I always hate to send my readers away to another link. It’s supposed to hurt my SEO ranking. If you don’t return, my overall SEO score goes down and I get fewer followers.
Still, I feel it’s my obligation to occasionally send you to links that I feel are not only valid, but are important as we try to articulate what’s wrong with the National HOA scam. I read this one and was impressed with the way they analyzed the current HOA system and why this supposedly extremely ‘local’ government entity is not really local at all.
California Assemblyman Richard Gordon was persuaded to remove his bill that would have required homeowners in the state’s 17,000 HOAs to surrender their right to a secret ballot in HOA elections. It’s stunning that such a law would even get proposed in a knowledgeable State Legislature, but this bill was an evil one. It gave a private organization, Community Associations Institute (CAI) almost dictatorial control over HOA board elections.
CAI comes across as such a benign “education only” organization, but just keep your eye on the money. Always watch the money. CAI would have made billions and billions of dollars had this legislation passed.
Some really creepy legislation is making its way through the California Legislature. Both bills are sponsored by the Community Associations Institute, and as you’ll see in a moment they almost criminalize the right for HOA homeowners to vote, and the right for them to vote secretly.
The first bill, AB-1360, is sponsored by the almost clueless Senator Norma Torres. It would allow Homeowners in HOAs to vote by electronic voting. HOA voting has an amazing history of scandal, and organized crime corruption. However, Torres is having trouble getting her fellow senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee to go along. The conclusion is obvious. Her fellow senators are much smarter that Ms. Torres, because they recognize the danger.
This one is actually kind of funny. Justin Bieber is apparently not well-liked by many of his neighbors. The singing sensation lives in the ritzy neighborhood of Calabasas, California, where homeowners pay $1000 a month in HOA dues.
But the teenager’s antics, including loud and late parties, driving like a maniac and threatening other homeowners are causing a neighborhood revolt. Neighbors have repeatedly demanded that HOA officials take some kind of action. Even Sheriff’s deputies are demanding that the D.A. charge Bieber with assault and battery.
Now, the revolt has escalated to the point that a number of homeowners are refusing to pay their thousand-buck-a-month dues until the HOA takes action.
There’s a new high rise luxury condo on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco. Built in 2009 with every classy aesthetic feature, it was high-priced and all the units on its 22 floors sold out quickly. It’s called The SOMA Grand. It’s governed by an HOA, of course.
Residents of the new building say almost immediately after they bought in, they started having problems with flooding during rainstorms, cracks in walls, and failures of sealant joints. The HOA has scrambled to get into court to sue everyone connected with the construction. “Going for the deep pocket”, as lawyers say.
