You are now leaving the American zone.
The
Fallacy of Disclosure
of a Hopelessly Flawed System
“Democracy at its Finest”?
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T |
here is trouble in utopia.
Ramona Ripston was
the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of
Southern California, one of the largest ACLU affiliates in the nation. She
wrote, “The historical reality is that the people who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
recognized that one of the most important objectives of any American government
would have to be limiting the ability of a majority to impose tyranny on
all.”
Homeowners associations have no such limitations on the ability of a majority or minority to impose tyranny on all, yet fifty million Americans live in them. There is a lot of frustration with this form of government.
CAI is
a trade association
that lobbies
on behalf of the vendors to HOAs, “makes contributions to
political candidates for the US Senate and House of Representatives,” and
engages in legal
activities, mostly involving “friend of the court and enemy of the homeowner”
briefs that CAI files in federal or state cases.
All the while, the Corrupt, Apathetic
and Indifferent
lobbyist
claims it is “not a PAC (Political Action
Committee), and makes no financial contributions.” Of course, CAI–PAC “is a separate
segregated fund, apart from all 
other CAI budgets and funds, that
accepts voluntary donations and makes contributions” ¼ but
they are both CAI.
The Industry would like HOAs (read “BODs”) to be strong.
That way the vendors to HOAs can make
sure the BODs “Work
for Nothing but Get Compensated in Other Ways.” One hand washes the other. The vendors scratch the 
BOD’s
back and the BOD scratches the vendors’. Next thing you know it, your BOD
becomes more interested in transferring your money to the vendors, than it is
in putting
community first.
“Since it is CAI’s public policy to ... coerce, bribe.... states”, HOA homeowner rights are gradually vanishing.
Homeowners in associations want them back. Most of those that become active in the political arena want the powers of homeowners associations curtailed. They are trying to reform homeowners associations.
But we submit that this form of government is not sustainable.
Consider
just one problem with homeowners associations (HOAs). Less than one percent of
the association can embroil the entire HOA in legal tangles to the
financial benefit of vendors to
HOAs. Less
than one percent of your association can entrench
itself and your
HOA’s vendors, via collusion. Petty tyrants —
that are impossible to deal with — can suppress, repress, oppress,
persecute and prosecute
anyone that they perceive as standing in their way with “frame and blame”
defamation, reprimands, letters, reimbursement bills, liens, foreclosures
(judicial or
nonjudicial), neighborhood
cleansing, inconsistent (selective) enforcement of the governing documents
and the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
If you sue your board, you unleash the monster.
Cantankerous board members can ignore the entire community’s wishes and claim that they are following the Business Judgment Rule — and be right! The board cannot be contested.
Typically,
a director is supposed to keep the interests of the corporation foremost in
mind. There is this overriding responsibility to protect the corporation. But
often, what is in the best interests of the corporation is not what is in the
best interests of the community. Directors, out of fear of being sued,
prioritize the interests of the corporation. The captains of the ship forget
the crew and the passengers own the ship jointly with them.
One “industry patsy” wrote, “You have to realize that in a community you cannot always get your own way”?
What? Does he mean to imply that HOAs aren’t Burger King?? I knew I should’ve taken a right turn at that McDonalds on the corner of Gulag and Fief Way! This makes me want to sing.
Hold the intentional
infliction of emotional distress. 
Hold the unregulated gross negligence and willful
misconduct.
All we ask is that you let us,
Have human, civil, property and
constitutional rights.
Have it your way,
Have
it your way,
At The Colony!
No,
only board tyrants with domineering personalities can always get their own way.
What volunteer would want to oppose one of these vindictive bullies?
What makes it worth it?
The system inspires collusion.
So next time an industry partisan sings the many praises of this wonderful personal form of up close and personal representative democracy, don’t accept it. Question authority.
The next time you see homeowners complain in open meetings — and the board members remain indifferent and just laugh at their face (or remain silent because, as homeowner Mika Sadai puts it, “the homeowners are powerless and their complaints do not amount to anything”) — ask yourself if we should privatize government.
Ask yourself if you want a CID with an HOA established with governing documents called “contracts”.
Ask
if your HOA is a government
and, if so, should the Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act be amended to
exempt HOAs? Should HOAs be allowed to engage in unfair debt collection
practices?
Ask if your HOA is a corporation created so your neighbors can control your life, since you voluntarily “contracted” away your constitutional rights, and — if so, is this what you were looking for when you walked into the realty? Were you looking to buy a share of a fictitious person that watches you and peeks over your fence to find violations — one that is being dominated by other corporations to the detriment of the members??
Don’t let the Homeowner Control Industry get away with painting your privatized government as a government when it behooves the Industry, and as a private contract you willingly and voluntarily entered into when it doesn’t. It’s not a true government; it’s not a true corporation.
When the realtor provided the disclosure to you, did it disclose what you really needed to know?
“(Their Legal Counsel stood on the Courthouse steps and vowed he would ‘destroy us.’)
Carefree living?
<< ... jurisdictions lack relevant authority. Unfortunately, this serves only to disadvantage the average consumer who cannot always afford or find competent Legal Counsel. There is no one advocating on behalf of these owners, and this must change. I would encourage everyone to read the Article in Volume 2, Number 1, of the Community Association Law Journal “Doing Well, Doing Good, or Doing Both?”
Any suggestion that you “sue the bastards” goes against the need to promote the achievement of a “sense of community.” Those who advise Associations should be willing to take the moral responsibility for the spectrum of consequences this creates for communities, and for the families within. It is up to the legal profession to represent the community as a whole — and to ALSO bring the “homeowner perspective and their interests to the attention of policy makers.”
“These are very sobering and frightening posts,” responded one reader. “This alone should be enough to convince homeowners to do their ‘home’ work before getting into the HOA fiefdom.”
Got at least six months? Oh — and by the way — if anybody actually does spend the amount of time it takes to understand HOAs (and the HOA they’re considering buying into), who would buy? And after you’ve learned all about HOAs, and the HOA you’re planning on buying into, guess what? It’s election time!
Yup! Assuming anyone actually gets onto the board, that’s not part of the good ol’ boys and girls network, things might actually change. “Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.”
I’m sure the realtors just can’t wait for homebuyers to understand HOAs in depth: “Here, take this disclosure packet with you. There’s a dolly in the next room. Oh, and by the way, “the Glade is under the sink.”
“Come back in six months, Mr. and Mrs. Homebuyer, after you
understand what you’re getting into and what the potential risks are. And, in
anticipation of your first question — if you DO come back (not that I expect
you to, if you ever actually read the disclosure packet) — no, there’s
no such thing as Rogue Board Target Insurance. If you get on the ‘dislike
list’, you’re on your own. Start reading about Martin Luther King, Jr., save up
$152,000
and buy a set of dice and a lucky rabbit’s foot. 
“Just remember this: Conflict will never happen to you, and if it does, well, you can, well — wait, I know the answer to this one. Your options are, well, you can ¼ um ¼ uh ¼ well ¼
“Oh
yeah! You have the right — did I say ‘right’??
Oh yeah! You have the ‘right’ to ‘ MOVE’! Call me at (I’LL) NEVER–TELL.”
Read “Grassroots Efforts Defeated CAI Takeover” for carefree living instructions.
Oh, and by the way, did anyone mention the quarterly “new member orientation meetings ¼ to familiarize new members with the responsibilities that go with living in a CID”?
You were looking for “the responsibilities that go with living in a CID” when you walked into the realty, weren’t you??
“Haven’t we got enough on our plates just trying to maintain our homes,” asked one reader, “raise families and work? Must we add becoming political activists to the long list of life’s responsibilities in order to protect likely one of our largest investments – our homes? Whatever happened to the old saying “a man’s home is his castle”? Maybe it should be “A man’s home is the HOA’s castle”.
Cunningham’s house was the BOD’s castle, at least for a while.
The problem is, what needs to be disclosed will never be disclosed. There is more useful consumer information on the back of a candy bar than on the disclosure form your realtor gave you. This is why homebuyers end up in HOAs with no real realization or understanding of what they’re getting into.
When will the following be disclosed?
Hopelessly flawed, unaccountable homeowners association BODs and their vendors create victims that are in active opposition to this de facto government and Caring Attitude Impostors label them as “disgruntled” “malcontents” to discredit them and keep them from getting anything changed that might cost HOA vendors money. “The industry has audaciously laid the blame at the feet of its very customers. ‘You should have read the documents;’ ‘You should have gotten more involved or tried to get on the board;’ etc. etc.”
We call it “frame and blame”.
Lack of disclosure
makes the purchase contract impaired, because neither the law nor the “equitable”
servitudes that are presented to the homebuyers at or soon after closing
protect homeowners from abusive
powertrippers. The
“equitable” servitudes force homeowners to pay for their own road maintenance,
street lights, security force, park maintenance, etc. — even though they pay
the same property taxes as everyone else. They do not protect homeowners
from whimsical boards 
that
violate the governing documents and the law at will. They do
not prevent organized gangsters from turning neighborhoods into fiefdoms.
If HOAs do not follow the law, big brother looks
the other way.
The “contract” does not prevent homeowners associations from violating the constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, so all of them are unconstitutional. They do not inform homebuyers that they are unreasonably agreeing to put up their homes as collateral to assure the viability of a corporation, that is a de facto government, run by amateurs. The 10 Things a Homeowners Association Won’t Tell You are not disclosed. The true nature of homeowners associations is not disclosed.
They don’t even disclose the basics, much less go beneath the surface in any area, because this product is just too complicated to explain to homebuyers seeking a home in less than a thousand hours.
And that is why the purchase contract is impaired. Most homebuyers don’t stand a ghost of a chance of understanding what they are getting, but CID homes were surely not what most of them were looking for. Most were seeking a home, not a share in a corporation.
There is, therefore, no meeting of the minds.
There is no disclosure to homebuyers that the attorney general won’t enforce member rights that are specified in the Corporations Code.
Consider this quote, from the California Attorney General’s Non–Profit Mutual Benefit Corporations web page: “If you would like to complain that your non–profit mutual benefit corporation has ... failed on request to provide ... specified member rights, you may submit your complaint in writing to:
“Office of the Attorney General
“Public Inquiry Unit”
This is nice theory, but it is downright treasonous what the web page leaves out.
Consider the reality, expressed by Robert M. Raymer, an assistant to Attorney General Bill Lockyer:
<< Raymer noted “It is the long standing policy of the Attorney General’s office to exercise our discretionary authority established under Corporations Code section 8216 by providing a public service to members of non profit mutual benefit corporations who complain to us in writing that their rights, as enumerated in that body of law, have been violated.” In response, the Public Inquiry Unit sends a “notice of complaint” letter to the board of directors of the corporation. “In many instances, our ‘notice’ letter is effective in resolving the complaint or at least encouraging the board to review its procedures in relationship with the law,” Raymer notes.
But complainants whose disputes are not resolved as a result of the “informal intervention” of the Attorney General’s office are directed to seek private civil remedies, Raymer added. “Government cannot be expected to resolve all civil disputes at taxpayers’ expense as the costs of litigation and the required bureaucracy are prohibitive,” Raymer wrote. >>
If “ complainants whose disputes are not resolved as a result of the ‘informal intervention’ of the Attorney General’s office are directed to seek private civil remedies” — suing — what good does it do for the attorney general to advertise he “has authority under Corporations Code section 8216 to intervene on behalf of members of a non–profit mutual benefit corporation (such as a homeowners association) who are denied certain specified rights”?
All the attorney general does is mail a letter to the HOA! HOA lawyers aren’t stupid!! They know that the attorney general will “exercise [its] discretionary authority” and not follow up! The attorney general advertises the fact!!
Maybe if attorney generals exercise such poor discretion, state legislatures should replace “discretionary authority” with “responsibility”. Attorney generals should stop pretending to be “providing a public service” be directed to consider it doing their job.
Of
course, that would only happen if our representatives
were representing
CID homeowners. They
are not. CID homeowners are apathetic
and, therefore, grossly uninformed. “CAI attorneys and lobbyists work
to water
down or just outright kill true homeowner–friendly
legislation,”
writes Joni Greenwalt, author of Homeowner
Associations: A Nightmare or a Dream Come True? “CAI is both
determined and organized,” she writes. CID lawyers don’t want
homeowners to have recourse
outside the courts
— so CAI
fights that tooth and nail.
How much “discretionary authority” does your boss give you?
THE
ATTORNEY GENERAL IS ENCOURAGING
HOMEOWNERS TO (1) WASTE
THEIR TIME AND THEN (2) FOLLOW UP BY GETTING SUCKED INTO THE LITIGATION VORTEX!!!
Some public service.
It is not a civil matter when they are:
- Breaking and entering
- Beating you up
- Bruising — nearly breaking — your ribs
- Breaking the front and rear windshields of your van to shut you up
- Shooting at you to silence you
- Setting your house on fire because you dared to watchdog the board
- Ruining
you financially, because you dared to stick up for
yourself and/or your neighbors
- Scaring your children by phone and in person, making them cry, harassing them, altering them forever
- Threatening to “pull the trigger on you”
- Putting nails in your tires
- Eggs on you car
- Publishing your phone number and directing people to call you
- Publishing parts of your credit report
- Spoiling your good attitude/disposition
·
Libeling you and assassinating your
character in minutes/newsletters/flyers/letters/police & public records/newspapers
CAI/Chubb Lawyers
- Fraudulently liening or taking your home in a nonjudicial foreclosure
- Taking
away your rights by lobbying the
legislature, simultaneously increasing the power of your petty, tyrannical
neighbors (and their own)
Judges Legislators
- Filing “friend of the court and enemy of the homeowner” briefs to obtain case law for associations at the expense of the PEOPLE IN THEM
- Advising board officers on how to crush anyone that opposes anything they choose to do (picking them off one or two at a time)
- And on how else to build a dictatorship
Lobbyist
- Rigging elections
- Using
these dues (YOUR MONEY) to get their own homes fixed up for
free
- Micromanaging your life while trying to keep the legislature from inhibiting their micromanagement
- Giving your money to attorneys so that they will persecute, prosecute, suppress, and repress you...?
It’s not a civil matter when HOAs evolve into Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. This has been happening for a long time now. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations are functioning as unchecked, unaccountable, unregulated, and out–of–control “mini–governments run amok.”
The evidence: Horror Stories
The
California attorney general’s web page states “Many times our ‘Notice of
Complaint’ from this office will be sufficient to 
prompt an otherwise
recalcitrant board of directors to resolve your complaint. However, you may
wish to discuss your problem with your own private attorney.”
Homebuyers don’t know they will need $65,000 for this —and another $92,000 in the bank in case the judge they get is a former president of a CAI association and doesn’t recuse himself.
Homeowners have to roll the dice
looking for justice.
The only parties sure to win are the lawyers.
As long as neighborhoods with HOAs are mislabeled neighborhoods with “corporations” in the law instead of neighborhoods with “mini–governments”, state attorney general weenies across the country will continue to claim “discretionary authority” even in cases of blatant HOA violations of the law!
And exercise poor discretion.
And fail miserably to effectively prompt recalcitrant boards of directors “to provide ... specified member rights” “as the costs of litigation and the required bureaucracy are prohibitive”.
If attorney generals consider the costs of resolving HOA disputes prohibitive, what do they think the costs are to homeowners whose “rights, as enumerated in [Corporations Code section 8216], have been violated”? According to Florida Community Association Management, “over 90% of Florida’s Homeowners’ Association members can’t afford to enforce their legal rights in the Florida courts.”
I’d say 90% is a conservative figure.
I bet the lawyers love it that the legislatures allow the attorney generals make the courts the only recourse for wronged homeowners. This enriches these lawyers!!!
Its unjust enrichment, because much of the time it’s these lawyers that are causing the problems.
The trial lawyers contribute to reelection campaigns. Why? So that they can get what they want from our elected officials. Don’t think your elected officials are representing you. If they were, they would not be “incrementally tweak[ing] statutes written by and largely for the benefit of the industry … instead [of] asking the legitimate public policy question of whether we should continue down the road of privatizing local government by continuing to enact more legislation on top of an already sizable body of industry–authored statutes enacted not necessarily to benefit voters and consumers, but to maintain and preserve the future of the CID industry”.
What do the trial lawyers
want? Money. It’s just
business to them.
I bought a home in an HOA.
No one disclosed to me that my dues would be used to retain an attorney to represent the BOD, even though the lawyer was supposed to be representing the HOA, of which I THOUGHT I was a part! The Arizona state bar ethics rules reportedly state that the HOA attorney represents the association and not its constituents, and that the attorney must act in the best interests of his client — the HOA.
No one disclosed to me that the board of directors would break rules because they are covered by an insurance policy with duty to defend coverage that does not exclude such wrongful acts as libel, slander, defamation of character, harassment, discrimination, waste of assets, misleading reports or other misrepresentations, failure to deliver services, acts beyond granted authority, gross negligence or willful misconduct (a common allegation), and wrongful termination of homeowners — I mean — employees...
Al Capone never had it so good.
I wasn’t informed that my association’s governing documents didn’t include a conflict of interest code.
I wasn’t informed that my association’s governing documents didn’t include a gift policy inside of a broader ethics policy, like most respectable corporations because my HOA is FAR from respectable. Our boards of dictators — I mean, directors — want gifts!
No one disclosed that to me.
I didn’t understand that “allegations of gross negligence or willful misconduct” were “common”. I didn’t even know what gross negligence and willful misconduct were. Now I know from personal experience. I also know “there is no vehicle, no avenue, no means of effective redress of grievances when it comes to a homeowner making legitimate claims that an HOA board has failed to conduct themselves as required by state law
- “To act in good faith,
- “As a prudent person would in a similar situation.
- “The board has a fiduciary duty to its members.”
How can it be claimed I understood the “contract” when this wasn’t disclosed to me?
No one let me know that HOAs were created to discriminate.
No one disclosed to me that the HOA I was considering buying a home in was run by busybodies with no life, people with nothing better to do, board members that were not in their right mind, gangster property managers, and lawyers looking for litigation time bombs to slip into the governing documents.
Did
the realtor, or the purchase contract, make me aware that:
- Even though “the 5th amendment states, “no person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, I could lose my home in a nonjudicial foreclosure — without a course of formal proceedings (as legal proceedings) carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principles? I consider this repugnant to the Constitution! As Willowdean Vance puts it, “Are not these adhesion contracts of HOAs impaired and in violation of fair trade because they never disclose the warning, ‘buying a home in a homeowner association can leave you homeless’?”
- My State — and the federal government — via inaction, would allow me to “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”?
- My
local and state governments would be balancing their budgets on my back?
As Evan McKenzie, author of Privatopia: Homeowners Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government puts it, “Sooner or later, [CID] owners will realize that local and state governments are balancing their budgets on the backs of CID residents. That could open up a full public policy debate over the role of CIDs that should have happened 20 years ago.”
Excerpted from the July/August issue of Common Ground. Article titled “Things to Come: What does the future hold for community associations”
- Vile board gangsters could use my HOA as a neighborhood–cleansing device?
- Enacted common interest development law(s) would contain provisions — and lack other provisions — that would result in me being treated unfairly, arbitrarily, or unreasonably?
- The HOA Industry had shaped the growth of my HOA, and of HOAs in general, and not the public?
- Unprecedented power over me would be put in the hands of people who were not subject to the normal scrutiny and control of government officials?
- The HOA industry —lawyers, insurance companies, management companies, etc. — had seized control of my HOA?
I
would be a cash register for the Industry?
- I would be targeted with the multi–million dollar resources of my HOA, if I dared to question the operation of my HOA — or even question the inconsistent enforcement of the CC&Rs that was being used to harass me?
- The fundamental American liberties of my life had been destroyed in my HOA?
- Mega corporations would largely obliterate my private property rights?
- My association had been turned into a gulag?
- There was no Homeowner Bill of Rights, nor were there restraints placed on the excessive exercise of power by the quasi–government that rules my HOA, despite the overwhelming need for these things?
No one disclosed to me that “board members won’t come out and say that they don’t want [me] at their meetings,” ¼ “but basically, that’s what their goal is” — diminish and conquer.
No one disclosed to me that if I therefore chose to be apathetic, that I would remain grossly uninformed, and board members and their vendor cronies would assume complete control.
The presence or absence of a homeowners association was irrelevant to my purchase consideration. Little did I know¼
I am not pleased with an HOA government. I am not enamored with the idea of practicing self–government and I don’t believe my HOA protects my property values. It’s just a matter of time before people find out what my HOA’s really like (and what HOAs in general are like). The realtors already know, but — not surprisingly — they don’t disclose this to homebuyers. Since I’m on the “dislike list”, my property’s appearance has been deteriorating. This does not protect my property value, or that of my neighbors. It just satisfies the thirst for revenge and power on the part of the board.
I expected that the function of the homeowners association I was buying a home in was limited to maintenance of the physical aspects of the environment.
Exiting an association is costly, not only monetarily, but also in terms of the disruption of the lives of a family and on the children. We have not moved.
The powers of my HOA, that include the equivalent power to tax, to vote and to enforce rules and regulations, are so extensive as to give it the appearance of a private constitution.
Apathy
toward involvement is attributed to active lifestyles and the care of young
children. A gargantuan majority of the residents in my HOA have no desire to
participate in or join the HOA board. This apathy
does not appear to be the result of general satisfaction with the HOA board. 
Most of the few that do want to be on the board want something done to their home. They are more interested in what they can cause the HOA to do for them, than in what they can do for the HOA. The HOA’s vendors are only too glad to help, so the board members will be glad to keep them, and give them more and more of the homeowners’ money.
Residents express substantial dissatisfaction with the actions of the board and its enforcement of the rules and some feel that the board has intruded on the private sphere of their property ownership.
Some residents are content with non–participation and some had wanted to get involved, but were stonewalled by the people that rule our HOA. Some that were involved were informed that their services were no longer necessary (fired), by the managing agent, after daring to disagree with a tyrannical board officer (undoubtedly at the direction of the tyrant). Talking back is not condoned.
Apathy
and frustration co–exist on a fairly widespread basis. 
Owners are frustrated; some are acutely angry. Yet they haven’t responded to their disappointment by expressing their frustration. Rather they have chosen passivity.
Individuals
do not react to disappointment by becoming active participants in the governing
process unless a democratic culture already exists. People do not become activists and
will remain mute and passive if there is no group attitude toward participating
in the government of the HOA.
Before you attempt to entice homebuyers to buy a share in a corporation, you have to be ready to provide them with a prospectus.
I never saw a prospectus like this one:
Prospectus
There is Only One Tyrant on the Board
One Tyrant Has Announced Her Candidacy (Married to Above Tyrant)
Everyone Else on the Board Goes Along with Domineering Tyrants
CC&Rs are Intentionally Enforced Inconsistently
Enforcement:
Clique: Lax
General Membership: Strict
Troublemakers: No Rule Violation Necessary for Frame and Blame Defamation, Reprimands, Letters, Fines, Reimbursement Bills, Liens, Foreclosures (Judicial and Nonjudicial), Neighborhood Cleansing, and Suspension of Voting Rights or Usage of Facilities or Services
Average Tenure of Current Board Members: 4 years
Average Total Number of Years Served by Current Board Members: 9
Percent in Control:
Board: 29%
Attorney: 28% (Mostly behind the scenes unless needed to attend meetings to intimidate homeowners)
Property Manager: 43%
Pool: Reserved for BOD Cronies and Family (The rest of the homeowners can use it when they’re not.)
Graft Premium (Average Markup on Contracts Above Market): 50%
Percent of Vendors Related to:
Board Gangsters: 50%
Clique: 90% (Most vendors are part of the clique.)
Annual Neighborhood Cleansing Rate (Average): 0.25 homeowners run out per year (varies)
Percent of Dues Transferred to the Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Network: 50%
Board Member Knowledge of Running HOAs: Negligible
Percent of Decisions Made:
In Open Meetings: 20%
In Executive Sessions: 23%
Behind Closed Doors, Under the Table, or Over the Phone: 57%
Percent of Executive Sessions Used for Legally Permissible Purposes: 40%
Average Foreclosure Rate: 2 per year
Average Nonjudicial Foreclosure Rate: 1 per year
Average Liens on Homes: 3 per year
Average Number of Legal Tangles at Any One Time: 0.8
Percent Funded: 48%
Rules & Regulations
Annual Turnover Rate: 33%
Attorney: On Retainer
Attorney Represents Attorney: 100%
Attorney Represents HOA: Get a lesson in reality!
Average Number of Homeowners at Meetings: 1.8
Pettiness Factor: Don’t
ask.
Percent of Board Meetings Pre–Rehearsed: 99%
Homeowner Recourse in Case of Board Malfeasance:
(1) Sell Home and Move
(2) Suffer in Silence
(3) Sue Board and Unleash the Monster
Influence of Law: 2%
Percent of Homeowners Able to Afford Seeking Justice in the Courts: 2%
Percent of Homeowners Willing to Risk it: 0.2%
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress: Reserved for Troublemaker Squashing
Architectural Control Committee Application Approval:
Clique: Rubber Stamp
Members: Complicated and Time Consuming
Homeowners the Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Network Doesn’t Like: Don’t bother applying.
Accuracy of Minutes: Varies Widely, Depending on Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Network Purposes
Percent of Good Ol’ Boys and Girls Network On the Take: 99%
Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.
Do you think the consequences of fewer HOAs will be that a lot of the problems and dysfunctions that arise within an HOA will then arise instead within the local government structure, whatever it is, with more or less the same level of unhappiness, only played out in another venue.
Not on your life. Local governments can be held accountable, because they are recognized for what they are — governments. HOAs are mini–governments run amok and they are not held accountable because HOAs are mislabeled as corporations in the law.
“Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty.” — Henry M. Robert
In my opinion, full distribution of CC&Rs and other documents, open and widely available *written* board agendas and minutes and committee reports, along with mechanisms for HOA members to communication with each other; and at least some training or education for board members in and a sensible use by the board of Robert’s Rules of Order is plainly necessary for an acceptable HOA. Indeed, in some states, much of this has been codified into the law — but the people that run HOAs can still be a nightmare.
The unfortunate reality is that “Passivity and apathy are expressions in which living within a group lacks meaning for individuals”. If a sense of powerless results, as when a group has commandeered the functions of a board for their own interests, then apathy will prevail and not participation in the governing process. — Gregory Alexander, Law Professor at Cornell Law School (published in “Common Interest Communities”, Barton & Silverman, Eds.)
When this happens, the law — and Robert’s Rules of Order — goes right out the window.
According to Frederick Pilot, president of the California–based Common Interest Consumer Project, “improvement of any system of governance is possible. But first the underlying commitment to the system and the will to improve it must exist. In the case of HOAs, it is absent and no amount of pollyanish wishful thinking will bring it about.”
There are too many very serious problems, problems that are as serious as a heart attack.
For one thing, vile board gangsters have the power to rule via fear.
Homeowners the clique doesn’t like, find themselves on the receiving end of the intentional infliction of emotional distress at the hands of organized gangsters that rule their fiefs with an iron fist.
One of the guns on the ever–rotating turret of the tank — that keeps homeowners jumping and dodging and leaning one way or another to get out from in from of the barrel — can stop, targeting a homeowner that dared to question the operation of his or her HOA once too often, and get on the “dislike list”.
The tanks have been built by the Industry and maintained by the Industry. The Industry educates BODs on the operation of the tank and, not surprisingly, part of that education includes brainwashing BODs into believing that:
- They need the tank to keep the world from spinning right off its axis.
They must use the tank frequently or chaos will ensue. 
- It is their duty to use the tank.
- A BOD cannot run an association without a tank.
- The tank is theirs and they can do whatever they want with it.
- They need to give the homeowners’ money to vendors to keep that tank in tiptop shape.
- The BODs are actually in control of the tank, because they sit in the driver’s seats.
The tank has become more important than the HOA fiefdom serfs that have been subjugated by it. Homeowners are powerless to defend themselves against the awesome power of the tank, much less question its operation — and, of course, the only the good ol’ boys and girls network is capable of discarding the tank, and they’ll never do that. Soon — if homeowners don’t wake up and smell the coffee — not only won’t these tanks be unlawful, the law will mandate them.
“Phil Testa founded Justice for Home and Condo Owners, a non–profit group¼
“‘The greatest investment you’ll ever make in your life could be slid out from under you,’ said Testa. ‘These people would steal your pillow while you’re sleeping…’
“Testa
also said if you miss 3 months payment on association dues, they can
immediately foreclose.
“‘The association dues pay for this attorney and management
company so you have actually hired a gun that’s pointed at you,’ he said. That ‘gun’ can fire out a foreclosure with
no due process... No day in court.
The Industry:
Wrote the law.- Is lobbying “your” representatives right now.
- Makes campaign contributions.
The clique that rules by fear can use the association’s resources to try to render the questioning homeowner’s housing environment hostile — despite the law — confident that the multi–billion–dollar insurer (the tank armor) will back them up, because the BOD has used the homeowners’ money to buy millions of dollars of directors and officers liability insurance that excludes neither harassment, libel, slander, defamation of character, wrongful discharge, sexual harassment, discrimination, acts beyond granted authority, failure to deliver service, waste of assets, misleading reports or other misrepresentations, and provides duty to defend coverage.
The BOD knows that the unregulated managing agent will not give up its source of income without a fight and has actively worked to keep a “friendly” board in power — even to the point of using its own employee(s) to campaign for candidates they want elected (you know, the vendor employees your dues pay for).
The
HOA’s law firm knows the BOD picks the law firm and the law firm knows what
side the bread is buttered on.
“These
people are very gifted in smearing people to destroy them to protect their
territory,” claims Willowdean Vance, of The Florida
Silver–Haired Legislature. “They like their perks. The homeowner
is just a little old lamb to be slaughtered.”
Even when reckless board members get their associations embroiled in inadvisable legal tangles, and lose, there is no downside for the board members.
Rogue
board members don’t suffer personally. Sometimes, they have something to gain
by getting homeowners they don’t like sucked into the vortex (embroiled in costly
litigation). It’s just a game to them. What do they get out of it? At the
least, they get vindictive pleasure — combined with intimidation — and the
realistic reinforcement in their own minds that they have excessive power. At
the worst, they get to see the homeowner they dislike financially crucified —
combined with getting rid of the unwanted neighbor — all the while pretending
to be impartial board officers looking out for the best interests of the
community.
It’s a sick game, yet it is one the Homeowner Control Industry winks at, because it benefits.
Even many legislators look the other way, because the Homeowner Control Industry makes campaign contributions. Other legislators are as apathetic and — therefore — grossly uninformed as a typical HOA homeowner.
Yes, Gene Gogolak is alive and well in your association. But his Tibetan thought–form — the creature he willed into existence to maul residents to keep them in check— has evolved into a litigation vortex. And like the Minotaur in the labyrinth, once you come upon it, your peaceful life — not to mention your financial position (including quite possibly the equity in your home) — is history.
As Willowdean Vance puts it, “buying a home in a homeowner association can leave you homeless,” but not just because your HOA foreclosed on it and sold it on the courthouse steps.
Homeowners
are no match for the might of the malignant creature Gogolak created, formed by
garbage. This garbage includes unscrupulous lawyers that
represent CID BODs (rather
than the associations), and directors and officers liability
insurers that defend board members when they are being dishonest or worthless
scoundrels, in return for the homeowners’ money.
BODs are backed up by some pretty powerful business concerns, and they know it. (So do our “representatives”). It’s scary, even before you consider that these business interests are allied together in the CAI — and lobby legislatures and Congress and file “friend of the court and enemy of the homeowner” briefs (obtaining case law for HOAs at the expense of the HOMEOWNERS in them).
Yes, George Orwell was right. “All Animals Are Created Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others.”
Consider this industry partisan quote: “Board confrontation usually ends in a power struggle that technically one side wins but in reality both parties lose. Because, at the end of the day, both sides are neighbors.”
This SOUNDS nice.
But it is wishful thinking.
In common interest developments, you find homeowners — whose board confrontation led to a power struggle — selling their homes and moving. They are incurring thousands and thousands of dollars of transaction costs in doing so, but — compared with the opportunity costs these people have forsaken, the transaction costs of moving are the lesser of two evils. Organized gangsters are uprooting families. Friends left behind, separated by geography.
And just as lawyers make money when the real estate churns, realtors make money when the real estate turns.
There are psychological costs associated with moving, but
these pale in 
comparison
with the intentional infliction of emotional distress being levied on these
homeowners. The Industry will misleadingly paint these as “isolated incidents”.
(In the words of another poster on HOA Network. “Me being hit by a bus is an isolated
incident for some folk....but not for me!”)
Much of the destruction of the personal emotional serenity
of these homeowners emanates not only from their financial
crucifixion, but also from the gargantuan amounts of time they’ve lost
searching for an unbelievably ever–elusive solution. It invades their system
like a cancer, as they gradually discover that there is nothing they can do
about their 
predicament.
Homeowners that are not aware that their 
dues
pay for a
litigation vortex that lurks below the surface of their associations get
sucked into it and then they get trapped in an emotional gas chamber.
If
your neighbor is on the board, and he or she has it in for you, you cannot
force your neighbor off your back without making a Herculean effort. If your
neighbor allies his or herself with the property manager, an unscrupulous
property manager will help your neighbor harass you.
If your neighbor allies his or herself with the property manager, the property manager will help your neighbor become entrenched. An alliance with the property manager is not required, but it sure helps.
(Incidentally, the property management firm will also be
working on its own entrenchment. It can’t make any money if it loses the BOD as
a client. Yes, you read it right. I wrote that the BOD is the CAM’s client — not
the association. If you want to read about theory that doesn’t
pan out in reality, you are at the wrong web 
site.)
Collusion facilitates entrenchment and entrenchment fosters more collusion. Eventually the collusion gets so thick you can cut it with a knife. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out where the BOD ends and the CAM begins. The ultimate expression of this is, of course, when the CAM hires the BOD as its own employees. Is your BOD “on the payroll”?
If your neighbor is on the board, and he or she has it in
for you, your neighbor will always be behind the 
scenes,
pulling strings, writing self–serving rules and regulations, and pretending —
as best he or she can — to be a neutral, disinterested, and unbiased board
member (with millions of dollars in directors and officers liability
insurance backing him up that doesn’t exclude harassment, that counters
state statutes that allow board
gangsters to be held personally liable, and that provides duty to defend
coverage).
Vile board gangsters are the ultimate untouchables and have no reason to ever stop harassing neighbors they don’t like. Neither HOAs, nor property managers, are regulated or accountable to any higher authority, save a prohibitively expensive court system — and that’s the way they like it.
Never before, in the history of America, has the ability of
one side of a petty
back–fence squabble been elevated to such a high, structurally–supported level.
“Petty
back–fence arguments can escalate into fines, liens and lawsuits. And
frustrated homeowners — who didn’t realize ... are screaming for 
attention.”
Hence, in many board confrontation cases, neighborhood cleansing is the result.
Homeowners that have dared to confront their boards have been targeted and have been driven out by organized gangsters that are the one side that wins, although not just technically. When neighbors that criticize good ol’ boys and girls networks’ actions or omissions — or try to establish that board gangsters are doing something illegal — are run out of the neighborhood the exiles are no longer the board gangsters’ neighbors. The board gangsters win.
Why are HOAs seen by mean–spirited
and self–serving clique
members as a vehicle to use to harass neighbors until they move? Because it
works. If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t waste their time.
One side wins because our representatives
are not representing homeowners. The problem has been presented to
legislators, but they represent campaign
contributors.
The saddest thing about it all¼
In the end, homeowners associations are more than fictitious people or corporations. They are in neighborhoods full of people. And people deserve to live better than this.
Not most people. Not the majority.
All people.
For fifty million Americans, the United States has become that which it was formed to get away from — a tyranny.
But this time, it’s worse. It’s on the home front.
“What
is government itself”, asked James Madison, in The Federalist # 51, “but the
greatest of reflections on human nature? 
If men were angels, no
government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external
nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great
difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the
governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
So he argued, successfully, that “the structure of the government must furnish the proper checks and balances between the different departments”, to “oblige it to control itself.”
Corporations have no checks or balances. They are run by boards of dictators — I mean, directors — that are the executive, legislative, and judicial branches all rolled into one. As long as HOAs are classified as “corporations”, they will have no checks or balances. As long as our legislators fail to institute any form of government oversight, something the Industry is adamantly opposed to, the boards of directors will continue to be unaccountable. These “corporations” aren’t causing problems as fictitious persons. It is the people on the BOARDS that are. Not all boards, but enough to make it worth the time for those legislators of ours — that are not afraid of losing Homeowner Control Industry campaign contributions — to do something about it.
“Since it is CAI's public policy to ... coerce, bribe.... states”, this may take some work.
Keep your eye on your legislators. Don’t let them sell you out. Let them know how you feel. Let them know you are watching how they vote.
Reprimands, violation letters, reimbursement bills, inconsistent enforcement of the governing documents (harassment), fraudulent fines, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, liens, morally insensitive judicial foreclosures, unconstitutional nonjudicial foreclosures, neighborhood cleansing, and the suspension of voting rights or usage of facilities or services only fuel the spreading ground fire of discontent.
— Samuel Adams, “Father of the American Revolution”
And fifty million minds are a lot of minds.
The large and well–funded Industry cares neither about
homeowner–friendly communities — nor about the long–term viability of the CID
concept — and considers HOA homeowner rights an impediment best trampled upon,
to smoothly do business, unfettered, and rake in the dollars.
But “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever does.” — Margaret Mead
I am not a lawyer. I am not providing legal advice. You should consult your own counsel for legal advice. The preceding opinions are my own.
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Florida Community Association Management
Homeowner Associations and Oregon SB 1206
