It is so easy to just accept as gospel what we read, hear and are told without actually thinking things through.  One issue that is really rich in such non sequiturs is the whole concept of condo and homeowner associations.  The reasons and explanations given about the benefits of these forced memberships are many and, as our president would say, FAKE NEWS.  Think about it and try to understand how, allowing complete strangers full and total power over your home can protect your rights?  How “agreeing” to finance every and any folly of this group of strangers can be a good thing? Oh, so you have met some of them and they seemed really nice?  Maybe.  But does that translate to them having the knowledge and common sense to make sane and sensible decisions regarding what you own and where you live?  And did you really “agree” to all this?

Deborah Goonan joins us On The Commons.  Deborah owns and maintains a very active and widely read blog called  Independent  American Communities.  She tracks and writes about the many issues that happen on a daily basis in residential America.  So many  of the stories have heartbreaking consequences when individual homeowners have no idea and no say in what is happening in their communities or in their names. While the owners may have been kept in the dark, lied to and perhaps even targeted, they are, never the less, still on the hook for the many stupid decisions made by “those nice neighbors” who sit on the board.  We talk to Deborah about some of the stories she has blogged about recently and learn about one incident where “penny wise” proved to be “pound foolish” and where one young man will bear the marks of a board’s poor judgement for the rest of his life.  During our conversation, politics rears its ugly head and we learn why, when this concept, notwithstanding all the platitudes of the proponents of residential associations, are we still mass producing them and leading unsuspecting housing consumers into the lion’s den?

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Living in an HOA can easily result in an empty wallet.