HOA on NPR (foreclosed, HOA fees, mortgage)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Not So Neighborly Associations Foreclosing On Homes : NPR

[jobert]

Wow!

I'm showing up to the Travis Co courthouse tomorrow with $3500, maybe I can get another house!!!

[TexasHorseLady]

I'm thinking of having a word - or two - with my state legislators.

I can remember the days when one could not get an equity loan on one's homestead, to protect Texas citizens from this kind of nonsense. The banks fought long and hard to get into this lucrative new market, and I still think it was a mistake when we caved. And the ONLY way you could be foreclosed on, at the time, was for a mortgage default - NO other debt counted. I don't know when the law allowing HOA's to do this kind of thing went into effect, or who was responsible for sponsoring it, but I'm sure going to find out! What the HECK has become of us!

[orbius]

Well there is a flip side to this. If you have 16% or more people in a complex not paying their HOA fees most banks wont grant a mortgage in that complex for any home even the people paying their HOA fees.
So if you change the law to allow homeowners to stay in their house for a long period of time without paying HOA fees then everyone in the complex suffers.
Obviously the procedure in Texas needs to be changed but hopefully things dont swing too far the other way where deadbeats are allowed to sit in a property for extended periods of time without paying their HOA fees.

[Bo]

Threads dealing with controversial topics that often degenerate into flame wars, such as politics or religion, may be moved, closed, or deleted by moderators at their discretion without any warning to the participants.

Under the rule above in the TOS, we're taking an indefinite break from discussing HOAs in this forum outside of relocation threads, since it's a polarizing hot-button topic that consistently produces emotional posts and hard feelings. The original post in this particular thread is far too open-ended an approach to this topic during this break.