Category Archives: HOA violence

Drones! Drones! Drones!

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I should charge money for psychic readings!  It was four or five years ago that I began predicting the advent of drones and that they would eventually be cheap enough for the boards of Homeowners Associations to start using them to inspect the most private part of your property. Your nude sunbathing or hot tub trysts could be played on the TV set at the HOA clubhouse and you probably wouldn’t win a legal case.

Well, so far I’m batting about 90% so far. The drones are here. They cost as little a four hundred bucks. And they’re popping up in thousands and thousands of places. Realtors are using them to advertise homes and neighborhoods. Terrorists are using them to interfere with commercial aircraft. Voyeurs are using them to videotape you and your lover on the backyard blanket. The FAA only controls drones in airspace over 1000 feet.

Privacy? Fugeddaboutit!

There’ve been a number of cases where homeowners have shot drones out of the air. The shooters usually end up being arrested and jailed. But it’s a whole new area of developing law and will probably take a decade or more to resolve. In the meantime even if a jury finds you not guilty you will have expended hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees.

(link to shoot a drone, go to jail, do not collect $200. It ain’t Monopoly money, folks!)

 

$50K Goal For GoFundMe And The Purple Playset

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

The blog I wrote about the Raintree Lake HOA in Lee’s Summit, Missouri on August 10th mentioned discussions of a GoFundMe account for the Stout family legal defense. They are standing up and fighting against the HOA to keep their daughters’ purple playset.

Sure enough, somebody took the bull by the horns and set it up. The donations are rolling in. And the comments from some of the donors are VERY interesting. Even a Realtor is making mention of people being afraid to buy in HOAs. How many times have we heard that before?

It’s so sickening to think all that money will go to fund the college funds of children of two HOA lawyers. Or maybe a second home in Breckenridge, Bozeman, or Bonaire. Or, possibly a yacht for the Lake of the Ozarks. No matter what the outcome of the lawsuit in the courtroom, the lawyers come out the winners. This is how the HOA legal game is played. Everybody loses except the lawyers. The pay off is determined by how long the lawyers can keep the battle raging.

When I sold yellow page advertising years ago, I had hundreds of attorneys as clients. When I asked what was the best case I could bring them they would tell me a nasty divorce. Naive me, I asked how do you know it’s a nasty divorce? With a chuckle from the attorneys I kept hearing, “you get them to call and we KNOW how to make it nasty!” Something tells me the days of the nasty divorces have been replaced with nasty HOA legal battles. Unfortunately, in that arena, I am not at all naive!

http://www.gofundme.com/hekvt8xm

 

Gender Discrimination in Boulder HOA

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The Boulder Weekly is not really known as a bastion of fine journalism. An example is linked below where the reporter could really have done some better research.

The story is about Knollwood Village Homeowners Association, a tiny HOA just a five minute walk from the University of Washington Campus. The CC&Rs say renting a home in the HOA is limited to a single married couple only and immediate family members.

Well, since this year’s Supreme Court ruling the definition of ‘marriage’ no longer exists. The definition of ‘family’ no longer exists. Whether right or wrong that’s the functional result of the ruling. So a marriage or a family is anything a person, or his partner, or his or her multiple partners are say it is.

Yes, this HOA restriction against unmarried people living in Knollwood is illegal. No, the HOA can’t do anything about it. The City of Boulder is giving the complaint about three minutes worth of lip service. But anti-discrimination laws are the same under Boulder ordinances as they are in federal law and federal court decisions.

Knollwood Village? You lose.

(link to story in Boulder Weekly)

 

A Great Newspaper Column!

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Newspaper columnists who favor the Homeowners Association system are getting about as rare as hen’s teeth.

On the other hand, many many journalists are finally ‘getting it.’ Either they’ve been bitten themselves, or they’ve had a flood of complaints from bullied or cheated homeowners. The column linked below from the Capitol Gazette, in Maryland, is really, really good.

She uses the words, “no accountability.” Amen to that!

(link to column on HOAs in Capital Gazette)

 

School Loans + Home Buying = Lack of Info

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

It’s worth repeating that the only way I see changes for the future of HOAs is with the younger generations.

Younger people will listen and participate in discussions about things that could decimate their future. Many of them struggle to find jobs that allow them to live outside their parent’s basement, buy gas and insurance for their car, and still be able to stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for a latte and muffin.

The article and survey below show how the Millennial generation is carrying the burden of school loans that are causing a delay in their interest to buy a home, get married, and have children. It also addresses the fact a high percentage of these loan takers felt they were not given enough information prior to taking out the loans.

These same people will also not be told about the risks of buying a condo, loft, town house, or HOA restricted property if they depend on a Realtor, mortgage lender, or the HOA office to hand over the unvarnished truth. It won’t happen. In an effort to protect these young property buyers I will bare the truth. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth. Because I’ve spent a decade in HOA HELL I will do everything in my power to protect others from the same.

If buyers, of any age forget the sales pitch and remember the following they will be making an informed decision. You sign away your US Constitutional Rights when buying in an HOA. You become business partners with all of your neighbors in a non-profit corporation. You become the guarantor for money to pay on all debts, loans, lawsuits, settlements, liabilities, construction defects, and disaster rebuilds. And any other reason the HOA board of directors may decide an assessment shall be demanded from you.

Just like those college loans, you cannot escape the HOA payments and risks. One may be the ball and chain around your ankle while the other could be the noose around your neck.

I’m going to ask a favor of every reader. Please share this blog and the link below with every person you know between the ages of 18 and 30. We must save as many in the younger generation as possible. For each one we reach there will be countless others who will also receive this message via social networking and coffee shop discussions.

Thank you in advance for being a reader who tries to make a difference!

(link to article on student loan debt)