Category Archives: HOA

Viciousness Toward The Handicapped

This one comes to us from Miamisburg, Ohio. A handicapped woman who’s fitted with a prosthetic leg, was given a handicap parking spot in front of her house.

That angered at least one neighbor who began parking in her spot after leaving the nastiest note! The story has already gone viral on Facebook. After reading the note linked below, see if you think this story should go even more viral.

(link to story about 26-year-old handicapped woman)

 

Child Discrimination in HOAs Illegal!

guest blog by Dave Russell (community association manager)
Last week Minnetonka residents of a condo complex won a massive settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit contending that a ban on playing in the grass illegally discriminated against families with children.The settlement agreement, announced last Friday, by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, means that the Greenbrier Village Homeowners’ Association Inc. and Gassen Company Inc. must establish a new nondiscrimination policy and pay a $10,000 penalty to the federal government and $100,000 to six families.  We all know well who is going to foot the bill for this one. Don’t we?
 
Just days after the Minnetonka settlement another HOA in California was making headlines for smacking homeowners with $50 fines for basically the same thing.  It appears that the Agave and Saguaro HOA in Chula Vista , California prohibits a number of kid-friendly activities in their development. This HOA prohibits their resident children from riding skateboards, bicycles, roller-skates or anything with ‘wheels’ on their driveways, common areas, sidewalks or streets. So what gives with these kooky rules?
 
Well the reporters down at ABC 10 News went to Prescott Management (the management company for Agave and Saguaro HOA) to ask that very question. The HOA manager claimed that some of those rules were for the ‘safety of children.’  Are these ‘safety concerns’ really legitimate?
 
While I completely understand the need for kids to be able to play in their communities, what happens if something goes terribly wrong? Hypothetically, let’s say this HOA changes their rules and a child gets mowed down by a car in the driveway. Whose fault is it? Well that’s the question the parents attorneys will be asking.
 
The argument can easily be made that the HOA should have adopted rules restricting children from playing in dangerous areas, such as driveways. One has to remember, attorneys are always searching for the deepest pockets when it comes to lawsuits and settlements. Unfortunately, those deep pockets always belong to the HOA and their insurance carriers.
 
HOAs and community managers seem to be in a real pickle here. If you restrict child-friendly activities, even if they may be dangerous, the HOA could be sued for a fair housing violation. If you don’t have safety rules in place, and a child gets hurt, the HOA still gets sued if something goes ‘terribly wrong.’ When it’s all said and done, and dust settles from the lawsuits,  it’s the homeowners who will foot the bill once again. Well, don’t they always?
 
So what’s the solution to this seemingly new legal issue of Children vs. HOA’s? A large part of this problem was actually created by the developers themselves, who poorly designed these communities, and without children in mind. Very rarely do you see a developer put in a kid-friendly area where kids can just be kids. And for some reason if the developer does build a kid-friendly area, it’s always across a busy road like the development in the Minnesota case.  It’s all about jamming in as many units into one confined space as possible for profit.
 
There’s no doubt we’ll be seeing a magnitude of new lawsuits from homeowners and federal agencies like Fair Housing. These lawsuits are going to cost homeowners billions of dollars and make HOA insurance premiums skyrocket!  In my opinion, the best solution to this newly found problem is to stop building these damn liabilities!
 
If you ever needed another reason not to buy into an HOA……make sure that you add this one to the top of your list!
 

Incredible when an HOA Fines a Handicapped Person

If you live in an HOA, remember you don’t actually own your own home. It’s owned jointly by every member of the neighborhood. That means when your HOA gets sued the damage judgments are shared equally by every member of the neighborhood. If your board does something outrageous enough to precipitate a lawsuit you could face an outrageous special assessment to pay the damage award.

With that in mind, read this next link. An HOA cuts off the water to a disabled resident. A lawsuit? Get ready to shell out big bucks.

(link to story on Atlanta surgery patient who lost her access to water)

 

This One Will Absolutely Fry Your Brain!

Here’s an HOA in Central Florida that will fine you ten thousand bucks if you post a negative online review about the community. And that money has to be paid within ten days.

Not only that, but this fascist HOA leader claims to own all copyrights of all material posted by his Windemere Cay Homeowners Association.

From what store are these idiots buying their supplies of Stupid Juice?

(careful, but this link may actually fry your brain.)

Some HOA Humor from Florida’s Jan Bergemann

FLORIDA-FRIENDLY LANDSCAPING?
HAVING FUN?

 

Opinion By Jan BergemannPublished March 1, 2015
All over Florida we see lawsuits popping up against owners who use the laws established in  2009 by the Florida Legislature [FS 720.3075 (4)(a) and FS 373.185] to change their landscaping to preserve water and avoid heavy fertilizing with dangerous chemicals. There was reason this law passed — and the folks insisting that the original rules of the community have to be obeyed by should finally realize that Florida-Friendly Landscaping can look as well very pretty, sometimes a lot nicer than a boring green lawn.But since laws obviously haven’t changed their minds yet, maybe some humor will?Here it goes:

GOD and LAWN CARE

GOD to ST. FRANCIS:

Frank,  …  You know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet?  What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago?   I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.
St. FRANCIS:

It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
GOD:

Grass? But, it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It’s sensitive to temperatures. Do theseSuburbanites really want all that grass growing there?
ST. FRANCIS:

Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
GOD:

The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST FRANCIS:

Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.
GOD:

They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS:

Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD:

They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
ST. FRANCIS:

No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.
GOD:

Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
ST. FRANCIS:

Yes, Sir.
GOD:

These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS:

You aren’t going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
GOD:

What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It’s a natural cycle of life. 

ST. FRANCIS:

You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD:

No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?
ST. FRANCIS:

After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.
GOD:

And where do they get this mulch?
ST. FRANCIS:

They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
GOD:

Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore.

St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE:

‘Dumb and Dumber’, Lord. It’s a story about….
GOD:

Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

 

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?