Expect a ton of money to be poured into the pockets of Massachusetts legislators over the next week. What’s up? The State Senate has agreed to a ‘common sense’ bill to order condo associations to pay the legal costs of homeowners who have to sue to get financial records.
A homeowner has an absolute right to see the association’s financial documents, budgets and insurance policies. It’s basic common sense, especially for homeowners who are trying to sell their homes and move out. Mortgage companies require it. The current law mandates that those records be made available. But there’s no penalty for corporate deviants who decide they’re above such puerile requirements.
The current problem is that the bill is stalled. If the Massachusetts House doesn’t get off its collective rear end, or if a lobbyist in a legislative hallway waves a few thousand bucks around, this bill may fail due to official disinterest.
If the CAI sees this video they will hang their hat on this being a justifiable reason for the existence of HOAs! Yes, HOAs would prohibit this from happening for sure. But is putting up with the crap from the HOA better or worse than this?
Is this revenge for a newly-erected fence? Or is it an eye for “art” that includes a tree “monument” to honor Sir Thomas Crapper? He’s famous for… well, he’s just famous.
After living in an HOA, I could find the humor in this if it meant I was living HOA-free. I’d even buy the first 100lb. bag of bird feed.
But something tells me the city codes enforcement agent will be out soon to write a violation for some kind of hazard.
Under any condition will these neighbors ever be able to live in peace and harmony?
I’m always happy to pass along a link to a blog where HOA members are discovering the tyrannies that are coming to dominate the controlled neighborhood scene.
Some folks in Massachusetts are beginning to realize the horrors of living in a community where hidden personal agendas are par-for-the-course among board members and property managers.
Home ownership is an incredibly personal and private thing, just as a marriage relationship is private and relationships with children are personal and private.
Yes, government can intervene when laws are broken. But to have your neighbors pry into your private affairs is universally disgusting and revolting. Official retaliation against a homeowner in an effort to force him or her out of the neighborhood is as nauseating as the racism and sexism that dominated housing trends over the past century.
With that in mind, here comes another blogger who deserves to be followed as Massachusetts HOA boards are put under the microscope:
