Author: HOAGOV

CAI finally admits to being a business trade tax-exempt organization.

Community Associations Institute (CAI) is a national nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization founded in 1973 to foster competent, responsive community associations through research, training and education. […] We work to identify and meet the evolving needs of the professionals and volunteers who serve associations, by being a trusted forum for the collaborative exchange of knowledge and information, and by helping our members learn, achieve and excel.[1]

In my 17 years as a HOA reform activist this is a landmark first!  This is a personal achievement.  There was very little support from other reform advocates and homeowners regarding misrepresentation by CAI.[2]  As a result of my repeated criticisms and exposes, CAI had to apparently fess up.

Over its 44 years in existence CAI has mislead its viewers, members, the public and legislators as to its legal tax-exempt status. It news releases, websites, Common Ground magazine, communications with state and federal elected officials, and court filings that refer to representing homeowners and HOAs.[3] CAI is not allowed to have HOAs as members![4]  Example, CAI’s current web page reads,

CAI provides information, education and resources to the homeowner volunteers who govern communities and the professionals who support them. CAI members include association board members and other homeowner leaders, community managers, association management firms and other professionals who provide products and services to associations.

CAI serves community associations and homeowners . . ..^[5]

CAI cutely sidesteps this criticism using legal “word games,” parsing sentences and the meaning of words.  In my view, CAI will use the First Amendment right protecting the freedom to associate and so HOA directors are free to join the vendor trade organization.  However, by using their CAI vendors, lawyers and managers, to educate them as to what is good and right for their community and HOAs in general, directors are placing themselves in a conflict of interest violations.

CAI even to urges HOAs to support legislation harmful to the membership.  Please understand that CAI is legally protected by leaving the decision to become a CAI member up to the HOA board and individual director.

It is the director who holds the bag as to conflict of interest and loyalty violations of state laws and the governing documents.[6]  In whose best interest is he functioning? CAI’s view of authoritarian, un-American de facto governments, or the HOA members?  It is unconscionable and laughable that HOA boards would become CAI members!

The reason for doing so, in my experience, is a direct fault of the HOA legal scheme: Boards of directors are incompetent, grossly negligent, and do not wish to run the HOA or educate themselves, aside from being indoctrinated by CAI seminars. Some are competent and are not CAI members.   Others by far are rogue boards who freely get away with violating the laws and governing documents, because there are no civil monetary penalties to deter such illegal activities.

In short, CAI as a business trade organization is legally bound to promote the interests of its members, the lawyers and managers.   What is the business interest of a nonprofit HOA or its individual directors? The purpose of CAI as a business trade organization is not to support the consumers of its products and services, the HOA consumers.

References

[1] About Community Associations Institute (CAI).

^[2] Misrepresentation: CAI comes with unclean hands.  Contains multiple quotes by CAI HQ and state chapters evidencing this misrepresentation.

[3] See Complaint filed with NJ Supreme Court for CAI lack of “candor to the tribunal” as an example of a CAI court filing.

^[4] HOAS no longer accepted for CAI membership.

[5] About CAI (Jan. 14, 2017).

[6] Traitors and turncoats: HOA directors as CAI members

A group of Arizona homeowners/advocates have been meeting monthly since the summer with Senator D. Farnsworth to arrive at a set of HOA reform bills. As of this date, some 419 bills have been submitted that include only 2 reform bills, HB 2146 and SB 1060, both minor technical bills.

However, since only some 33% of the final bill total has been submitted, based on historical records, I would hope the more controversial bills would be submitted just prior to the deadline. The deadline is Jan. 30th.

The AZ group, known as the Arizona Homeowners Coalition, has proposed some 14 bills.  I hope they have better success with the more controversial bills of substance.

(See http://arizonahoa.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_6.html).

Is your legislature really interested in HOA reforms?  I think not.

What are the guidelines for moral and ethical behavior in HOA-Land and in America?

The following is a philosophical dialogue about the need for a god and its value to a society.  It occurs, surprisingly, in the History Channel Vikings series on Dec.   21, 2016.  King Eckberg of Wessex is based on a real person living in the early 800s in England.  Ragnar is the legendary Viking king who raided England.

Eckberg:    If gods don’t exist then everything has no meaning!

Ragnar:      Everything has meaning.  Why do you need your gods?

 Eckberg:   If there were no gods then anyone can do anything. Nothing would matter.  You can do as you like.  Nothing would have meaning or value.  If gods don’t exist it is still necessary to have them.

 Ragnar:      If they don’t exist we have to live with it.

In America today we are witnessing the truth of this elegant TV dialogue.  As I’ve written earlier, the US Supreme Court has killed God as a determinant of ethical and moral behavior.  If the teachings of God have no legal effect, then it follows that ethical and moral behavior, on the broad scale of a society, suffers.   Especially when no substitute guidelines were offered to fill in the gap.

Rather, political correctness entered the picture, which is an offshoot of  Ragnar’s philosophy, where there are shades of grey and the traditional meanings of words are blurred or lost altogether, ala Orwell’s Newspeak.  And to criticize another is ghastly behavior.  PC promotes the view that we all have rights and can assert them!

Does Ragnar’s view help explain the events occurring almost daily in shootings and killings, and asinine political decisions?

With society adopting the PC version of Ragnar’s view, it also helps to understand why substantive HOA reforms of a constitutional nature are ignored by our elected officials.  Echoing Eckberg’s argument: Without a god, anyone could do as they please.

Sadly, as Ragnar summed it up: If they don’t exist we have to live with it.  And we are!

Are you ready to Make America Great Again?

Happy Holidays!

Are HOA Dues Making Real Estate Unaffordable?  Read this very instructive analysis.

Let’s imagine that a lender allows 31 percent of your income for housing-related costs, and that two buyers have a combined income of $6,000 per month.

This means up to $1,860 can be spent on the mortgage, insurance, property taxes and HOA or condo fees. If insurance costs $100 per month and taxes are $300 per month, then the borrower has $1,460 available for mortgage payments.

Based on income, you’d probably qualify for a 4.25 percent, 30-year, fixed rate mortgage for roughly $296,750.

Add $270 in HOA dues, and just $1,190 is available for mortgage payments — the loan amount falls to 241,900– $54,850 less, enough to make many properties unaffordable and off-limits.

There’s an impact of HOA dues on size of mortgage you can qualify for. Obviously you get less when HOA dues enter the picture. So, why are the pro-HOA proponents still talking about HOAs as affordable housing? Why?

Where’s the full disclosure?  Isn’t this false advertising and misrepresentation?