Category Archives: Free Speech

HOA Housing Craziness In Aspen!

I’ve written about this before. But here’s another great column from the Aspen Times. Wages are so out-of-control in this Eastern Hollywood Town, that the City of Aspen is using taxpayers’ money to pay for the maintenance of Homeowners Associations where all the ‘low-income’ workers live. The whole system is warped in more ways than can be easily discussed. But the columnist linked below does a pretty good job.

Homeowners Associations are a national scandal waiting to burst. But making the taxpayer pay the cost of keeping this scam going is just stretching the imagination too far.

(link to Aspen Times story on taxpayer funded HOAs)

 

 

Sara Benson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Egads! I’ve never met Sara Benson, never even talked to her on the phone, but I’d have an affair with her in an instant, if she’d agree! (Yep, I’m not very classy, but I’m sincere!)

This incredible Illinois Realtor has discovered that up to 80% of Illinois Homeowners Associations are unknown and untracked by the state! The implications are massive. It means that huge numbers of Americans have signed away their access to rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution by buying homes in private corporations where they’re lying naked in front of all their fellow homeowners. They think they’ve bought private homes, but what they’ve actually bought is shares in unregulated corporations in which they can be taxed, liened, sued and bankrupted with their life savings going into a common pot owned by all their fellow neighbors.

It’s the biggest transfer of private property wealth to government in the history of America. Seductive. Illegal. Subversive. There just aren’t words enough to express it. I thought I was pretty smart about the evils of Homeowners Associations. I hate to admit it, but I didn’t have a clue. Not a clue.

This should be the Number One headline in every news organization in America. Sadly, it won’t be. I love America, but Americans are fundamentally stupid. Like the frog in the pot we just enjoy the increasing heat. Until it’s too hot.

Sara Benson and Don DeBat, I hope you sell a zillion copies of Escaping Condo Jail!.

(link to Chicago Tribune article on Sara Benson)

 

Free Speech is Not a Right!

Those of us who follow such things know that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t protect people in Homeowners Associations. The one exception, of course, is if you’re ‘colored,’ whatever that means. There actually is some case law to protect racial minorities and the handicapped. But other tenets of the Constitution? Forget it. Due process? Forget it. Free speech? Forget it.

This latest story comes from a Fort Collins, Colorado resident who put up a Bernie Sanders sign on her balcony. It was OK for a while. After all, it’s a college town and college kids are taught all about the Constitution. They just aren’t told that Homeowners Associations are private corporations in which residents don’t have access to the Bill of Rights.

The new management company at the Baystone Apartments sent out threatening letters, warning of fines of up to $5000 for people who incorrectly display political signs. Once the story ended up in the newspaper the management company cried, “Oops!” But that’s only temporary. As soon as the public furor dies down they’ll start assessing fines all over again.

Long live the First Amendment! Well, that is if you’re not in an HOA! And 20 to 25% of Americans have already surrendered their right to Constitutional protection.

http://www.collegian.com/2016/02/homeowners-association-not-feeling-the-bern/154194/

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Welcome To Your New Condo!!!

Yes, welcome to your new condo. You’re going to love living here. The neighbors all get along and we don’t seem to suffer the kinds of problems felt in many other Homeowners Associations. You’re buying into a little bit of Heaven, your own private home. Welcome, welcome, welcome!

Oh, we’re sorry we couldn’t give you copies of the covenants, the budget and insurance papers in time for your real estate closing. At the time you requested them, the paperwork was tied up in some minor snafu. But it’ll all get worked out soon.

Ah yes, and ignore the story in the newspapers today. Those crooked reporters always make up their facts and get the story wrong. Everybody knows how warped and dishonest the media are. Just sit back and enjoy your new life!

(link to the neighborhood Welcome Wagon!)

 

 

 

 

Homeowners Association Fraud

Investigative reporters just LOVE websites like ScamBusters and Snopes. It saves us a lot of research time. Those sites are not always right and are subject to mistakes like most of the rest of us. But what a resource! Another of my favorite ones was CSICOP (Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.) But that last one is a little esoteric.

I’ve just learned from one of my frequent email contacts that ScamBusters actually has a blog post about Homeowners Associations. It’s not perfect but it shows how suspicions about HOAs is going mainstream.

Protect Yourself Against Homeowners’ Association Fraud