What a hoot! Impossible as it seems, there are still homeowners who believe that bit of nonsense. When you buy a home in an HOA or Condo Association, you’re essentially pooling your net worth and life savings with a bunch of strangers, people you wouldn’t dream of inviting to lunch. Just go to any annual meeting of any HOA and listen to the yelling, the sarcasm, the accusations.
People in the Orlando, Florida area are talking about a neighborhood of elderly folks whose HOA went bankrupt in the housing bubble. An investor bought all 16 homes in the neighborhood. And now he’s jacked monthly dues up from 180 to 500 dollars. Obviously, these seniors are living on little more than Social Security. But if they don’t ante up with the monthly dues, well the investor just forecloses. There’s a killing being made in Florida, and Pennsylvania, and Northern Virginia, and Harris County, Texas, and Nevada, and California.
Yes, folks, you are looking at the future of HOA Amerika, where traditional Constitutional government has made a passive transfer to fascism and tyranny.
In case you hadn’t noticed, look at the left-hand column. You’ll see that our eBook is now out. If you’re a Kindle person, Please check it out! Click on it, enjoy! Then tell everyone you know that’s it’s now online.
The victories are precious and few, but once in a while homeowners win a small victory against the fascists in HOA Amerika. An appeals court in California has issued a ruling that’s making the lawn Nazis twist in their graves.
The court ruled that all Homeowners Associations, when holding elections, must give homeowners with opposing views equal access to association media, when and if the board itself is taking a position in the election.
Amazing! This is one court in the nation that now says homeowners have rights. They cannot be shut out of the neighborhood newsletter or website. They cannot be shut up when trying to speak at the local board meeting when a campaign is in progress. The really stunning thing here is that a lower court ruled the exact opposite. But the Court of Appeals overturned the junk ruling from the lower court.
The Adams Kessler law firm, representing the HOA boards, adamantly opposed the Constitution’s Free Speech provision arguing that HOA boards have the right to stifle dissent during campaigns to amend the association’s by-laws. It argued that the HOA board was only “providing information” when it stomped on equal access provisions in California law.
The Appeals court essentially ruled that an association “board” is only a “member” of an association and does not have greater rights of access than any other member of the neighborhood.
Yes, it’s a subtle distinction, but no so subtle as to dodge the outrage of the Adams Kessler law firm. The Community Associations Institute routinely holds training seminars (think brainwashing) of the officers of HOA boards, during which it trains its puppets to always deny homeowners any access in newsletters, community bulletin boards or common areas if they hold an opposing view.
The Community Associations Institute is going to work its little black heart out to get this decision modified or overturned. CAI makes billions of dollars for its lawyers, its managers, its contractors, and its ‘training’ of board members. It simply cannot allow homeowners to regain any rights they lost to these fascist empires known as gated neighborhoods. And those billions of dollars will be thrown into the fight against this decision.
Still, my thoughts towards Adams Kessler: On this day, my friend, you lost.
A young man is dead, and that certainly is a massive tragedy. But another man’s life was ruined with all the racial allegations connected with the ‘murder’ of another man, and possibly ruined by a vengeful prosecutor who went to the bar with no evidence.
My big question is, should the prosecutor have charged Zimmerman in the first place? I’ll speak to some of the reasons he should not have, but first let’s look at a case of prosecutorial misconduct that happened at Duke University. Yes, the Duke Lacrosse team.
There was zero evidence of a rape of two strippers hired by the lacrosse team. Yet Durham County prosecutor Mike Niphong continued pushing, publicly calling it a gang rape, and making other outrageous statements about the alleged guilt of the lacrosse players. The players were later exonerated, Niphong lost his job as a prosecutor, and then was stripped of his law license by the North Carolina Bar Association.
Did justice prevail?
But let’s toss in one final bit of knowledge in the Trayvon Martin case. Everyone involved in the case knows that Florida has one of the strongest ‘stand-your-ground’ laws in the country. All you have to do to pull the trigger is to “reasonably believe that you were facing death or great bodily harm.”
Zimmerman had injuries to his face and the back of his head. If he didn’t believe he was facing great bodily harm, he would have been an idiot.
The prosecutor had to prove Zimmerman did not have reason to have such fear. Yet his star witness was a perjurer and was still allowed to testify. The standard for the jury is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Did the prosecutor think he could prove BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that Zimmerman was not afraid of bodily harm?
There are still some interesting things left to come. From the beginning, the national media and many public figures have tried to exploit every possible racial trigger. It’s impossible to predict how the public will react once the final outcome is announced.
George Zimmerman
I guarantee you, homes in The Retreat At Twin Lakes Homeowners Association are not going to be selling well.
If at all.
George Zimmerman has an incredibly good case against his Homeowners Association for not supporting him in his time of need. They were the ones who wanted a neighborhood watch. They were the ones who accepted Zimmerman’s offer to walk the streets at night. But when the time came for him to show heroism and stand up against a potential burglar, they walked out on him.
This neighborhood has already tried to walk out on Zimmerman by paying Trayvon’s attorneys a million dollars to ‘settle’ this case. But it’s not settled, not by a long shot. Now, it’s Zimmerman’s turn.
This particular Homeowners Association, The Retreat At Twin Lakes Homeowners Association, is about to bite the ‘big one’.
All this talk about lawsuits and collapsing HOA property values leads me once again to encourage you to get a copy of my new book, “Neighbors At War! the Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association.” I don’t care if you buy it, check it out at the library or steal it from your next door neighbor. There’s information in this book that you NEED TO KNOW! All the five-star reviews on my Amazon page show that lots and lots of readers feel the same.
If you just plain can’t afford the discounted price on Amazon, then hold on! The eBook is imminent. And word for word, it’ll be the most important money you ever spent on a book.
![Scales_of_justice2[1]](http://neighborsatwar.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Scales_of_justice211.jpg)
