Why I Hate HOA (historical, vs, paying, Florida)

[richflocker]

Originally Posted by jimj

I could go on and on but suffice it to say that there are good HOA's and bad ones the real problem is NOT the HOA's it's the apathy and lack of participation by the homeowners being governed by them.

Ahh yes! This is the big problem in all mandatory HOAs Jim. The apathetic "silent majority"

Could they somehow be used to tell a "GOOD" from a "BAD" HOA?

When a "silent majority" infects a mandatory HOA (it's just a matter of time) the HOA runs a high risk of turning "bad". Intervention may be warranted at some point, don't you think?

Is this really apathy? Or could it be something much deeper, a common flaw in this concept of Mandatory Association that disenfranchises most Americans after they're exposed to these conditions for a few years?

Perhaps we should give this "silent majority" a voice and find out what the majority really wants to do with their HOA?

What do you think the silent majority would answer to this question in your HOA:

One question, please circle your answer YES or NO:

Do you wish to:

YES= renew the mandatory "covenants and condtions" and continue your HOA in its current form for the next 10 years?

NO = convert your HOA to a voluntary membership status and dissolve the corporation and its authorities granted by the developer.

I know, "buyers agree to these governing documents when hey bought their home" and it's crazy to think of not having an HOA to prevent nasty solar panels on every roof, but for the sake of democracy and revealing the root of "why I hate my HOA?" can you tell me what the silent majority in YOUR HOA would say if they could secretly vote and expose the honest truth?

Perhaps you can discuss this at the next ice-cream social at the HOA clubhouse where that "good HOA religion" is practiced?

Since your HOA is such a good thing and does no harm, the people would surely answer "YES", wouldn't they?

Is HOA really "free government instituted for the benefit of homeowners and freely chosen by buyers" or does the HOA's micro-managing of every aspect of their lives grate on the American Spirit, and after a few years of HOA pettiness people change their minds and want noting to do with HOA?

OR do people turn off and tune out after they discover this is simply a facade of democracy tacked to a foundation of fascism ?

How many answer yes, how many answer no?

(75% yes is the threshold to rate HOA as "good").

Would you volunteer to explore this and poll your HOA to find out what your "Good HOA" really rates on this question and share the results? It'll be great fun!

If there's a Bad HOA out there, would it be justified to force this question and if the majority votes NO, then kill the HOA and intervene with State legal action? Simply demote the regime to a harmless civic club with no power to fine or lien or foreclose or harass owners ever again?

Shouldn't there be a law to impose the will of the people on bad HOAs thru democratic principals? The abuse is going to stop and as long as "Bad HOAs" continue to terrorize people in this country, the general reputation of all HOAs will continue to degrade.

Property values are plumeting and new housing sales are in the dumpster...could it be that most new housing is HOA housing and consumers are getting educated and not buying infected properties any longer?

If you combined all the good deeds done by all the "good HOAs" in the country - it cannot offset or compensate for the terror and suffering that just one "bad HOA" rains on citizens.

You folks in "good HOAs" need to look into the terrorist camps that may be operating in the HOA next door to yours and help end the terrorizing that's going on.

You're probably aware that a "Bad HOA" in Frisco, TX foreclosed on a $315,000 completely paid-for home of a soldier while he was deployed to Iraq.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/localvoices/stories/DN-east_bloom_04edi.ART.East.Edition1.2994a9b.html


His wife struggled with raising two young children and, due to depression (her husband at risk for getting killed every day), she ignored the hate mail from the HOA, nothing good ever comes from a Bad HOA - especially certified letters so I don't blame her for not opening the #?*! 'cause she was already at her limit with everyday life, depressed but functional. HOA issues could wait till her hubby came home, or so she thought.

HOA didn't knock on her door and face-to-face explain that if she didn't pay the precious $800 they would foreclose. Could not call on the phone either? File a lien and wait 'till they tried to sell the house to collect? Oh the HOA management company had to be paid NOW - shoot I almost forgot! Okay, this act of extreme greed was justified to pay the Mafia that added late fees and mystery fees and ran the tab to $3200 and then foreclosed and sold it to a foreclosure hound who then flipped it for ~150,000. It doesn't sound so bad when it's sold for 1% of the home value compared to the original couple of "dues" amounting to $800, right?

Bad HOAs create debts out of out of thin air and tack on mystery fees then demand payment in full within 30 days or foreclosure cometh. Owner didn't even know they sold the home for over 6 months (exceeding the redemption period the HOA lobby graciously added to the TX law where HOA foreclosure victims can redeem their home from the purchaser if they pay them all the money paid at the foreclosure sale - this law was penned and voted on by Senator Carona who owns the largest HOA management company in the world- Associa). Seen enough evidence to give the essence of organized crime? There's plenty more evidence out there...but the question remains and boils down to this simple question- how do we distinguish the BAD HOAS and extinguish them, without harming the GOOD HOAs (if any)?

This was not an isolated incident - THOUSANDS of Texans are shaken down every MONTH by HOAs.

BAD HOAs are bad for property values, putting you folks living in "good HOAs" in the crossfire,..guilt by association. Maybe you folks living by the good, moral HOA ways can help figure out how to tell the good ones from the bad ones? We need your ideas, together we can make HOAs a better place for everyone

[richflocker]

When looking for a home, these Gestapo tactics were hidden from potential buyers - nobody would buy a home infected with this type of regime, disclosure of "the processes" they use would "hurt property values". Getting a copy of the "CC&R contracts" is not complete disclosure of HOA living - there's little things like the emotional gas chambers of litigation terrorism that await those who don't toe the line and swear allegiance to the CC&Rs.

I hate HOAs because they were created by developers, for developers on their authority and with no homeowner representation...and written by HOA management lawyers for their benefit to forever enforce the rules they wrote under contract terms THEY WROTE, so these are all powers gathered into the same hands (the very definition of tyranny?). HOAs are created to the detriment of homeowners - one-sided "adhesion contracts" that aren't negotiable and come on all new housing built by the largest housing mills in the history of the USA. They also come with automatic renewals - these "agreements" violate "the rule against perpetuities" (Texas bill of rights art 1 section 26: "perpetuities shall never be allowed") and most other constitutional rights.

The mafia in each new neighborhood waits 'till after homeowners move in (while you can get these documents prior to closing if you ask for them and pay for them and often have to wait up to 10 business days to get them, according to the LAW that was written by Carona and his goons, there is no requirement to provide buyers a copy). Then after homeowners are all moved in and start thinking they are realizing their "American Dream", thugs nail process warnings to the door and beat homeowners over the head with "you agreed to this when you bought your home". Once the abuse starts, it never lets up. You didn't get permission to paint the trim on your door so they issue a FINE and demand you repaint it like it was before, then tell you you better obtain permission to plant shrubbery or yadda yadda yadda.

The abusers never let up...and will continue until someone whips the bullies. 14 years I've crawled and took the high road and looked the other way, but the time has come to lock and load - I bought a house as my American Dream and must now declare the HOA concept a failure, I've been on the board and on every side of the pettiness that is everything about this failed concept- it's time to end this failed experiment and burn the CC&Rs. HOA loyalists who worship them, ask yourself one question: is it worth dying for? Well jump on the pile and go see your 72 virgins TONIGHT!
We must return to the America we loved before moving to this land infected with fascist doctrine...clean our deeds and return our homes to a land of the free and we can honestly say the home of the brave. The fascist occupation of mandatory HOA governance is now ending...God bless the constitution, it's all we needed and it's all we ever really wanted to begin with. Pulte, KB, Centex - GIT YOUR CC&Rs and take them back to the USSR or wherever foreign land you came from!!

[stan4]

I LOVE IT. It was there only one day and there was already someone watching to make sure it got moved or taken care of?!! Sweet jethro pew...that is pretty bad-ass. Not like some places where you can practically have your 'tire track' undies hanging from a line across your front yard for weeks before the HOA gets off its butt to do something about it.

Hats off!

p.s. I love our HOA...it's the bomb.

[Aran]

In honor of buying a house nowhere near an HoA I'm going to pull my project car out of the garage and throw it up on blocks in the morning.


... Flying Spaghetti Monster bless America.

[Aran]

I love living in the city where everyone is free to do as they'd like, so long as they don't break the law.

[richflocker]

Originally Posted by Aran

I love living in the city where everyone is free to do as they'd like, so long as they don't break the law.

Amen - on living in a city with reasonable residential laws is preferred to an HOA. This is America, and the rule of law is the only respected authority, these developer-imposed fascist rules are not legitimate law, they're fraudulent fascist propaganda. Live in a city that has code enforcement and residential restrictions? Then the HOAs are double-taxation, double trouble and need to be dissolved or demoted to a voluntary civic clubs...get them out of our lives. I have two worthless HOAs (yes, two = trouble squared, not double trouble) that provide NOTHING. No pools, no parks, no clubhouse, just tyranny. Dissolving them makes sense but when one suggests dissolving these organizations the reaction is akin to saying you want to overthrow the government. The HOA industry has brainwashed the masses and taken neighbor out of all the neighbors...converted them into effin terrorists havens for bullies and blockwarts. We need an executive order put a bounty on these domestic terror squads. Make it legal to pop their fascist heads and pay $10 each for their scalps. I bought this home when outside city limits, HOA dues provided trash pickup and streetlights and code enforcement...then the city annexed and assumed these duties (for tripple price in taxes 1999!) but the HOA dues have only gone up while their "services" are duplicated 100% by the city! The last straw comes now that the city will pay up to 50% of the cost of installing a 10KW solar power system on my home, but the HOA denied my application (because the Pulte-fascist doctrine bans solar - written in 1994). They like people to re-apply and grovel to get projects approved, but I will never ask their bloody permission again. I will ask the legislature for their heads this year. I won't take "no" for an answer, one way or another this fascist occupation is going to end. The good of this country is at stake and we will either change the law to end this, or I'm waging bloody war on these pigs..."the preservation of a republican form of government...people have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient."
Hmmmmm.....war WOULD be more expedient...

[stan4]

You know, maybe we wouldn't need HOAs if people could be counted on to not trash up every place they go and create unsightly messes.

[BigDGeek]

I suppose what irritates me is that some people truly believe that if you don't live in an HOA-controlled neighborhood, your neighborhood looks like a trailer park.

[Aran]

So if you didn't live in an HoA you'd trash up the place you lived in? Good to know.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Aran

So if you didn't live in an HoA you'd trash up the place you lived in? Good to know.

What troubles me MUCH more than HOA's is the attitude towards one's fellow man that is demonstrated by the idea that without them, a neighborhood is inevitably doomed to row upon row of houses (or even one) with cars up on blocks and unmowed lawns in front of the Day Glo Orange houses.

I've seen a lot of neighborhoods, with and without HOA's, obviously. And my experience does not in any way, shape or form support that idea.