Fines

Frank Short

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One of the most despicable and abusive practices that has become an acceptable part of the American culture recently is that of fining by residential associations.  Why is the HOA industry so enamored with the power to fine?  Is it really designed to FORCE people to act, live and behave according to some aesthetic plan concocted by the architects of controlled living? Whatever the real reason, it is a punitive measure that strips a person of his or her assets.  A few dollars can soon mushroom to tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars, resulting in the loss of someone’s home.   Proponents of this offensive practice wonder how else one can force compliance by a neighbor.  But is that really what they are concerned about or do they have ulterior motives?  Who benefits?
 
Joining us On The Commons this week is Frank Short.  Frank is an old friend of the show, a personal friend and a lawyer.  And, as only Frank can, he takes us on a historical trip through court cases that have examined fines.  We hear about the issues, the arguments and what the courts at various levels and in different states have ruled.  He packs an hour with a comprehensive and chronological look at fines, the courts and the legislatures.  You will not want to miss it.
 
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Empowerment, Property Values

Bill Davis

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The true value of anything is what a buyer is willing to pay and what a seller is willing to accept in exchange for that item.  If demand is high on something, and supply is low, the value tends to go up.  On the other hand if there is a glut on the market of an item, the value goes down because it is said to be a buyers market.  That’s pretty much the way it works when it comes to determining value. And that includes housing.  So I am a little perplexed by the claim that a house that is subject to a mandatory membership housing association increases the value of the property.  It makes no sense and flies in the face of the traditional understanding of how values are arrived at and understood. It is especially perplexing given that so many housing consumers specifically request non HOA housing but are told they do not exist. “There is nothing on the market.” On the off chance that a non HOA house becomes available it is advertised as “Non HOA” and that’s a valuable marketing tool. It sets it apart from other houses on the market. It is true that non HOA housing is rare, often old and sometimes require a complete overhaul and update, making them expensive.  But they are still highly sought after.

Bill Davis joins me On The Commons.  Bill, a frequent guest, friend and attorney lives in Texas and is one of only a few attorneys who represents homeowners against their HOAs. He is well versed and experienced on what routinely goes on .  Bill and I talk about property values, what needs to be included when calculating the monetary value as well as other values and costs that we seldom think about.  One thing we both agree on is that housing consumers need to have all the facts and all the information they can get in order to make an educated decision on what they are buying, or not buying.  It is also important to know what questions to ask.  Join us as we dive into all the ins and outs of determining the true value of that jewel with the beautiful view that you just fell in love with.  

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Coronavirus, Empowerment

Wes Rocki

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Dr. Wes Rocki

The last few decades have seen some radical changes in the way we live, starting with our  personal rights and our traditional rights as homeowners. Along with HOA mandates homeowners lost their dominion over their most private and personal asset.  This new way of life has been beaten into us and the resulting health issues have been well recognized and documented.  Living under the microscope and the fear of being singled out for some ridiculous offense has increased the daily stress.  As if that was not bad enough, along comes the Covid 19 pandemic.  In addition to the usual traditional stresses that are part and parcel of our lives, we now have to live with a deadly virus.  The fear on contracting this virus added to all the unknown aspects associated with it has taken a toll on us.  Is there something we can do to mitigate the potential damage and protect ourselves and our families from yet another potential enemy?

Dr.WES ROCKI joins us ON THE COMMONS 

Dr Rocki has focused more on how we, as humans, can help to heal ourselves rather than relying on a host of medicines.  He is a great believer in self healing and how to manage our own health and well being.  In a very timely and fascinating interview Dr. Rocki walks us through the process of taking control of our lives, our environment and our health.  At a time when it seems we are being hit from all sides, he presents us with some common sense solutions to an otherwise contradictory and confusing barrage of misinformation.  You’ll want to tune in to this one.

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Coronavirus, Empowerment

John Cowherd

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John Cowherd

To keep everyone at Fairfax Public Access safe the station closed down in March along with all other businesses around the world and for that I thank them but we are starting to open up, take a deep breath and get back to doing what we love. We recorded our first show.many more to come.

Much has happened during the many months since we last were in touch but the mile marker for me is that on July 1st, 2020 On The Commons celebrated its 20th anniversary without much fanfare. And to think that when I applied for the show I wondered whether I would have enough material to fill the 6 month contract I got. I’m excited that we not only managed to fill the hours but I still have a hard time fitting all the shows in. We’re back on the air and we will be working diligently to get caught up and to bring you the news and views you want to hear.

John Cowherd joins us for our first post Covid 19 On The Commons show. John is no stranger to you, he is an attorney in Virginia who represents homeowners with problems with their associations. Problems in condos, coops and HOAs are commonplace but with the imposition of extra cleanliness guidelines, social distancing and all the fear people have, how does it affect managing associations? Can members participate in association meetings? Have statutes been tweaked to cover the current conditions? John has a lot of thoughts on why it is important to keep owners engaged and how to ensure they are allowed to participate in the meetings.

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Condominium, Coronavirus

Ed Allcock

Like so much of the world, Radio Fairfax is closed to protect all the employees and volunteers.  We will be back in full swing as soon as the coronavirus scare is over.  Please take good care of yourselves and keep healthy.  Shu and the Technical Staff at On the Commons. 

Coronavirus is dominating the news worldwide right now. To add to all the confusion, this strain of coronavirus is new so science and the medical community are working around the clock to learn about it, figure out how to treat the patients who have contracted it and to develop vaccines to prevent the future spread of the virus.  There is much to learn about this virus and there is always fear of the unknown.  However, with all the misinformation floating around, the unknown is creating a lot of confusion and increasing the fear factor manifold.  

Ed Allcock joins us On The Commons.  Ed, an attorney with Marcus, Errico, Emmer and Brooks, a Massachusetts law firm that represents condominiums and HOA.  Ed took a step back and started looking at common sense ways to mitigate the spread of this potentially deadly virus, especially in high density buildings such as high rise condominiums where people come into contact with public facilities.  With a little thought, common sense and some help from his high school daughter’s leadership he came up with a plan on how can board members and managers can reduce the risk of cross contamination in their buildings  Ed wrote an article, “Coronavirus:What should Condominium Associations Do?”  With common sense ideas and some very worthwhile ways of combating the spread.  We’ll talk to Ed about his article, what he has learned in the process and how we call do our bit to avoid being victims but warriors fighting back.  

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Legislation

John Cowherd

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“I bet you have never heard this one, Shu.  Let me tell you what my HOA is doing to me. ”  

Welcome to housing American style because as shocked as they are when they reach out to me, their story is not as uncommon as they think.  

Even though I thought I had heard it all, a few years ago one listener from Florida managed to educate me on just how bad things really are. She was a single mother of an infant who was being forced out of the condo she owned. Yes she would get paid less than market value for it and what she would get was nowhere near enough to help her find another home.   In essence, she and her baby were on their way to being homeless.  She introduced me to the practice of condo terminations and bulk buyers to explain how this was being done.  

John Cowherd joins me  On The Commons .  John, a frequent guest On The Commons, is an attorney in Northern Virginia who represents the homeowners in litigation and disputes against their residential and commercial associations.  He also maintains a blog called  Words of Conveyance    I am always grateful to John for keeping me in the loop of what is going on in the courts as well as the legislature in Virginia and for coming on to inform our listeners about it all.  We talk to John about HB 1548, a Virginia bill introduced and sponsored by Delegate Marcus R. Simon.  This bill  appears to be flying through all the committees and chambers in Richmond, on its way  to becoming law much too quickly. What this law would do is strip the owners of rights and protections they have as condo owners making it so much easier for developers and investors to profit financially, leaving them much poorer than they were before getting involved in a condo.  So much for protecting property values.  As my mother always said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”  

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Civil Rights, Constitutional Rights

Jan Bergemann

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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  

As you can see, contrary to popular belief the Bill of rights does not give us certain rights.  The Founders recognized that these were God given rights and sought to prohibit government from taking them away. Little did they know that “Congress”, in all its wisdom  would find a way of empowering a fake government, aka a residential association where these rights would be trampled on at will.  The explanation is that by owning a home you “agreed” to forfeit your

Constitutionally protected rights.  NO, you did not.  

Jan Bergemann joins us On The Commons.  Jan is the founder and President of the Florida based  Cyber Citizens for Justice    An outspoken, no nonsense advocate for individual rights, he has worked tirelessly to provide some common sense in an otherwise corrupt system.  We talk to Jan about the state of controlled housing in Florida and especially about a bill making its way through the Florida Legislature granting Floridians their God given rights.  I know, it sounds absurd, doesn’t it?  But having empowered associations with extraordinary powers, the legislators are trying to reign them in, just a tiny little bit. It’s a start.  Join Jan and me for a lively discussion of this new bill and how, when passed, will reaffirm constitutionally protected rights. 

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Free Speech

Deborah Goonan

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As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as being the freest people in the world.  And we are – or perhaps we were.  Gradually over the years American homeowners have been conned into believing they have given up some of those rights if that house is in a homeowner association.  Other times they have been misled into believing they never had any rights in the first place.  Bundled up in all of our rights we have what are often referred to as “natural rights” also inalienable rights.  These are rights that Belong to us and cannot be taken away.  Some of these rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights.  The first of those rights is included in the 1st Amendment.  It guarantees the right of free expression, including freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, religion and speech.  Nowhere in the Constitution did I find an exception for Homeowner associations.  What a shocker!

Deborah Goonan joins us On The Commons.  Deborah writes a blog called Independent American Communities and has become a walking encyclopedia of all the problems in HOAs across the country.  She has recently been following a troubling trend of HOAs stripping owners of their right to free speech part of the protections of the First Amendment.  We talk about Val Vista Lakes HOA in Gilbert Arizona whereThe association was threatening the residents with $250/day fines for exercising their right to free speech.  Find out why.  Check out  Independent American Communities  and do tune in to the show.  

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Property Ownership

Donna Fossum

A timely gem from the archives!

Residential America has changed dramatically over the last 50 years.  Gone are the days when housing consumers bought a house or a plot of land and were lords of their mansions, kings or queens of their castles, where their word was law – within the confines of their property, of course.  Increasingly living in residential America is more complicated, more restrictive and more expensive.  Do American homeowners know and understand how and why their lives and homes have changed?

Donna Fossum joins us On The Commons.  Donna is an attorney, a long time resident and condo owner in the City of Alexandria, Virginia.  She was a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corporation, a former member of the Alexandria Planning Commission and a one time candidate for City Council.  Donna, with her analytical background, has written the most comprehensive and complete report on the changing residential communities. After a lot of research, Donna discovers what is essentially two cities in one, divided more or less equally by the east side and the west side of the City of Alexandria. She explains how this shift resulted in double taxation for approximately half of the homeowners in Alexandria.  But probably one of the most eye opening discoveries she made was the differences in the political process and participation by the citizens of the two different halves of the city.  Tune in and hear her talk about all the issues that significantly affect the way we live in America today and read her report,  Fossum Files .  While her research and analysis centered on Alexandria, the same issues and resulting problems exist across the country.

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Suicide

Bill Davis

4 Comments

We get mail, emails, messages and other forms of communication.  Always happy to hear from you.    I find it interesting that so many of you have the same name,  “Anonymous”, often there is no name or return address for snail mail or email addresses so this show is dedicated to responding to a couple of recent messages.   

First of all, I got a letter proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that all is not well in HOAland.  The letter starts off by saying   “my HOA board is provoking me to commit suicide.”  I can fully understand the sheer frustration of having to deal with a bunch of bullies but PLEASE don’t commit suicide.  No HOA is worth your life.    I have yet to find any truthful and honest benefit of an HOA for the owners.  Sadly many frustrated, harassed and abused HOA owners have committed suicide over the years.  And the HOA lives on to abuse more homeowners.  The best advice I have for you is to GET OUT and, with other HOA survivors help  get the message out.  Talk to legislators IN PUBLIC, preferably with cameras on so they can’t just sweep your comments and concern under the rug as they have a tendency  to do.  It is time they understand what they have done and FIX IT. 

Bill Davis joins us On The Commons.  Bill, a Texas attorney represents HOA homeowners and has more insight from a real life point.  I get the most comments about Bill.  People want me to clone him, another Anonymous writer complains about Bills audio quality but then says, “once you get Bill’s audio problems fixed; more episodes with Bill and John Cowherd together.”  Bill and I talk about some of the issues raised by the writer and explain the problem with his audio.  You will be happy to know that we had no problems with the audio on this show. Tune in to find out what Bill did to “fix” it.

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News and Views About Homeowner Associations