Hosted and produced by Shu Bartholomew, On The Commons is a weekly radio show dedicated to discussing the many issues surrounding mandatory homeowner associations, the fastest growing form of residential housing in the nation.
Housing consumers who buy into an HOA controlled development are told that by signing the settlement papers that they have entered into a contract with the association. What does that mean? Proponents of HOAs, in the event of a dispute or a more serious problem, are quite happy to explain simply by saying, “Oh, but you agreed!” In other words, homeowners, you have no rights because you signed them all away.
But wait…
Black’s Law Dictionary defines contract, in part, as “An agreement between two or more persons which creates an obligation to do or not to do a particular thing.” Does that mean that the association has limits and obligations to the homeowners? Or can associations do anything they want?
Joining us On The Commons this week we have Patrick Batt and Rudy Grom. Pat and Rudy live in Manchester Oaks, a townhouse development in Northern Virginia where both households were being discriminated against when it came to using common parking spaces. Trying to resolve the problem with their board of directors got them nowhere so they decided to enforce the provisions of the “contract” through the courts. Their case went all the way up to the Virginia Supreme Court and they won. Join us as we get the details of this case.
