Ward Lucas is a longtime investigative journalist and television news anchor. He has won more than 70 national and regional awards for Excellence in Journalism, Creative Writing and community involvement. His new book, "Neighbors At War: the Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association," is now available for purchase. In it, he discusses the American homeowners association movement, from its racist origins, to its transformation into a lucrative money machine for the nation's legal industry. From scams to outright violence to foreclosures and neighborhood collapses across the country, the reader will find this book enormously compelling and a necessary read for every homeowner. Knowledge is self-defense. No homeowner contemplating life in an HOA should neglect reading this book. No HOA board officer should overlook this examination of the pitfalls in HOA management. And no lawyer representing either side in an HOA dispute should gloss over what homeowners are saying or believing about the lawsuit industry.
Just about anyone can have a fence around their pool in the Bucktoe Manor Homeowners Association, even without seeking advance permission. Anyone. Except those who are homosexuals.
Two young men requested permission to build a swimming pool and they put up a six foot fence, almost identical to many other fences in the subdivision. Neighbors who filed a lawsuit insisted that the gay couple’s fence would bring down their property values.
The judge issued a biting 18 page opinion that really is worth reading. It’s linked below.
It’s not a swimming pool, a fence, or a gay couple that destroys property values. It’s racism, extreme prejudice and hatred that brings those house prices down.
You sure don’t see this kind of thing happen very often. But apparently, a board member in the El Dorado Community Improvement Association is so blinded by her own personal power-lust that just doesn’t get the fact that she’s hated by all her neighbors. She’s torn down political signs on private property, she’s gone after neighbors with backyard chickens, and land-based solar panels. Across the country, petty little people who get elected to HOA boards figure it’s their duty to be the top cop in the neighborhood.
That’s why life in so many Homeowners Associations is rancid.
Board member Claudia Daigle, I know you’re constantly Googling your own name. Google these three words: “Claudia Daigle rancid.”
I’m not sure if I’ve linked to this one before. But it just further demonstrates the general lawlessness when U.S. Constitutional rights are not in control of these dictatorships. This is a pretty good story about Ventana Ranch HOA blatantly violating the law in Albuquerque. Residents ought to be able to financially punish board members and management companies which clearly ‘forget’ their obligations to homeowners.
A CAI lawyer testifying in front of the Arizona Legislature made what have to be some of the biggest gaffes or the biggest lies in CAI’s checkered history. First he said, “The government that governs best is that closest to the people.”
He seriously screwed up. The actual quote was from Henry David Thoreau who attributed the words to Thomas Jefferson. The quote was: “That government is best which governs least.” That’s a far cry from what this dopey lawyer told the Legislature.
His next gaffe is when he says that “HOA Boards are, in effect, little tiny governments.”
Whoa, is this lawyer brain-dead? Is he stupid? Or just back from his three-martini lunch? That’s exactly what all of us in this anti-HOA movement want! We want HOAs declared to be governments. Once HOAs are deemed to be governments, then suddenly homeowners have back all of the protections of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The next Big Lie was that CAI doesn’t represent management companies or landscapers. Anyone with a quarter ounce of brain power knows that the CAI is all about money. It’s all about referrals. It’s all about enriching lawyers and management companies at the expense of homeowners.
This video is several years old, but one has to wonder if CAI ever fired this idiot?
My thanks to ArizonaHOA.blogspot.com for bringing this video back to our attention.
