HOA elections are rigged - (or pretty close to it)

I understand that one of the board members has / is leaving.

This is good news as fresh blood in the board is good, turnover is good. But this is not really what prompted this writing. What prompted this was the fact that the person who has left the board was the board president. Hasn't that guy been president of the board for, for... forever! Well, I didn't vote for him so I'm glad he’s gone. But then I didn't vote for any officer position on the board.

If you want to be a HOA officer you must first win the popularity contest. Nope, I'm not talking about residents voting in elections. Say you want to help make Stonegate a better place to live, do some public service. Naturally you have your own opinions and ideas. So you run for the board and win a seat through the electoral process. Now what? Say your opinions are different from that of the other board members, but you believe you reflect better the views of the residents. What can you do? Sadly, the answer is not much. Since board members elect which one of their own will be president, treasurer etc., if you are elected by the residents and you don't reflect the popular opinion of the board, you will: 1) have no power, 2) never, ever be an officer and, 3) never be a real voice for those who elected you.

Talk about a good ol’ boy (and girls) club.

Solution? This one was mentioned at a meeting and ignored by the board. Anyone running for office on the board should be required to write in their own words what their objectives would be if elected. And just like the county and state elections, residents should receive candidates’ statements in the mail. The management company could send this out with our monthly news letter before we should vote. The point is it wouldn’t be that hard to know who the heck where supposed to vote on, what they stand for, a glimmer into what their agenda might be. I've heard complains that no one cares about our elections. That there is too much apathy, that not enough people take an interest in their HOA. And just like that stuff that was receintly floating around in our pool, endangering our kids, I say its a load of crap!

Attention Board members who think no one cares during election time.

Ya you who rule in the protection of obscurity…. Nobody knows who you are! So how the flock are we supposed to make a decision on who to vote for. And don't give me any B.S. about how we should attend meetings to get to know you. I,ve been at your meetings and personally I'd fire the whole lot of you. Also, not everyone can attend meetings, so that would be discrimination against those who have to work, etc. But every one does get mail!

Also, this business of the board members voting among themselves for who will hold office must stop. The residents should decide who is president, secretary, etc. We should not be subject to the HOA good ol’ boy club!

Energy Drinks - fraud or freedom

Mail "fraud" and HOA inconsistency... How rife with hypocrisy they are.

Fact: A mailbox is for the sole use of the United States Postal Service and any letters, packages, etc. that someone puts in or on a mailbox must have proper postage... otherwise is seems your a nasty little lawbreaker.
Well, someone named Mike has put advertisements on our beloved and sacred mailboxes. At least stuck on everyone's mailbox I saw was a card for some drink called "Liftoff". It’s supposed to be a "New Kind of Energy Drink".

In the past the board has taken aggressive legal action against one of our Fellow Stonegateons for using our mailboxes to distribute their views of the HOA.

Spending our HOA dues to quiet the protestor, the board based the legal action against this lawbreaker on the fact that he or she used our post boxes to distribute information without any postage. Naughty! Naughty!

I wonder.... Will the board seek to use aggressive legal action against this new filthy lawbreaker who uses our post boxes without proper postage for his corporate gain? Or is it only wrong when someone exercises free speech? Since Mike is offering a free sample of his "New Energy Drink" maybe the board members will feel bribed into not using a lawyer this time?

VIOLATION NOTICES - the device of Big (HOA) Brother

I thought the Founding Fathers already worked VIOLATION NOTICES out!

Well, I’m thinking about running for the board, just to protect myself from it. Don’t bible thumpers call that something like joining the number of the beast?

The HOA is like a government that has little accountability to its citizenry. HOAs seem to be small forms of these failures. The founding fathers came to this country to get away from dictators, tyrants and monarchs because the law of the land was the day to day opinion of some asshole far removed from the founders way of life.


The current rant: NOTICES – (we’ve all had ‘em)

When notices are received by residents, they will find two built-in features to protect the HOA and to hurt you; or rather the lack of features.

Any violations notices need to have two characteristics. 1) A clear due date by which the accused can know WHEN action may be taken against them. A resident needs to know how long they have to either satisfy the condition, or question it, and 2) a clear reference to that part of the CC&R's that is being broken. The accused needs to know WHAT the certain and specified violation they are accused with is.

Notices that are sent out based on someone's opinion is morally wrong. These "opinion violations" are a despotic influence against whom the opinion is being exercised; peoples opinions are always changing and as such, are conditions that can never be satisfied.

These practices lead to policies of non-disclosure as they originate in the filth of some tyrants mind and can’t be backed up legitimately.

If these two characteristics cannot be provided, then violations notices are just pieces of paper that can be used to:

• Levy retroactive punishments.
• Be retained over time as a means of coercion.
• Used to choreograph the "look" of the community in a way that satisfies a personal taste at the expense of the residents.
• Retaliate against those whom a personal animosity is held.
• Exercise power for its own sake or the sake of retaining it.

Would it be so hard to include something like..."see page 2, paragraph 5 of the CC&Rs". When a police officer writes someone a ticket they by law must include the part of the code that is being violated. Otherwise, they’re just making the shit up. Sound familiar?

One would think that just to avoid the look of impropriety; people of influence in the HOA including the management company, would pay more attention to detail. Go to the DMV and pay the 3 bucks for a vehicle code book, then take it to the gym and use it for weight lifting. The cops have to know all that crap. The CC&R’s pale miserably in comparison.

After the years these people have been running things, shouldn’t it be easy to reference what is being violated when sending out a legitimate notice? I would think it would be easier to run the place if the people you’re dealing with aren’t pissed off at you all the time.

But maybe some people just get their jollies that way.

Ima Out!

Don't mow your lawn... Loose your home

We highly recommend bushing up on the dangers of Non-Judicial Forclosure.



Realty Reality: Limits Put on HOA Ability to Foreclose
by Bob Hunt

Effective January first of this year, restrictions have been placed on the ability of California Homeowner Associations (HOAs) to foreclose on delinquent members. This is a result of Senate Bill 137 (Ducheny), which passed both the State Assembly and Senate last September. Although a similar bill had been vetoed by the Governor last year, he was satisfied with the provisions incorporated into this one.

The main provisions of SB 137 are that associations are prohibited from using a foreclosure action to collect delinquent assessments that are less than $1,800 or that are less than 12 months delinquent. If either of those conditions are met -- the assessments are more than $1,800, or the delinquency is more than 12 months old -- either judicial or non-judicial foreclosure may be used. If foreclosure is to be used, the association must offer the owner an opportunity to participate in dispute resolution. Any decision to proceed with foreclosure must be made by a majority vote of the board members in an executive session.

Proponents of the bill argued that existing law that allowed foreclosure for virtually any delinquent amount made possible remedies that were far more severe than warranted by the offenses. The California AARP, one of the bill's supporters, offered testimony that "there is increasing evidence of a pattern of Common Interest Development Associations' use of a non-judicial foreclosure as a collection device for small amounts of overdue assessments. At the foreclosure auction, the homeowner receives any excess of the winning bid over the amount owed. However, since the minimum bid for purchase is the amount of assessments and other fees owned, the home is usually sold for a small fraction of its actual value. The homeowner may lose his or her home and receive no substantial amount of money." Certain well-known egregious cases were continually cited at hearings, in particular that of the Calaveras County home of two seniors who owed $1,900. Their $285,000 home sold at auction for $70,000.

Of course there was opposition to the bill as well. Representatives of the California Association of Community Managers pointed out that the bill's provisions allowed irresponsible homeowners to go almost a year or more without paying assessments, all the time requiring other members to subsidize them by paying higher dues. Indeed, the final version of the bill, with the $1,800 minimum, was amended down from an earlier version that would have prohibited foreclosures for less than $2,500.

Moreover, also amended out was a provision that would have required the minimum bid at auction to be at least 65 percent of the property's fair market value.

SB 137 specifically allows HOAs to pursue delinquent members in small claims court for amounts below the foreclosure limit, and it also provides that -- unlike most small claims plaintiffs -- the association may have third-party representation by an agent or management company.

One of the strongest, and apparently little-discussed, provisions of SB 137 is that it provides the homeowner with a ninety-day right of redemption period subsequent to a non-judicial foreclosure sale. There is no such redemption period for non-judicial foreclosure sales in general.

Neither investors nor those buying for their own use are comfortable with a redemption period. They want to know that their purchase is final at the time it is made. The presence of such a redemption period will certainly shrink the potential pool of buyers for HOA foreclosure properties.

Published: January 16, 2006

See link:
http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20060116_limits.htm

Introduction

This Blog shall be a sounding board for all matters HOA.

Its primary purpose is two fold…
A) Bring light to the masses regarding the malefic nature of the HOA.
B) Collect data regarding any nefarious activities of the HOA.

This Blog is called HOA Abuse…..due to the:
A) questionable activities of the board, and
B) fact that anyone who speaks their mind against this bureaucratic demon is hunted down with their own money (dues) used by the HOA in hiring Lawyer(s).

All contact information shall be anonymous to avoid retaliation as the board, like all government and bureaucratic regimes, main concern is power.

This shall be done using exhaustive research and ranting done in an entertaining, informative and most importantly… a clearly spelled out fashion.

This blog shall promote discourse on the site by the victims of the demon.
Contents of the blog shall not be limited to:

• Examples of HOA tyranny.

• Conflicts of interest

• A call for action

As we see it -

Each person's dwelling is theirs to do with as they see fit.

Randomly subjective exercises of power against those who seek quiet enjoyment on or within their own properties is not the province for board member(s) moment to moment arbitrary thoughts or impulses as they seek to engineer other people's property and lifestyle to one that suits their personal tastes.

These actions are not lightly taken, nor bourne of personal spite or ill will; rather are reactionary in nature as we seek our pursuit of peace within our own homes.

Sincerely,
Ima Angry