Oh Florida! What are we going to do with you? Are you having a contest to see which HOA board can act the stupidest?
Eighty homeowners are now without their trash and recycling containers because the board at Turnberry Reserve hired people to steal them right off the homeowners property!
I won’t be surprised if homeowners don’t turn the board member’s yards, porches, trees, landscaping, and cars into their local landfill site. That could include dirty diapers on “Welcome” mats, used tampons hanging like tree ornaments, and smiley-faced partially-eaten peanut butter sandwiches turned upside down on Lexus IS-350 chrome bumpers.
The knives are out for homeowners in California after the historic Wittenberg v. Beachwalk court decision. The Court of Appeals ruled that Homeowners Associations MUST PROVIDE equal access to all means of communication if an HOA takes any kind of advocacy position for a board candidate or change in HOA rules. After 24 of California’s top HOA law firms pleaded with the courts, they were set back on their heels. The Court of Appeals essentially told the law firms to ‘get lost.’
Historically, many Republicans and indeed many conservative Republicans have strongly supported the idea of Homeowners Associations. They falsely believe that the smaller a governmental entity gets the closer it is to the people. Many conservatives AND liberals have discovered over the past few years this is an empty-headed belief.
An old-time outdoorsman’s axiom is that if three people get into trouble in the wilderness two will always turn against the one. You can’t get any closer to true democracy than three people. And as John Adams and Toqueville warned us eons ago, we all need to beware of the “tyranny of the majority.”
The California Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court decision which would essentially prevent the CAI (Community Associations Institute) from controlling the outcome of all board elections in Homeowners Associations.
Truly, the CAI has emerged as one of the nation’s most disgustingly evil-minded institutions. CAI claims it represents homeowners, although sometimes it refers to ‘stakeholders’. What CAI really represents is a massive and growing cash diversion from private homeowners to tort lawyers and service providers. When a homeowner gets into a beef with his or her HOA, CAI refers the case to its own secret closet of favored tort lawyers. But the ‘California dance’ by CAI was just beyond belief.
I’ve said repeatedly that Homeowners Associations DO NOT protect your property values. The Florida study I’ve linked below is important for all homeowners to read.
