Little Boxes
Yes, I know I’ve posted this before, but because we get new readers here every day, many will not ever have heard this Pete Seeger classic. Enjoy!
Category Archives: racketeering
But My HOA Protects My Property Values!
If you believe that, then you’re visiting the wrong shrink!
No, Your HOA absolutely does not protect your property values. Your HOA is there to keep track of your net worth. Your net worth (not just your home value) is pledged to a community pool which can be used whenever necessary to cover the cost of lawsuits, repairs, maintenance, insurance, embezzling board members.
All neighborhoods age, that’s just a fact of life. But developers get special breaks for cramming more homes into smaller spaces, and often those developers are just self-centered and financially motivated to cut corners. Meanwhile, building inspectors look the other way knowing it’ll be years before construction problems start becoming apparent.
When a mortgage or financial crisis hits and HOAs don’t maintain the common areas wild things start happening. A few homeowners lose their homes. Then a few more. Suddenly, there’s not enough money in the budget to maintain the common areas. More homes or condos are turned into rentals. Crime increases. More lawsuits are filed. Then it gets especially messy as the entire neighborhood collapses. Who’s still around to claim, “Our HOA protects property values?”
A prime example is linked below:
(Georgia condo complex gets trashed)
K I S S
guest blog by Nila Ridings
Many will recognize the acronym KISS. It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.
The question is asked: “How do we wake up the legislators so they will understand the extent of the abuse and destruction the modern day HOAs are inflicting on homeowners? Sending a KISS message such as the following is concise and a summary of the horrible HOA truth. As I see it, there will be a powerful message and a great deal of education in these paragraphs if they read like this:
Dear Legislator,
Let’s talk HOAs…
Did you know when someone buys into an HOA (Homeowners Association) they are signing away their Constitutional Rights? Did you know they were becoming business partners with all of their new neighbors in a non-profit corporation? Did you know they are becoming the guarantor for payment on all debts, loans, lawsuits, settlements, liabilities, construction defects, and disaster rebuilds for the HOA?
Guess what? The buyers do not know it either until it’s gotten to the point they have lost their money, health, happiness, and often times their homes to foreclosure.
Why is this happening? BECAUSE THE LEGISLATORS ARE NOT LISTENING TO THE TRUTH!
IT IS HIGH TIME YOU LISTEN TO THE HOMEOWNERS, NOT THE INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS!
Please contact me. As your constituent I need your help!
Thank you for your willingness to be a public servant.
Your Name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone
Email
Keep in mind that legislators are everyday people just like each of us. Similar to buyers and homeowners they have very limited, if any, knowledge about HOAs. In order to pass effective legislation they will need to know more than the average HOA homeowner because they must be able to predict the outcome of bills they pass. They must know the answer to the question “Will this have unintended consequences if it passes as written?”
During this session, I worked with the Kansas legislators on HB 2557. The bill was poorly written to begin with, but there was potential to make it much better. It was with that hope that I asked our readers to show your support. (It was written by a legislator with limited knowledge of HOAs.) In the last Local Government Committee meeting they added some amendments that jolted me out of my seat.
After the meeting, I stopped some of the representatives as they came out the door. I explained exactly what I foresee the unintended consequences being if they passed that bill as written. Ultimately, it was agreed they would pass over the bill in this session, we will work on it together over the summer, and it will be carried back when the session begins in January 2017. My goal is a piece of legislation that will enhance the Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act. I do not want to waste my time or the legislators’ time on something that is not going to benefit the homeowners. As disappointing as it was, delaying the action and placing it back on the drawing board was the best move to make because of our time limitations.
I’m offering the above as a door-opener between you and your legislators. I encourage you to be involved in the bill creation process by working with them. Amazing things can happen when everybody works together. The CAI lobbyists have big money and they are smooth with their presentations. You live the HOA nightmare and I encourage you to read, listen, and learn as much as you possibly can about HOAs before you begin efforts through your legislators. If you don’t, expect to be smashed like a fly at the family reunion picnic.
Major HOA Legal Implications!
It looks like our side won a small but significant legal battle. A federal judge has ruled that a debt collector’s law firm can be held liable when it presents false information received from the client. The debt collector had inflated its claim against a homeowner by thousands of dollars, the same thing HOA debt collectors do all over the country. Finally! Finally, a law firm gets smacked for false representation!
Now we need a case where the HOA itself is also found liable for hiring crooked debt collectors who use crooked lawyers.
(link to law firm that wins legal ruling)
HOA Housing Craziness In Aspen!
I’ve written about this before. But here’s another great column from the Aspen Times. Wages are so out-of-control in this Eastern Hollywood Town, that the City of Aspen is using taxpayers’ money to pay for the maintenance of Homeowners Associations where all the ‘low-income’ workers live. The whole system is warped in more ways than can be easily discussed. But the columnist linked below does a pretty good job.
Homeowners Associations are a national scandal waiting to burst. But making the taxpayer pay the cost of keeping this scam going is just stretching the imagination too far.
(link to Aspen Times story on taxpayer funded HOAs)
