George Staropoli is one of the most astute and most articulate people in the national Homeowners Rights movement. The link below is his take on the historic HOA battle going on in North Carolina. Have everyone you know read his post!
Who doesn’t love omelettes for breakfast and chicken sandwiches at other times of the week? But just keep those chickens out of my backyard!
Backyard chicken coops are one of the privileges of rural living. Two or three laying hens can feed a family forever. But the astonishing growth of Homeowners Associations has led to a pathological contempt for any neighbor who dares keep a pet chicken.
We’re not talking about roosters crowing at the crack of dawn, here. Just chickens.
But for many of the growing number of condo commandos and lawn nazis a backyard chicken is about as attractive as ticks on a picnic blanket.
Oh, the omelette’s OK. Just as long as it has no connection to my neighborhood.
http://www.wvec.com/news/Backyard-chicken-law-not–202352431.html
They’re often called SLAPP lawsuits, a frivolous suit filed just to shut up an annoying critic. The acronym stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” SLAPPS were sometimes used by major companies to hush up environmentalists. Sometimes it was used the other way around. The bottom line was that lawyers were hired to cause the other side great expense and great anxiety, nothing more, nothing less.
SLAPP lawsuits have made their way into the world of Homeowners Associations, too. If you don’t like the neighborhood critic, just hammer him with a SLAPP lawsuit. But there’s a troubling little annoyance called ‘The First Amendment’, and a troubling little Supreme Court decision called ‘New York Times vs. Sullivan’ that essentially says if you’re a public figure you’ll get nailed if you try to jam up the Free Speech rights of the neighborhood critic. A public figure has to be able to prove ‘actual malice’ in a lawsuit against someone who’s just expressing an honest opinion about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s more complex, of course, but I go into the subject in detail in my new book, “Neighbors At War!”
But the commentary linked below shows that it can be very expensive for an HOA board member to use neighborhood monies to fund a lawsuit against the local loudmouth. Nobody wins in these idiotic SLAPP lawsuits. Everybody loses, that is, with the exception of the lawyers who file and defend such lawsuits. They always make money. That’s why there are so many lawyer jokes in the public discourse.
The wisest words in the story linked below: Get over it. Move on.
The whole quote is:
“Though the Mills of God Grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small,
Though With Patience He stands waiting, With Exactness Grinds He All.”
Friedrich Von Lougou
That’s one of my favorite quotes from The Retribution, and it’s been pasted on my computer since my first blue and gray Kaypro, purchased in 1985.
Yes, Heaven’s grinding mills are as vast as they are slow, but sooner or later every full circle comes about. Not soon enough, we mortal humans cry, but they do come around.
Comes now news that the Department of Justice is going to free up 39 million dollars for Overseas Service members who were shafted and ruined by Bank of America. It’s illegal to file civil actions against our military fighting on foreign battlefields, but that knowledge didn’t slow down Bank of America one whit.
No, when the Mortgage Crash and the Housing Bubble hit, Bank of America just played taps on the spines of our fighting men and women, while they forclosed on service members and kicked their families into the streets. Capt. Matt Clauer was a famous case that comes to mind, but there were many, many others.
Yeah, the Big Bank is going to refund some money, a little here, a little there. But by what means are they going to repair the many divorces, the shattered families and repair the misery of families who lost love and trust.
Bank of America, your fund is too low, your response is too weak, and you’re only doing this because you’d otherwise be facing contempt of court charges and a huge public black eye.
There’s just no other way to put this, but the Community Associations Institute, along with its blood brothers including Associa, run by Texas State Senator John Carona, are just ugly institutions. Not illegal. Just ugly. And every American homeowner needs to be educated to avoid the kinds of financial assaults that have victimized thousands of homeowners across the country.
Our American founders, afraid of ending up with the same kind of European monarchy they had just left, wrote a Constitution that forbade our new government from interfering in rights that were bestowed on us, not by government, but by God. In their vision, God given rights could not be subsumed by a Monarchy or a Dictatorship, or even a ‘majority’ of the people. Remember that we do not live in a Democracy. A wild out-of-control mob is a democracy, and that is not our form of government.
No, our rights emanate from God. Remember that. Repeat that. All human rights emanate from God.
With that in mind, I provide you with a page from the CAI playbook as it begins using its vast wealth and power against the Homeowner Association reform bill now percolating in the North Carolina Legislature. I will highlight some sentences that offend me and should outrage you.
Here goes:
Repeal of Foreclosure Option for HOAs and POAs
February 13, 2013: Representatives R. Moore, Alexander and Hamilton introduced an NC House bill to repeal the ability of a HOA/POA to use foreclosure as a tool in the collection of delinquent dues. This bill modifies G.S. §47F-3-116 of the NC Planned Community Act and 47C-3-116 of the Condominium Act to accomplish its goal. The effect of this bill, if passed by the NC House and Senate and signed by the governor would be to remove the option for HOA/POAs to use foreclosure as a method of recovering unpaid dues and force them to use the much more expensive method of bringing a Civil Action in court to accomplish the recovery. The Civil Actions are much more expensive and the courts have not always awarded attorney fees and court costs to the winner of the suit. This can mean that even if the HOA/POA wins the suit, they may lose money because of their costs to bring the suit to trial. Removing the foreclosure option for HOA/POAs could have a devastating impact on the finances of HOA/POAs. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary A Committee.
The CAI-NC LAC opposes this bill and will use all of its resources to assure that it does not become law. HOA/POA Board members should contact their NC House and Senate members and request that they oppose passage of this bill, referred to as HB-175. For more information and current status of this bill, go to www.ncleg.net and search for HB-175.
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Dear Friends, I hope you understand that the CAI is acknowledging that it likes a slanted playing field. It wants the law so biased that this massively wealthy organization acts as judge, jury, king and executioner. Under this system there are no God-given rights. If this law is passed in North Carolina it will amount to a massive restructuring of Society. Look for other states to do the same.
I’m am not trying to oversell this point, but I have read some history books. Adolph Hitler found a way to take control with a minority party behind him. He did not make the world a better place.
