🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ikVH8.104808$UV4.200459@rwcrnsc54>, suzn ruminated:
> HOA'S? What the heck is that?

"Home Owner's Association". The culmination of the Libertarian's pipe
dream of "voluntary associations". Forced down our throats by city
planning departments that demand common basins for handling "storm
water runoff" and HUD regulations that prohibit FHA financing unless
there is a "home owners association" to care for that common
ground. The problem with HOA's is that they invariably turn into
corrupt enterprises aimed more at enriching the cronies of the HOA
board than at doing the limited job they were chartered to do, causing
HOA fees to skyrocket far beyond what's necessary to cut the grass and
occasionally clean the drainage, and the papers you signed when you
bought the house say you must pay whatever they say you must pay -- or
else they shall bring down the full power and force of the law upon
you for breach of contract, including liens upon your house for
whatever "fines" they whip up out of thin air for whatever illusionary
"CC&R violations" they can invent for you (such as leaving your trash
can out in front of your house for one minute past 5:01PM on a trash
day). 

The problem is one of power, and the kinds of people who seek power,
and their ability to use the power of government to enforce contracts
that are not voluntary in any way (since city planning departments
require these commons for all new developments to handle storm water
runoff, and since HUD rules require an HOA for all developments with
commons). I was astounded to find that in one particular area of this
city, each and every home is assessed over $150 per month to cut a few
strips of grass and water a few trees and occasionally clean out a
storm drain and rake some rocks. Where does the money go? Nobody
knows. Home owner's associations are generally not covered by state
public records laws, since, though they were (indirectly) mandated by
government entities, they aren't "officially" government entities in
the eyes of the law. This ability to operate in secrecy is the
creepiest part of the whole "home owner's association" phenomenon.
And while the CC&R's say that they must announce HOA board meetings,
"official" meetings only happen once a year in some cases -- everything
else is handled informally via back alley deals and phone calls. 

And the fun part is that if you try to sue a corrupt home owner's
association board for wasting your money on cronies of the board
members (such as lawn contracts for vastly overbloated prices that
result in side-pocket deals and kickbacks to board members), you're
the one who ends up paying for it via increased assessments (not to
mention that they'll slap liens on your house for every imaginary
violation they can dream of before you can say "boo"). You see, you
"voluntarily" signed a contract that said that board members cannot be
directly sued because they are indemnified for any actions they take
in the name of the HOA. So you can only sue the HOA itself -- i.e.,
yourself. Isn't that nice?

-- 
Eric Lee Green       eric@badtux.org     http://badtux.org
    GnuPG public key at http://badtux.org/eric/eric.gpg