Category Archives: HOA Issues

I hate to act amused at someone else’s misfortune, but this is one of those rare times when all homeowners should stand up and cheer. It seems the Indiana Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against three board members of The Harbours Homeowners Association in Jeffersonville. It may be that law enforcement around the country is following the example of the FBI in its massive Grand Jury investigation into Las Vegas HOAs.

The lawsuit accuses the three Indiana board members with fraud and abusing their fiduciary reponsibility. Only last year, the Indiana Legislature passed a new bill that gives the Attorney General the ability to oversee Homeowners Associations. At this point it seems that Indiana is leading the nation in state governments which are recognizing that HOA fraud is endemic around the country.

Is there light peeking over this dismal HOA horizen? Perhaps there is!

Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

First, homeowners who unwittingly sign those real estate papers to buy into an HOA generally don’t realize that they’re stepping out of the Constitutional government we’re all so used to. And they’re stepping into an entirely new form of government. A true democracy. The kind of democracy that our founding fathers warned us to avoid. A lot of bad things happen in a democracy, such things as slavery or discrimination, or complete suppression of minority factions.

Second, the typical HOA has no checks and balances. Our founding fathers created a representative government that was stuffed with checks and balances. No branch of government was allowed to assume dictatorial powers over the other. The sense was that the people owned the government, not the other way around. Sadly, in the HOA, the people do not own the HOA, because there’s generally no court of last resort.

Third, the main presumption of the HOA movement is that its primary goal is to protect your property values. That promise is a complete and total lie.  Just ask the people of Las Vegas, Modesto, Houston, Florida, North Carolina, or any other city or state how their property values are doing now! And it’s not just a result of the housing bubble. It’s because all members of an HOA are locked into a sink or swim agreement with their neighbors. Try selling your house when the neighborhood swimming pool is filled with green algae, and every third or fourth house has a “For Sale” sign in front of it. All neighborhood home values take a dive together. That is not “protection of property values.”

Now look at the thousands, even tens of thousands of embezzlements from HOAs across the country. When HOA members have to make up the lost money in special assessments, is that a protection of property values?

Government jurisdictions love HOAs, because taxes can be secretly transferred from government to HOA. Homeowners pay those taxes in the form of dues. And they’re not deductible as taxes might be.

In many, many ways, the HOA does not protect and defend your property values.

If you start checking real estate trends around the country, you  may find something surprising. You may find that houses OUTSIDE of Homeowners Associations actually lost very little in the housing crash. And once the economy improves, you may find those outsiders enjoying a more robust growth in property values than those folks in the nearby HOA.

Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

I should say, “Hard to believe,” but in the world of Homeowners Associations each story is wilder than the last.

Members of the Saw Creek Homeowners Association in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, are now being sued for sex discrimination and sexual abuse. And it could cost the homeowners a pile of money.

The complainant, who worked for the association, claimed her supervisor made increasingly aggressive physical and verbal sexual advances. When she refused he allegedly called her a “slut” and a “whore” in front of other employees. He then began spreading rumors that she had worked as a prositute. When the woman complained to her superiors, she was fired.

In any other work environment it would be a run-of-the-mill “hostile work environment” lawsuit.

If she wins, which she very well could, every resident of the Saw Creek HOA would then be construed as sex offenders. Elderly couples, ministers, respectible people of the community, would have to cough up the money to settle the sex abuse case.

Now there’s a special assessment you can be proud of folks! Amazing!

Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

You don’t think you’d like to live under Marxism?  Well, how about just a tiny taste of it?

Let’s envision some super-smart city planners who’ve determined that cities are only healthy if they consist of at least 70% owner-occupied homes, and no more than 30% renter-occupied.

So they establish what they call a 70/30 rule. Any residential block found to have less than 70% owner-occupied homes is deemed to be “unhealthy.” The solution? License all landlords in the city.  If any block falls below the 70/30 rule, then no more homes can be rented on that block. If some poor homeowner is facing foreclosure and tries to rent out his home to save it….”Well, screw ’em.” He can’t get a landlord’s license and he’ll just have to let his house go into foreclosure.

On the other hand, if people who’ve been hit hard by the housing crisis can’t find a house to rent, even though there are thousands of vacant homes in the city, “Well, screw ’em.”

Come to think of it, maybe the 70/30 rule will force more homes into foreclosure. Then those homes can be sold dirt-cheap to former renters. Sure, it’ll slash tax revenues and drive a number of cities into bankruptcy. But it must be a good thing because it’s “redistributing wealth.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s exactly what’s happening in Minnesota in towns like Winona, and Mankato.

The Institute for Justice has filed a lawsuit.  They say it blatantly unconsitutional. But Marxism is all about social experimentation, isn’t it?

Ward Lucas, author of Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case About Your Homeowners Association