The Big Lie

Bill Davis

If homeowner associations are so amazing and beneficial to the homeowners, why do proponents find it necessary to lie about them?  Why can’t they just be honest and explain why non HOA housing is for all intents and purposes non-existent?  Why aren’t prospective homeowners told the truth about what they are buying?  Is it because the truth will scare them away if they understood what they were getting into?  And why is it that most of the buyers out there who do understand what HOAs are really all about, steer clear of them if they can?  

Bill Davis joins us On the Commons. Bill, a Texas attorney and one of a handful of attorneys nationwide who understands HOA and Condominium laws and will represent the homeowners against their HOA.  He somehow manages to find cases with a twist.  The case we talk about this week is no exception.  Oh, the lies are there, including the ones about the HOA preserving the values of the properties and the amenities and being granted the right/duty/authority to collect assessments and enforce the covenants.  All the usual.  There is, however, one whacking great big lie about this whole set up.  Remember, it pays to know your rights and to know what your Declaration really says.  You will have to tune in to hear this BIG LIE!

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Abuse

Deborah Goonan

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Deborah Goonan

We seem to live in a culture of unprecedented intolerance, incredible rudeness and bullying.  None of these traits are conducive to a society that is civilized, fair or pleasant.  In fact the opposite is true.  Do we continue down this path, unchecked, acting and behaving like animals? What are the consequences of such abusive behavior? 

For a glimpse of where we might be headed, we need to look no further than the HOAs that are forced on America’s homeowners.  Without the checks and balances required by the Constitution and absent any oversight the so called leaders in these associations act and behave like the adult versions of the bullies they probably were in school.  And absent any “adult” to prevent the abuse, there will be tragic consequences.

Deborah Goonan joins us  On The Commons. We are both very saddened to announce that a homeowner who fought to protect her home, her family and her rights lost the biggest battle of all, her life.  Many of you had corresponded with Andrea Barnes over the years and are familiar with the terror and insanity she had to put up with in her HOA.  Andrea was a young mother of 3 children that she loved  and was very proud of.  She was a very talented photographer and a gifted writer.  And as everything in HOAs the problems and the HOA complaints were petty.They included her trashcan, a birdhouse her kids made her in school, a hose wheel (unapproved? Wrong shade of gray? who knows!). So quite apart from the barrage of violation notices for petty alleged infractions, the association isolated her, the abuse spilled onto the kids at school and they removed her from the community Facebook page.  

They parked at the end of her driveway and sat there watching the house. Oh, she also had Meniers disease, a disability that is not outwardly visible but a disability nonetheless.  The stress she lived under in her association was relentless.  But then this is what HOAs are about.  I have to wonder if the HOA had the authority to do any of the things they did to Andrea and do to countless other homeowners on a daily basis.  It is time to pull the plug on homeowner associations!  It is time to learn how to be a caring, polite and civilized country once again. 

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Andrea Barnes

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Litigation

Caroline Douglas

Caroline Douglas

In a free and civilized society there is the expectation that the citizens have rights, including the right to be treated fairly.  However fairness seems to be one of the first casualties in mandatory membership residential associations.  Gone are all the safeguards put in place by the Constitution.  Gone is the notion of checks and balances and the idea that in the event of a dispute there will be a fair and just outcome. Is this just an HOA problem or does it affect other institutions?

Caroline Douglas joins us On The Commons.  Caroline has a law degree, and is passionate about the law.  She is an author and a professor in Maryland and is always willing to share her knowledge, expertise and ideas with us.  She is very well aware of the what can happen when the safety nets fail to ensure fairness.  We’ll talk about the meaning and need for law.  We also learn about a 30 year old case, how that was handled in court and what has happened in the Pam Smart case.  How can we ensure fairness in this world?

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Mediation

Robin Lent

“If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”  When confronted with anything that “sounds too good to be true”, don’t take it at face value, instead do a little digging to get the details.  One of these golden gems in the land of residential associations is Alternate Dispute Resolution, or ADR.  Proponents would have us believe arbitration and mediation are cheaper, quicker and better than going to court.  It sounds too good to be true so I did a little digging, and several years ago wrote a paper on my findings which is on my web site. You can read it  here.  But there is so much more. 

As time goes on and more and more people fall in the trap of giving up their right to go to court, some pretty unsavory details have come to light. Mediation is used pretty extensively in neighborhood association wars which usually include a confidentiality clause, in other words, a gag order. I have always opposed this.  

Robin Lent joins us On The Commons.  Robin, a Texas homeowner got tangled up in a battle with her association 10 years ago, went to a court ordered mediation and after an exhausting session, when she was ready to drop, signed an agreement that included a confidentiality clause.  The terms of the settlement are sealed so we will NOT be discussing them BUT for the details of the mediation process, and the fall out of the gag order,  you will have to tune in.  It was a huge eye opener for me and I learned so much from this show.  So, you think you want to go to arbitration?  Please tune in.   

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Fines

John Cowherd and Bill Davis

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I can’t even begin to tell you just how appalled, angry, disgusted and frustrated I am at the state of housing, American style.  Most countries in the world have a healthier respect for private spaces, whether those spaces are owned by the residents or leased.  But with the proliferation of mandatory, forced membership in residential corporations, Americans are subject to the whims and caprices of neighborhood self appointed “enforcers” and their hired ” professionals” aka, HOA attorneys. After all, they really are not smart enough or capable enough to live in their own homes without a lot of oversight.

John Cowherd and Bill Davis join us On The Commons in the first of a two part show analyzing how and why we got to having such disrespect and disdain for private property. The largest tools in these tyrants’ toolbox is the statutory right to fine and then to foreclose to collect these fines. No oversight is provided by the governmental bodies authorizing these remedies, no thought to protecting the rights of the owners.  After all, they agreed, right?  

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Fighting Back

Caroline Douglas

Albert Einstein is credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.  Whether Einstein said it or not is debatable but what is certain is that the quote is common sense.  Yet for some reason we insist on doing the same thing over and over and over again, convincing ourselves that this time it will work.  THIS time the results will be different.  And yet again, we are disappointed and frustrated.  This is especially true when it comes to “fixing” all the problems with residential associations.  We believe that one more law requiring or prohibiting something will drastically alter the failing HOA system.  But all those statutes do little other than complicate and compound the problems.  Maybe it is time to start thinking outside the box and looking at different “solutions” – different ways of protecting homeowner assets and rights.

Caroline Douglas joins us On The Commons.  Caroline is passionate about the Law, a subject she loves and is always willing to talk about and share thoughts and ideas with us.  This week we brainstorm ideas that would allow homeowners to get what it is they want most, the right to be left alone and to enjoy the peace and sanctity of their own homes.  We explore the possibility of taking the fight to a different arena and using a different battle cry.  We learn about potential rights and remedies.  Tune in for an idea packed hour of ways to stop doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results.

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Abuse, Going to Court

Silvia Wright

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Silvia Wright

We have become a very transient society. I was quite surprised when I first came to the US that one of the first questions we ask someone we meet is, “where are you from?” Our roots have become spread across the globe, leaving behind our friends, families, neighbors, traditions, language, culture and all the other things that are part of who we are.  It hasn’t always been that way.  There was a time when families lived in the same community and were there for all the milestones.  Family lore and history were well known, pride of our ancestors and their accomplishments and legacies were all part of our every day lives.  We had a stronger sense of who we were and where we came from. 

Sylvia Hoehns Wright joins us On The Commons.  Sylvia is one of a handful of people who knows who she is and where she came from.  She is the 5th generation to live on a family owned tract of land.  There are 9 houses in her neighborhood all owned and inhabited by family who all share the same roots and values.  There is no mandatory membership homeowner association so no abuses, horror stories or attempted land grabs that we talk about here.  Right?  Well, not so fast.  A couple of parcels of land were sold and the new owners who don’t share Sylvia’s history, values or traditions would love to be able to get her off her land.  She has written a book called  Lawfare, American Property Rights versus Muslim Supremacy   Tune in to hear Sylvia’s story.  

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Gag Orders, HOA Syndrome

Gary Solomon

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Our founding fathers felt strongly enough about protecting our right to express ourselves, share our thoughts and tell our stories that they included it in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, also known as The Bill of Rights. The importance and the benefits of this right can’t be overstated.  

Dr. Gary Solomon joins us  On The Commons.  Dr Solomon, a professor of psychology has studied the effects of residential associations on the homeowners.  I asked him specifically about “gag orders” and how they affected families and especially the harm that is done to the children.  He had some interesting insights on how HOAs are “muting” their members.  We dig beneath the horror stories and try to understand what goes on underneath it all.  Dr Solomon has written extensively on this subject. To access all his work simply Google  HOA Syndrome. 

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Civil Rights, Judicial, Legal Boundaries

Caroline Douglas

 

The benefit of making mistakes should be that we learn from them and – hopefully- avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.  So how come we never seem to learn from the mistake of imposing a 4th layer of government on housing consumers?  This extra layer of government has  no   oversight, no separation of powers, no constitutional restraints and total and complete disregard for individual and property rights.   Could the answer be that it really is not a mistake?

Caroline Douglas is back  by popular demand,  On the Commons . Caroline has a Juris Doctor, she has written a law treatise called The Dark Side and is about to teach the material from her book in several college courses in Baltimore, Maryland.  Never having been personally caught in the abuses of an HOA gone off the rails, and never having litigated property association cases, she forces us to look outside the box we have put ourselves in. Tune in for a slightly different show.

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Uncategorized

Ward Lucas

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Storytelling has always been an important and effective way of getting a point across.  HOAs are a very rich source for stories.  How better to warn housing consumers of the abuses that could be lurking right around the corner from that perfect house that feels so very much like home if you can’t tell your story?  But stories, for the sake of a story is not enough, it has to be believable and the story teller has to be credible and that entails a little work. 

Ward Lucas joins us On The Commons.  Ward, now retired, is an Emmy winning TV anchor, investigative reporter and story teller “par excellence”.  He is also a published author.  His first book, “Neighbors at War”, is, as you might guess, all about the abuses and sheer insanity that is so common in HOA controlled neighborhoods. He has just published his third book, “Sometimes ya Gotta Ride the Elephant” where he takes us through his journey as an investigative reporter and TV anchor and lets us into the secrets of how he managed to get the full story for his reports, without leaving any loose ends.  It’s a fun read with several lessons for us budding story tellers.  All three of his books are available on his website, Ward Lucas.com

 

 

 

 

 

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News and Views About Homeowner Associations