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.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his family are the latest victims of the Neighborhood Nazis. He and his family were selling lemonade outside their suburban home to bring attention to their favorite charity, Baby Buggy. It provides clothing and other services to families in need.
But in stomps an angry neighbor saying cars are stopping at the side of the road to buy lemonade and motorists are having the nerve to contribute to the charity. In East Hampton Village that’s a crime tantamount to bank robbery.
Yes, the bullies are gradually taking over in America costing young people a chance to see what times were like in the good old days.
Yep, it’s a question a lot of us have been asking: With The Donald being such a high-powered real estate developer, what does he think about owner associations? After all, he creates the covenants for all the condos he sells.
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.
The blog I wrote about the Raintree Lake HOA in Lee’s Summit, Missouri on August 10th mentioned discussions of a GoFundMe account for the Stout family legal defense. They are standing up and fighting against the HOA to keep their daughters’ purple playset.
Sure enough, somebody took the bull by the horns and set it up. The donations are rolling in. And the comments from some of the donors are VERY interesting. Even a Realtor is making mention of people being afraid to buy in HOAs. How many times have we heard that before?
It’s so sickening to think all that money will go to fund the college funds of children of two HOA lawyers. Or maybe a second home in Breckenridge, Bozeman, or Bonaire. Or, possibly a yacht for the Lake of the Ozarks. No matter what the outcome of the lawsuit in the courtroom, the lawyers come out the winners. This is how the HOA legal game is played. Everybody loses except the lawyers. The pay off is determined by how long the lawyers can keep the battle raging.
When I sold yellow page advertising years ago, I had hundreds of attorneys as clients. When I asked what was the best case I could bring them they would tell me a nasty divorce. Naive me, I asked how do you know it’s a nasty divorce? With a chuckle from the attorneys I kept hearing, “you get them to call and we KNOW how to make it nasty!” Something tells me the days of the nasty divorces have been replaced with nasty HOA legal battles. Unfortunately, in that arena, I am not at all naive!
