a disservice to you if I didn’t give you a link to his paper and urge you to read it, print it out and give copies to every influential person you meet. Your lawyer should have a copy of this. At some point our movement is going to reach a tipping point. Who knows? This could be that point.

(link to “Supreme Court says corporate entities cannot be used to evade Constitution”)

 

 

Civil Forfeiture

I’m quite sure HOA warriors like George Staropoli and Evan McKenzie have written about this subject. But it’s really kind of spooky to chart the parallels between Civil Forfeiture laws and seizure of private property by Homeowners Associations.

Civil forfeiture laws are a horrendous holdover from the American Civil War and prohibition. They allow police the power to seize vehicles or property of people suspected of carrying on some kind of illegal activity. in the 70s and 80s police began seizing private homes that were suspected of being crack houses. At no time were the police required to prove guilt. Many times a homeowner who unknowingly leased his house to bad people ended up with no rights, no house, and no way to get it back.

In the 1980s Congress allowed police agencies all over the country to keep what they seized, even if there was absolutely no proof that a crime had been committed. Try to board a plane with too much cash in your wallet or purse the money? It can be legally seized. When do you get it back? In most cases, never. All the cops have to do is claim they suspected the money was involved in some kind of crime. No proof of guilt was needed. What rights do you have? You have the right to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit to get it back. Anything else? No. No due process, no way to prove your innocence. The money simply disappears into what’s little more than a police slush fund.

It’s stunningly evil. In a country where the Constitution created rights to protect citizens against the government, justice has been turned on its ear.

Across the country, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of homeowners have been victimized in much the same way. Wrong kind of window shades or a kid’s toy left out overnight? A big fine, then a lien, then forfeiture of your house. Your rights? You get to hire a lawyer and sue to try your stuff back. The boards of Homeowners Associations have absolutely the same power of civil forfeiture as the cops. And the money they seize also goes into HOA slush funds, or into the pockets of embezzlers.

What have we done to ourselves, folks?

(link to booklet on civil forfeiture)

http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/pdf/Forfieture-Booklet-FINAL-Full.pdf

Hire The Dirty Book Lady!

This one is just too delicious not to post. When you live in a Homeowners Association that’s squandered $700,000 bringing the neighborhood close to bankruptcy, what do you do? That’s easy. You get involved in porn!

Huh?

Yeah, you hire a property manager who’s been fabulously successful at writing kinky sex books.

That’s what the Woodlake Community Association in Chesterfield County, Virginia did. The community has been ripped apart by financial mismanagement. When the HOA board and property manager quit earlier this year they hired Bethany Halle, an author of 70 novels ranging from exotic to erotic. And she’s actually made some best seller lists with books about gay sex.

Fifty Blades of Gay?

No, I just made that up. But heck, as the new manager of Woodlake Community Association she’ll undoubtedly be exposed to lots of new material for future books.

Beating around the bush a little more, a great subject for a dirty book would be the huge HOA scandal in Las Vegas that’s sending up to forty people to federal prison.

Fifty Raids a Day? (big groan!)

Actually, hiring a sex-and-bondage author is probably an outstanding move by this financially strapped community. Bethany Halle is obviously a good business person and has been an HOA manager for many years, successfully straddling two very different professions. What’s not to love?

(link to Chesterfield Observer story on new HOA manager)

 

Are We Winning? Hunter’s Run Decision Says We Are!

I never thought I’d see this day. But doesn’t it seem to you like more and more Homeowners Associations are losing big court cases involving fines, judgments and legal fees?

There’ve been several in a row where the feds came down hard on HOAs that overtly or passively discriminated against families with children or handicapped members.

The latest is an Indiana family that moved from their home and rented it out without asking HOA permission. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the fines and the lien the Hunter’s Run HOA filed on the family were illegal. More than that, the lien was invalid and a slander against the homeowner’s property title making the home unsaleable. Now the Hunter’s Run HOA will have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to this family to make them whole.

I would bet dollars to donuts that members of this HOA didn’t have a clue their bully board’s actions were going to lead to huge assessments against every homeowner.

See this as a victory, folks! Homes in Hunter’s Run have lost all their value. They can’t be sold. The equity is gone. What fool would buy a home in an HOA where the board was stupid enough to lose this kind of case?

The tide is turning, and you and I are finally having an impact!

(the losers in Hunter’s Run HOA)