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.
Colorado has lots of uranium and other radioactive materials in the soils. It also has lots of radon gas, which it absolutely a carcinogen. When a woman in a home in the Stapleton HOA found radon and wanted to put in a mitigation system, the HOA told her “Nope! No way!”
Now, all sorts of people are trying to embarrass this HOA into doing the right thing.
Incidentally, Colorado’s homeowners rights hero, Stan Hrincevich, was one of those interviewed for the TV news story. It seems Stan is the most interviewed person in the state when it comes to standing up for homeowners.
Oh, another funny thing: The former Stapleton Airport, and the Stapleton neighborhood were named after a prominent Ku Klux Klan member in Colorado in the 1920s. Perfect!
You know, all these evil deeds done under the shelter of the National HOA Scam would vanish, completely vanish if the Legislatures approved laws that increased the Statute of Limitations for damages caused by Homeowners Associations to ten or fifteen years. Many homeowners don’t even know the damage they’ve suffered until a good number of years go by. If they had fifteen years to be able to sue recover damages, this particular blog would cease to exist. HOA boards would have massive reason to suddenly become responsible and always follow the letter of the law.
Such legislation would never be approved by the courts. It would be ruled blatantly unconstitutional.
There are Statutes of Limitation on rape, child molesting, robbery, burglary, libel, slander, white collar crime. But there’s no Statute of Limitations for murder. But wrongful, frivolous, bullying actions by an HOA can absolutely change the outcome of a homeowner’s life. There are, in fact, cases across the country where a homeowner has committed suicide to escape HOA harassment.
Is there an HOA in the country that hasn’t experienced embezzling by executives? HOAs historically are money pots, few homeowners even know how to investigate. But the arrest and charging of suspected embezzlers seems like a daily event. Maybe even an hourly event.
Put a money pot out there, give a soccer mom or a football dad exclusive control over the account, and it’s going to be stolen. I guarantee it’s going to be stolen.
Maybe I shouldn’t report on HOA embezzlement, It’s too easy. Maybe, instead, I should try to look for an HOA which hasn’t been cheated. It’s one of those ‘man bites dog’ situations.
There is one thing I have never figured out about HOAs. Why do they hate the American flag so much? Why is it so wrong to be patriotic in an HOA? What is it about the stars and stripes that irritates the nerves of an HOA board so badly?
Harriet Vallen currently lives in The Ranches HOA in Eagle Mountain, Utah and she is moving to another home inside this same HOA. She is taking her magnetic American flag mailbox wrap with plans to attach it there. I say “plans” because she may change her mind when she learns how brutal the HOA board can be over something as small as a flag on the mailbox or in a flower pot. Remember Larry Murphree in Jacksonville, Florida among many others?
Mrs. Vallen has apparently stood up to this HOA board in the past. She is on their radar screen now. It’s just a matter of time before she’ll wish she had moved miles and miles away from The Ranches in Eagle Mountain. It won’t be long before those letters will arrive on the letterhead of the HOA attorney’s office. Oh, how I wish I could have a sit down visit with Harriet!
I did find several bits of humor in the video. One shot shows the back of an enclosed trailer parked on the street with the tire on the curb. Another shows a travel trailer attached to a pick-up truck and parked on the street. And it appears the mailbox is leaning towards the street with chips in the brown paint. All of that, but the focus is on the removable magnetic American flag. Most of all, I cracked up seeing the dinner bell used as the “A” on The Ranches entrance sign. It makes me wonder? Do they ring that at six o’clock sharp and every homeowner must sit down for dinner or be found in violation of The Ranches “time to eat” rules?
Keep in mind the more power these HOAs get, the more power they want! And their lobbyists will see to it they get it!
Years ago I wanted my attorney to attend an HOA board meeting just to listen to the crap that was going on. He said he could not. Really? He couldn’t represent my interests by attending in my place? Isn’t that a fixture in Constitutional law?
Nope.
Now we see in black and white some really evil institutionalizing of this craziness in California law. And guess who supports it? All the California lawyers and legislators.
Dear Lord God? Jesus? Allah? Elohim? Yahweh? Alláh-u-Abhá?El Shaddai? Jehovah? Whoever? Please teach me to avoid Homeowners Associations!
