Category Archives: Handicap

Kid’s Play Before The Day of HOAs

guest blog by Nila Ridings
  
This story took me back to my childhood. 
 
I spent hours in my little play house with my friends.  We took our dolls, coloring books, Play-Doh, and molding clay in there and completely lost track of time.  Every now and then my Mom would peek in the kid-sized door opening and deliver some lemonade or cherry Kool-Aid.  It was located under a big tree so even on the hottest days of summer there was a cool breeze coming through the windows.
 
It makes me sad that with the introduction of Homeowners Associations little girls and boys cannot have play houses and tree houses.  Nope.  Kiss that idea good-bye.  In many HOAs you can’t even have a basketball hoop.  And not long ago we learned about the ban on anything with wheels for kids to enjoy.
 
And then we complain that kids are bored, spend all their time on video games, electronic devices, and their cell phones.  Not to mention the incessant discussions in the media and politics about childhood obesity.
 
HOAs have not only robbed the enjoyment out of adult life and homeownership, we’ve robbed the kids, too!
 
 
 

CAI Organizes to Lobby Congress!

One of the most articulate, knowledgeable Homeowners Rights advocates in America is Arizona’s George Staropoli. When he makes a prediction you can bet on it. In his current blog, linked below, he says the Community Associations Institute (CAI) is turning its massive lobbying arm into a lobbying effort specifically targeting the U.S. Congress.

CAI is an extremely deceptive organization that turns George Orwell’s Animal Farm on its head. Up is down and down is up, good is bad and bad is good, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. CAI is drowning Congressmen and Senators in the blatant lie that it represents the ‘collective’ rights and interests of all homeowners.

CAI’s website has a more honest depiction of its own organization. It says it represents 44 billion dollars worth of American real estate. What CAI will NEVER tell you is:

     the billions of dollars in fines against homeowners it has encouraged or precipitated,

     the hundreds of thousands of American homeowners it has helped bankrupt,

     the massive numbers of embezzlements from Homeowners Associations by HOA insiders,

     the numbers of murders and suicides precipitated after raw harrassment of homeowners,

     the billions and billions of dollars in HOA dues and homeowners’ legal fees it helped divert to private pockets,

     the complete fabrication that HOAs protect and preserve property value.

During the years of prohibition, Al Capone and his cronies made a fortune in illegal activities surrounding the illegal importation of alcohol. His corruption and his ability to corrupt public figures led to the explosion of La Cosa Nostra. Our Thing. The Mafia. It would be outrageous to think of such an organized crime effort creating a legal lobbying arm to twist the arms and the minds of the dimwits in Congress.

But anyone who takes a closer look at the Community Associations Institute will see how it got its start as a public ‘education’ organization, and then twisted itself into a private lobbying group that made massive profits referring HOA matters to its own ‘preferred’ phalanx of lawyers and service providers. If you’re anywhere close to the CAI, you’re going to get rich. Money from the pockets of dismayed homeowners will pour directly into yours.

CAI won’t tell you that dozens of its members or affiliates were indicted, arrested, committed ‘suicide’, or are facing racketeering charges in the current federal investigation in Las Vegas.

CAI won’t tell you that.

But I will.

And our movement is growing.

http://tinyurl.com/lv3fxhh

Another ‘Best’ HOA Bill Of Rights

Regular readers of this blog know that I never brag. And I’m never one to offer hyperbole. <smirk>

But I think MY proposed Homeowners Bill of Rights is the best one out there. It reads simply:

“All Homeowners Associations are governments, subject to all constraints in the U.S. Constitution.”

Enough said.

 

LOL! The Drones Are Here!

It’s so much fun to a see a prediction come true. For several years, now, I’ve been talking about the coming wave of inexpensive drones; flying machines equipped with incredibly clear spy cams. They’re light as a feather and designed to be astoundingly invasive. If you and your gal pal or boy toy use the backyard Jacuzzi at midnight, understand that your underwater antics are going to be displayed at the monthly HOA board meeting. From five hundred feet in the air you’ll be able to count the freckles on your lover’s shoulders. At night!

If you leave your second story bedroom shades open, these spy cams can hover and record all the action.

“Not fair!” you rant. “Not fair!”

Well, get used to it, folks, because the FAA doesn’t regulate these spy toys. Unless you’re invading federal air space there are no rules at all. And if your backside shows up on the community center’s big screen how are you going to stop it? Invasion of privacy? Heck, there’s a long list of Homeowners Associations that routinely violate privacy. Some California HOAs are doing unannounced inspections of the interior of members’ homes. It’s all in the name of stopping hoarders, of course.

Slander? HOAs routinely slander targeted homeowners. Your extra pounds aren’t slander because you did it to yourself.

Harassment? Forget about it. The ‘H’ in HOA means harassment.

Remember all those covenants and standards that you signed on your real estate documents? Well, hidden inside those documents is a clause that lets your HOA board change the covenants at will and as needed. If your HOA needs to force a targeted homeowner out (think race, religion, gender bias, marital status) then it will do so. Your lawsuit against the HOA will cost you a bloody fortune, and in the end it’ll be tossed out of court because you gave your permission to your HOA to sue you. Not only that, you agreed to pay all your HOAs legal expenses.

So, hot tub lovers, start dieting now. Your privates are no longer private.

http://tinyurl.com/mwocfal

 

Your HOA Protects Your Property Values

What a hoot! Impossible as it seems, there are still homeowners who believe that bit of nonsense. When you buy a home in an HOA or Condo Association, you’re essentially pooling your net worth and life savings with a bunch of strangers, people you wouldn’t dream of inviting to lunch. Just go to any annual meeting of any HOA and listen to the yelling, the sarcasm, the accusations.

People in the Orlando, Florida area are talking about a neighborhood of elderly folks whose HOA went bankrupt in the housing bubble. An investor bought all 16 homes in the neighborhood. And now he’s jacked monthly dues up from 180 to 500 dollars. Obviously, these seniors are living on little more than Social Security. But if they don’t ante up with the monthly dues, well the investor just forecloses. There’s a killing being made in Florida, and Pennsylvania, and Northern Virginia, and Harris County, Texas, and Nevada, and California.

Yes, folks, you are looking at the future of HOA Amerika, where traditional Constitutional government has made a passive transfer to fascism and tyranny.

But my HOA protects my investment, doesn’t it?

If you say so.

http://tinyurl.com/m2wf9fh