Jenab
July 17th, 2004, 09:07 AM
Until recently, I wasn't even much aware of what homeowners associations were. I suppose the idea originally was to establish minimum standards for neighborhoods so that the sloppiness or criminality of one member of a community didn't lower property values or otherwise harm the other members.
But things seem to have gone downhill in a hurry. Homeowners Associations are often run by the worst sorts of petty tyrants, unscrupulous opportunists, and micro-managerial nitpickers. And however great their abuses of power have become, they so far still have the weight of state law backing them because they provide lawyers with a way to make a lot of easy money.
For a quick lesson in how Homeowners Associations have been abusing their authority, read
http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/article/action/ShowMedia/id/50
Homeowners Associations are a quasi-governmental entity, with a quasi-legal territorial "jurisdiction," which one enters by buying property within the territory that the Homeowners Association claims as their responsibility -- evidently much as gangsters have "turf" for which they feel "responsible".
Having entered this territory, you have assumed an (apparently legal) obligation to join the local club and pay dues at a rate determined without your knowledge or participation. A refusal to join will cost you the investment you made in your home when you lose the lawsuit that the Homeowner's Association will file against you. The lawsuit has some of the appearance of a "mechanics lien." Any failure to pay the dues that the Homeowners Association claims you owe them will likewise result in your losing your home, and they don't take excuses.
I have lived in Lake Don Pedro owners Association for nearly 20 years. They do nothing to maintain common areas... They haven't touched our streets since 1968 when the land developer put them in. The parks look abandoned and as far as I am concerned they hurt property values.
Just a month ago, a stranger stopped me on my street looking for an address of a house for sale. During the conversation he asked if it was in an association. When I said it was, he threw the sale flyer on the floor and said, "I guess there's no need to look at that house."
Associations are just a place for no life, stupid, power hungry people to get on the board of directors. These people have nothing better to do except ruin other peoples' lives. They are usually ex-law enforcement, or ... are [former or] wanabee politicians.
The homeowners clubhouse becomes their private little resort and your maintenence dues money is used to pay no-life attorneys to force you into submission. And the sad thing is, there is nothing you can do about it, except move, or go to jail.
Homeowners associations exercise some of the traditional government powers, such as coercive taxation, regulation of personal property, and emminent domain, and the remaining government powers are made available to them through state law. Although the Homeowners Associations are technically democratic, this means little more for a neighborhood than it does for a nation. In practice, the Homeowners Association is a petty dictatorship whose Boards of Directors can encroach, legally, on the property rights of persons with impunity, provided that they don't make a majority of residents angry enough to retaliate against them at any one moment of time.
Does anyone else find this a rather nasty state of affairs?
Jerry Abbott
But things seem to have gone downhill in a hurry. Homeowners Associations are often run by the worst sorts of petty tyrants, unscrupulous opportunists, and micro-managerial nitpickers. And however great their abuses of power have become, they so far still have the weight of state law backing them because they provide lawyers with a way to make a lot of easy money.
For a quick lesson in how Homeowners Associations have been abusing their authority, read
http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/article/action/ShowMedia/id/50
Homeowners Associations are a quasi-governmental entity, with a quasi-legal territorial "jurisdiction," which one enters by buying property within the territory that the Homeowners Association claims as their responsibility -- evidently much as gangsters have "turf" for which they feel "responsible".
Having entered this territory, you have assumed an (apparently legal) obligation to join the local club and pay dues at a rate determined without your knowledge or participation. A refusal to join will cost you the investment you made in your home when you lose the lawsuit that the Homeowner's Association will file against you. The lawsuit has some of the appearance of a "mechanics lien." Any failure to pay the dues that the Homeowners Association claims you owe them will likewise result in your losing your home, and they don't take excuses.
I have lived in Lake Don Pedro owners Association for nearly 20 years. They do nothing to maintain common areas... They haven't touched our streets since 1968 when the land developer put them in. The parks look abandoned and as far as I am concerned they hurt property values.
Just a month ago, a stranger stopped me on my street looking for an address of a house for sale. During the conversation he asked if it was in an association. When I said it was, he threw the sale flyer on the floor and said, "I guess there's no need to look at that house."
Associations are just a place for no life, stupid, power hungry people to get on the board of directors. These people have nothing better to do except ruin other peoples' lives. They are usually ex-law enforcement, or ... are [former or] wanabee politicians.
The homeowners clubhouse becomes their private little resort and your maintenence dues money is used to pay no-life attorneys to force you into submission. And the sad thing is, there is nothing you can do about it, except move, or go to jail.
Homeowners associations exercise some of the traditional government powers, such as coercive taxation, regulation of personal property, and emminent domain, and the remaining government powers are made available to them through state law. Although the Homeowners Associations are technically democratic, this means little more for a neighborhood than it does for a nation. In practice, the Homeowners Association is a petty dictatorship whose Boards of Directors can encroach, legally, on the property rights of persons with impunity, provided that they don't make a majority of residents angry enough to retaliate against them at any one moment of time.
Does anyone else find this a rather nasty state of affairs?
Jerry Abbott