Across the country, more and more major news agencies are either doing, or are planning extensive stories on the HOA mess. It’s more than a mess. It’s a national outrage. It perpetuates the outrageous lie that a Homeowners Association will protect your property values. Not in my experience!
Here’s the link to an excellent story beginning with the victimization of an innocent family.
I wrote about this a few weeks ago: Some ladies in an Arizona HOA were forbidden from using the clubhouse to make Christmas packages for needy kids.
Well, outrage must have been a sight to behold, but the HOA has relented and the ladies are back at their customary spot, making those goodies. It wouldn’t have happened without public pressure.
(link to the ladies once again helping needy kids)
Don’t ever tell yourself the world of Homeowners Associations can’t get any wackier. The stories are sometimes too outrageous to believe. Here’s another.
The president of the Coronado Place Homeowners Association in Tucson is handing out speeding fines and then threatening to shut off the water if those fines aren’t paid. Under Arizona state law, that’s illegal. But it took public exposure by a great reporter at KVOA News to embarrass this women into backing down.
(link to the latest HOA outrage)
http://www.kvoa.com/story/30589956/n4t-investigators-hoa-hassle
Christmas. What a wonderful holiday. I love it as much as I love Hanukkah and the Seder and all the other religious holidays. In fact, I love any religious person’s special days. It’s just what we do in America.
But why, oh why, are Homeowners Associations coming down so hard on holiday lights? I get it that some light displays are over the top. I get it that gorgeous light displays bring more traffic into a neighborhood. But the greater spirit I see during the holidays satisfies an inner part of my soul. Homeowners Associations, as far as I know, are the only entity in America where expressing your religious beliefs is verboten.
(link to another story about HOA Christmas hatred)
The Illinois Supreme Court has handed down some pretty goofy decisions on behalf of Homeowners Associations. I loved the one last year, the ruling that gave untrained, private HOA security guards police powers, the ability to pull over motorists and hand out tickets.
This latest one is a humdinger. It makes any new buyer of a condo responsible for all unpaid assessments, fines and legal costs run up by the previous owner IF it fails to pay the first monthly assessment on time. Once again, ask yourself what financial organization in its right corporate mind would invest in an HOA? And if you can’t find lenders, what does that do to property values?
(link to story on Illinois court decision)
