David Kahne joins us On The Commons this week. David is an attorney in Houston Texas. He has worked in HOA and Condo law for many years as an attorney in court representing homeowners and as an advocate for HOA reform. David has been working on an interesting case that he will tell us about. Working through the case and doing his research, it became clear to David that some legislative fixes me be in order. Since David will be telling us all about the case I will leave it up to him to explain it but I urge you all to tune in and listen very carefully because he is asking us for our thoughts and any ideas we may have on how to hold board members responsible for violating the governing documents. Right now board members can fine homeowners in violation of almost everything but when a board member steps off the straight and narrow path homeowner are left holding the bag. That needs to change Tune in, listen in and send us your thoughts and ideas.
Increasingly in America homeowners are treated like incompetent idiots who are incapable of managing their own lives and their homes. Members of the HOA industry have gone as far as to equate the owners as “children who do not know what is good for them”. Naturally they are more than happy to make all our important decisions for us- and leave us with the bill! To add insult to injury, the false advertising and misinformation that, under most other circumstances, would be punishable by law, is swept under the rug and ignored. Unit owners in homeowner and condo associations are often ridiculed, harassed and penalized for demanding transparency or even questioning the actions of the association. Their duty is to not ask why but to pay up and shut up.
Well, times they are a changing. Slowly but surely more and more talented people have had enough and are starting to move mountains, one stone at a time!
John Sellers joins us On The Commons this week. John has worked in the banking industry for years and knows just where to look for any irregularities. So when things just didn’t smell quite right, he put his talents to work and started digging. What he discovered is quite incredible. Not only are the people who are supposed to be protecting your rights turning a blind eye to all the shenanigans going on behind closed doors, but they are also using YOUR tax dollars to cover up some missing funds in HOA banks. John continued digging and was told to “get a hobby”. Fortunately for us, he took that advice to heart, expanded his search criteria and started a blog called ArizonaHOA where he intends to not only share information but to also gather information from other homeowners. He estimates there have been 3,000 court cases involving HOAs in Arizona. Chances are those did not happen because associations were doing such a wonderful job, as proponents of HOAs would have you believe. Tune in, it is an eye opening interview.
