Category Archives: Home Assoc

Oh, How Sweet HOA Life Is!

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Shadowglen Homeowners Association, Austin, Texas. Homeowners are beginning to get hefty fines if any vehicle parks in front of their house. It doesn’t matter if the car belongs to the next door neighbor, a delivery company or just a friend dropping by, homeowners are getting slammed with fines of $500 and more.

Isn’t it strange how all these HOAs start off so benign, yet end up so fascist? All it takes is a couple of new board members who suddenly find themselves in the first position of power they’ve ever possessed.

In my new book Neighbors At War, I explain the chemical reaction that happens in the brains of those who get that first taste of raw power. And in Chapter 15 there’s a discussion of two of the most controversial sociological experiments ever conducted. Each experiment attempted to explore what goes on in the minds of people who suddenly feel the need to damage another human being. In one of the experiments, the scientist pondered why it was so easy to persuade German guards to mindlessly slaughter prisoners of war. What he discovered shocked and outraged the entire psychology community.

There’s a reason that board members and managers in a place like the Shadowglenn Homeowners Association are often referred to as the ‘lawn Nazis’ or the ‘HOA Nazis’. Power is an incredible aphrodisiac!

(click here for KXAN-TV story)

http://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/hoa-parking-rules-upsets-homeowners

 

How Many Conservatives ‘Get It’?

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Historically, many Republicans and indeed many conservative Republicans have strongly supported the idea of Homeowners Associations. They falsely believe that the smaller a governmental entity gets the closer it is to the people. Many conservatives AND liberals have discovered over the past few years this is an empty-headed belief.

An old-time outdoorsman’s axiom is that if three people get into trouble in the wilderness two will always turn against the one. You can’t get any closer to true democracy than three people. And as John Adams and Toqueville warned us eons ago, we all need to beware of the “tyranny of the majority.”

Democracy is an ugly word unless it’s accompanied by guaranteed restraints like a Bill of Rights, due process, and an orderly court system. Always remember that a mob running down the street breaking windows and burning buildings is a true democracy.

If there is no set of checks and balances, it’s basic human instinct to try to dominate all those around you. And right there is the fulcrum around which the national Homeowners Association scandal spins. Without checks and balances there are no human rights. Believe it!

The article linked below is a couple of years old, but it’s fantastic when a columnist for the conservative Townhall.com begins to understand that the Homeowners Association Movement has the potential of being downright dangerous to the finances and freedom of individual homeowners. The real tragedy is that we don’t hear a constant drumbeat from both the Townhall crowd and the ACLU crowd. Anger at this national scandal is not conservative or liberal. Every political faction should be screaming at the outrages going on in every state in the union.

All that being said, the attached column is worth reading again.

(click here for Townhall column)

http://townhall.com/columnists/rachelalexander/2011/06/22/homeowners%E2%80%99_associations_becoming_unavoidable_and_quasi-governmental/page/full

 

 

 

Huge Victory for California Homeowners!

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The California Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court decision which would essentially prevent the CAI (Community Associations Institute) from controlling the outcome of all board elections in Homeowners Associations.

Truly, the CAI has emerged as one of the nation’s most disgustingly evil-minded institutions. CAI claims it represents homeowners, although sometimes it refers to ‘stakeholders’. What CAI really represents is a massive and growing cash diversion from private homeowners to tort lawyers and service providers. When a homeowner gets into a beef with his or her HOA, CAI refers the case to its own secret closet of favored tort lawyers. But the ‘California dance’ by CAI was just beyond belief.

California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled that an HOA which takes a position or becomes an advocate for a certain board candidate or ballot measure must provide “equal access” to opponents. This includes access to any means of publication including HOA websites, bulletin boards, community meeting rooms, newsletters and any other publication routes. CAI lawyers, of course, went ballistic.

Equal access? Who the heck ever heard of such an outrage? Equal protection? That’s for U.S. citizens, certainly not the citizens of HOA Amerika.

Twenty four California law firms filed ‘Friends of the Court’ briefs to the California Supreme Court begging the justices to overturn that stinking ‘equal access’ judgment. Count ’em: Twenty four law firms, each one of them sucking at the teat of the HOA lawsuit machine.

For a very brief background on this lawsuit, the Beachwalk Homeowners Association board figured out a sneaky way to get CAI affiliated members elected to the board. If the CAI-guy didn’t win, they’d just keep holding elections one after the other, advocating all the way until the homeowners got weary and finally gave in to the constant political propaganda and elected the previously chosen CAI-guy. These 24 HOA law firms, by filing such Friends of the Court briefs, demonstrated they were absolutely behind such odoriferous tactics. Remember the old Soviet Union where voters could vote, but there was only one candidate on the ballot? Well, the CAI-guy election tactic was Communism on steroids.

In a strange turn to Constitutional fairness and due process, the California Supreme Court essentially ruled that opponents of in-house candidates or ballot issues actually got to have the freedom to discuss alternative views. Amazing!

Any homeowner who wonders where his or her HOA dues are going, or who wonders why Homeowners Associations have become so despised by individual homeowners, should read the decision in the California case: Wittenberg v Beachwalk Homeowner Association.

Calling all homeowners: You finally won a big one! Congratulations!

(click here for California decision)

http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/G046891.PDF

 

Swing Set Stupidity

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Some things in life are just common sense. But some of life’s biggest losers specialize in perfecting the cruel art of having no common sense. In Los Altos, California, the Toyon Farm Homeowners Association is showing the world the finely honed cruelty it can inflict on a dying child.

Five year old Weston was diagnosed with terminal lymphoma. But the little guy was determined to fight back against the disease and live. His dad told Weston if he could just get well, he would give Weston whatever he wanted as a coming home present. Young Weston said he’d really like a swing set. Weston’s dad had it installed and waiting for the child’s miracle homecoming.

But the geezers who run the Toyon Farm Owners Association decided in their infinite wisdom that no accommodations could be made for a child, even one with a terminal disease. They told Weston’s dad the swing set was illegal and had to be removed immediately. Otherwise they would assess fines, lawsuits, a foreclosure and seizure of the boy’s home.

Nice work.

Classy.

The lawn Nazis at the Toyon Farm Owners Association were unrelenting. They wouldn’t even give the family a hearing. There was no middle ground, no court of last appeal. Get rid of the swingset or join the ranks of the homeless.

What do these geezers talk about during dinner after the board meeting? “Well, Honey, I kept another gimp out of the neighborhood today.”

Those of you keeping track, add one more HOA to your DO NOT BUY list. The Toyon Farm Owners Association.

It’s just market forces at work.

(click here for ABC story on the family)

 

Privacy Invasion By Drones Under Fire

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Seems that Texas lawmakers are a little concerned about the abusive use of spy drones by civilians. They’ve passed a law to restrict their use.

And here I thought that Harris County, Texas, one of the most abusive clusters of HOAs in the country, would be able to use drone cameras to peek inside the property and homes of HOA members to see if there were any covenant violations!

Six other states have passed anti-drone laws, but according to Fox News NY Texas legislators were especially concerned about private citizens and public entities who could use drones to eyeball what was going on in private bedrooms. 

Still, as we’ve learned over the past year’s worth of federal spying scandals, privacy is a thing of the past. Despite privacy laws, they’re listening, they’re peeking, they’re photographing, they’re going through your trash. Ah, and HOA board members are doing it, too.

It only makes sense.

(click here for FoxNY story on drones)