Oh, the tempers have started furiously flying at the sight of the assessment letters arriving in the mail!
The homeowners in the elite HOA of The Lakes in Visalia, in the Central San Joaquin Valley, are fuming because the private roads need paving (according the property manager and the board) and that requires an emergency assessment of $2,300 per lot. If a person owns three lots they need to triple that payment. Why the need for the emergency assessments? Quick answer: The reserves are underfunded. Which comes as no surprise to all of us who work daily on HOA issues.
The HOA attorney has informed the unhappy homeowners that the HOA board is within its legal rights to demand the assessments. And, if not paid, they will lien the properties until it is.
Our regular readers have heard me say this many times: Buying into an HOA comes with massive risks. When the ink dries on the purchase contract, you become the guarantor for all debts, loans, lawsuits, settlements, liabilities, construction defects and disaster rebuilds for the entire HOA. There is no way to escape it. The CC&Rs are never quite that clear and easily understood, but that’s what it boils down to.
The Lakes of Visalia has now joined the massive number of HOAs that are already war zones. Welcome to the REAL WORLD of HOA living!
We’ve seen this kind of thing over and over. You buy an expensive HOA home next to a golf course or a pretty little lake. You pay an extra high premium for such a nice view.
Suddenly, it all goes away. The golf course is sold to a new developer who hatches a plan to add a whole new subdivision on top of the golf course. The pretty little lake, it turns out, is a drainage basin for the county and the county suddenly decides to drain it.
Where’s your investment? Gone, gone, gone. Welcome to HOA living.
Some HOA controversies are just a little too hard for my poor brain to figure out.
In Naples, Florida, the Timberwood of Naples HOA is planning to evict a family because their mentally disabled teenage son put up a Confederate flag in his window.
I’m a longtime defender of the First Amendment who doesn’t think ANYONE should be able to restrict the free speech rights of another. And certainly I understand the sensitivity about the Confederate flag especially when its display is supported by tax monies.
But over the past hour I’ve been searching for images of various flags of the Confederacy. If the image of the flag in the news story linked below is accurate, then this family is being evicted for a flag that’s fake. It’s not a Confederate flag. It just happens to be red, white and blue and have a star. It doesn’t match any of the flags of the Confederacy. So, essentially this family is being evicted for displaying the colors red, white and blue with a star?
How far can suppression of speech go?
In the typical HOA, they just make up the rules as they go along.
We’re back in Saint Louis, Missouri where homeowners are in the midst of a very heated battle.
Some are saying it’s over skin color. Others say it’s the barking dogs. A few think it’s the criminal history. Whatever it is, it’s heating up.
These folks live in an HOA. Personally, I do not see where the HOA should even think of getting involved in this battle.
The black lesbian lady with the four barking dogs has the NAACP and experienced Ferguson protesters backing her up. She has served time in prison for a murder-for-hire on her ex-husband. And that plan failed because her cousin was the hired killer and he ratted her out to the police. Somewhere along the way she acquired the barking dogs that are keeping the neighbor awake at night. She is also being accused of punching the neighbor lady in the face and leaving her with a swollen lip and bloody nose.
I see HOA involvement as nothing more than a promise to destroy the bank accounts of the homeowners. Others think they should enforce the CC&Rs of no more than two dogs per household. I still say stay away from this battle.
And for the lady who can’t get any sleep, I suggest a white noise machine with earplugs. You’ll never hear the barking dogs but be sure you have a number of smoke alarms in your house so you would hear them if there’s an emergency.
As the battle rages on, I will be watching from the sidelines.
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.
