We’ve seen the stories: No mezuzah allowed on the doors of the Jewish. No angels standing in the rock garden in remembrance of the deceased. Now, it’s no Buddhist symbols or crosses in the flower garden for Chris Bumann who lives in the Covington Bridge HOA in Spring, Texas.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says the government cannot restrict our free exercise of religion. Yet, homeowners associations in Texas have a law that states they can regulate religious symbols at the homes of their members. EXCEPT, it also says they have to be in compliance with the Texas and United States Constitutions.
Of course, Chris can sue the HOA and take his case all the way to the Supreme Court per attorney Chris Tritico. That’s an option only if Mr. Bumann is willing to fund the legal battle. But even if he gets into court he will inevitably be told that when he signed his real estate papers he essentially agreed that the neighborhood’s covenants superseded his rights under either the state or federal Constitutions. At this point, though, he has 30 days to remove the statues he bought years ago. Or the HOA will get a court-order to remove them at his expense.
He feels bullied. I think he’s right.
Chris, you’ve gotten yourself on the radar screen of Covington Bridge! Selling out is the only way off. Say your prayers for a buyer to come along!
It won’t satisfy the families of the victims, but it’s just another chapter in the world of ‘HOA Amerika’. The killer of two HOA board members has committed suicide.
Dr. Mahmoud Hindi was a doctor and a homeowner in the Spring Creek Homeowners Association in Louisville, Kentucky. (Most news reporters are ‘goosey’ about using the HOA’s name.) The neighborhood is quite a high-end development, but Hindi’s next door neighbors were officers on the HOA board. And Hindi felt they were perpetually tormenting him over minor code violations. So he walked into a 2012 board meeting in a local church and gunned the two men down.
Hindi wasn’t shy about telling police exactly what he had done and his murder trial was set to begin next year. But a couple days ago, Hindi committed suicide by hanging himself in his jail cell.
There’s nothing that can excuse first degree murder. But the case does provide more insight into how constant torment by neighbors can drive a homeowners over the brink. It’s not the first time a homeowner has fired a gun and taken lives during an HOA board meeting. Sadly, it probably won’t be the last.
Nevada psychologist and Homeowners Rights advocate Dr. Gary Solomon has an incredible way with words; cogent, insightful, powerful. His paper on ‘HOA Syndrome’ made headlines. His paper on elder abuse in Homeowners Associations is absolutely worth printing out, and possibly mailing out to some of your HOA neighbors.
Dr. Solomon believes that elderly homeowners are intentionally farmed by HOA management companies because they have trouble fighting back, and this 50 billion dollar a year lawsuit machine creates unbelievable financial and medical distress for hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of elderly homeowners across the country.
Do yourself a favor and read his elder abuse paper linked below. If HOA abuse of elderly homeowners is ever stemmed, Dr. Solomon will have been one of the three or four national leaders who made it happen.
The knives are out for homeowners in California after the historic Wittenberg v. Beachwalk court decision. The Court of Appeals ruled that Homeowners Associations MUST PROVIDE equal access to all means of communication if an HOA takes any kind of advocacy position for a board candidate or change in HOA rules. After 24 of California’s top HOA law firms pleaded with the courts, they were set back on their heels. The Court of Appeals essentially told the law firms to ‘get lost.’
But don’t think for a moment these out-of-control boards will take it sitting down. These ruling elite make hundreds of millions of dollars a year in legal fees for fining and suing homeowners over such incredibly petty things as parking a car on the driveway ten minutes after the mandated deadline.
A number of HOA boards and websites are now referring to homeowners as ‘dissidents’! In other words, if you want to run for a board position, or you want to stop your board from making outrageous tyrannical decisions, you’re a dissident. If you remind a board that it’s in violation of the law established by Wittenberg, you’re a dissident. If you just want to be left alone, you’re just a lowly dissident.
Arrogance.
There’s no other word to describe these rogue boards.
Sadly, Wittenberg doesn’t create a precedent for the 49 other states. But it does create a wonderful roadmap.
$70,000 to $90,000 per condo owner is what’s needed to repair major structural problems since the reserve account is bone dry.
Victor Salcana and his wife saved to purchase in Colina Condominium Complex in South San Francisco. She’s joined the board hoping to become a miracle worker and keep all 144 unit owners from having to write these checks…or go into foreclosure, if they don’t.
Richard Munson, President of the California Association of Homeowners Associations says, “Mismanagement of HOAs is widespread.” And since boards are generally lay people and property managers aren’t required to be licensed it’s the blind leading the blind. Who couldn’t have guessed that?
Once again, listen to the adage…the best day in an HOA is the day you move out!
