Community Associations Institute (CAI), the organization that ‘pretends’ it helps HOA homeowners while in reality it’s a referral agency for lawyers, managers and others who insist that fines, lawsuits, liens and foreclosures are good things, is showing some ‘distressing’ news to HOA insiders. It’s a graph that shows a slowing in the growth of people living in Homeowners Associations.
There’s an obvious reason to like this graph. HOAs have done themselves no favors by getting aggressive against homeowners they don’t like. As many reading this forum know, many HOAs have turned neighborhoods into seething battlegrounds where neighbor fears neighbor, and the act of being friendly can get you sued.
Population in this country is growing, but HOAs are losing their enthusiasts. To me, this graph says that more and more prospective homeowners are telling Realtors, “Do not show me ANYTHING in an HOA!”
Not in a million years would I have predicted this one. But perhaps the most ethically challenged senator in Texas state history has lost his bid for re-election.
For 24 years, John Carona has reigned supreme. From his position as Texas State Senator he has built a multi billion dollar company managing 8000 homeowners associations across the country. Around his HOAs he has built banks, insurance companies, landscaping firms. Homeowners who had the misfortune of living in those neighborhoods learned more than anyone else what the phrase ‘lawn Nazi’ means.
Carona lost by just a few hundred votes. Obviously, recounts are being demanded. But at this point it looks like this is one election Carona couldn’t buy. He will still be able to retire as one of the richest men in Texas and he will still reign over those hundreds of thousands of hapless homeowners. And among many of them Carona won’t be ‘former senator,’ he’ll be ‘ex-senator.’
Our political system is slow. But unlike many others, it is eventually self-correcting.
A hellaciously ugly anti-homeowner bill is about to end up in Virginia law books. It essentially does away with ALL Constitutional rights of people in Homeowners Associations. And I’ve warned people all over the country to quit thinking about HOAs as Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, liberal or conservative. HOAs are about communes (communism), flavored with a healthy splash of fascism (the lawn Nazis).
Well, Glory be! Virginia lawmakers from the Tea Party wing of the Republicans are joining Democrats in trying to wake their fellow-legislators up. This bill is beyond bad. This link to the Virginia bureau Watchdog.org is worth reading!
There was an interesting column from a blogger a couple of weeks ago about the bizarre proposed legislation in Virginia that would allow HOAs to fine ANY homeowner for ANYTHING as long as the CC&Rs didn’t specifically ban such fines. It has to be one of the biggest proposed power grabs in history. The column is fascinating and worth reading, in that it was written by an HOA president who opposed this fascist piece of legislative work.
But what really caught my attention is this columnist’s belief that this piece of legal outrage is supported by Republicans who traditionally oppose big government.
I’ve raged on in my own blog and my book that opposition to HOA dictatorships is not a Republican/Democrat/Left/Right issue. It’s about the rights of American homeowners to be left alone. It’s about the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Third, the Fourth, Fifth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth… the whole danged Constitution.
If Republicans in Virginia are pushing this bill then shame on them. If Democrats don’t have the guts to stand up to this then shame on them. If the brainless center-aisle legislators don’t have the stomach look with suspicion at the bill’s content, then shame. If this bill makes its way to the Governor’s desk, then the whole stenchy lot of these politicians should be frog-walked into the U.S. Supreme Court. I wonder what the court split on the constitutionality of this law would be?
Colorado’s got another embarassment to swallow. Christa Ann McClure is the current director of Colorado’s Health Exchange. She’s the Colorado face of the new national health care changes.
But she was indicted (and pleaded not guilty) to charges of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency she previously worked for in Montana.
What is it about being in charge of housing projects or community organizations that makes people think their hands belong in any cookie jars that are within reach.
