There are lots of wise people who specifically bought homes outside of HOA control. The Moss Ridge neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida does just fine without one. The neighborhood has only 59 houses and most people are friendly with their neighbors. Moss Hill is clean, homes are nice, there are no cars on blocks, no pink and purple houses.
But a number of homeowners there started getting fake “code violations” in their mailboxes. One person is ordered to paint her house…”or else!” Another is told “Remove the flowerpots from your deck… “or else!” Still another, “Edge your sidewalk! Or else!” The notices demand correction within 90 days… “Or else!”
Many of us have dreamed of having that condo on the beach in Hawaii. You know, the one you get to visit a few times a year, the ones where the kids go when they want a break from work.
Now imagine what life is going to be like for folks who live at Ne Nani Kai. Jim and Nancy Bevill, as it’s reported in the Molokai News, have just been awarded 3.87 million dollars. The jury found that the HOA board of directors and its employees have been engaged in a course of racketeering, civil conspiracy, gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional stress along with a host of other crimes.
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Think Las Vegas HOA Crime is Bad? Try Hawaii!
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So many in the Homeowner Association Movement are fond of saying the HOA is “the purest form of Democracy.” That concept, though should really be a thing to shudder about, not to celebrate.
For Democracy is the autocratic, even dictitorial rule by a small group over the pathetically clueless masses. Those masses are generally uninformed, disinformed, sometimes by intent, and often by design, while the Democracy throws its weight into ruling the masses.
When the great French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville was sent to study this confounding new creation of our “self-working republic,” he was amazed by many things.
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DeTocqueville Could have predicted the Las Vegas Disaster! But We Weren’t Listening
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Federal investigators in Las Vegas continue to work out plea deals with Homeowner Association crooks who scammed hundred of homeowners in Las Vegas neighborhoods. In many cases homeowners just lost their homes. They were thrown out on the curb like so much garbage.
There’ve now been a total of three suspected suicides among the dozens of suspects who ran these scams. And one figure has been assaulted in what looks like a case of Las Vegas street justice. There are several big players yet to take the guilty plea, lawyers, judges, you know, people you come to suspect should believe in truth, justice and the American Way.
As one pans the landscape of Homeowner Associations, it’s difficult finding a real reason to respect them. The latest story comes from reporter Ricado Gandara of the American Statesman. He recounts the tragedy of Tellmon and Jaquelyn in their 80’s, who’s condo was destroyed by a fire a year ago in Texas.
Still, they must keep up their payment their HOA fees, currently 561 dollars a month.
Condo owners in a large townhouse complex in Las Vegas could certainly find a reason to be sympatic. Their complex burned two years ago. Insurance companies promptly paid nearly one million dollars to the manager but work has never been to restore their neighborhod.
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