Tag: due process

Creating dysfunctional communities through HOAs

The current (Feb. 18, 2013) slogan on the Arizona CAI chapter website reads, “Creating Better Communities Through HOA’s”.  I find this statement to be entirely incredulous!  It dismisses the reality of an authoritarian regime that denies due process and the equal protection of the laws to homeowners. It asserts that kangaroo courts; the absence of fair elections processes; and a consent to the waiver and surrender of rights by the by simple filing of CC&Rs with the county without explicit, written agreement by homeowners all create better communities.

Such an attitude by pro-HOA lobbyist organizations is the primary cause that creates not better communities, but dysfunctional communities.  And from attorneys who proclaim to be experts on HOAs, but who clearly are ignorant of constitutional law.  (A leader of the AZ chapter is now president of CAI’s “best and brightest” lawyers group, CCAL). With the rapid growth of HOAs across the country, supported and encouraged by the state legislatures in all states, the HOA legal structure reflects values of the greater dysfunctional society that is becoming The New America of HOA-Land. 

The values, philosophies and standards of democracy set forth in America’s organic law — the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Articles of Confederation and The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — are rapidly becoming a myth, but are still being taught in our public schools and misleading the people of America. 

Our elected representatives must restore our communities and society to those fundamental principles supporting our democratic system.  And that can be now with those HOA reforms bills now before your state legislature.

legislative support for HOA regimes has created a dysfunctional society

“The times, they are a changin”

When state legislators allow private government HOAs to be unaccountable to state laws as required by all other government entities, then an attitude that anything goes develops. Why? Because there are no penalties to serve as a check and balance on HOA activities.  It creates a lawless attitude of, “Go for it, what do you have to lose?”   It creates a dysfunctional society.

 It is commonly known that state legislators have a blind adherence to the false belief that HOAs do no wrong, and that there is no need for HOA penalties to serve as detriments to intentional and willful violations of the laws.   State legislators continue to believe that homeowners are openly and fully informed when accepting a deed binding them to an unsigned contract; and that the HOA and its special interest attorney national organization are acting in good faith.  

State legislators continue to believe that the HOAs and their hired hands, the management firms and attorneys, will comply with both the letter and intent of state laws, rather than seeking loopholes for income producing court cases. Such dogmatic beliefs have created a dysfunctional society operating outside constitutional government under a second set of laws just for HOA subdivisions.

 And we know where this can and has led to:  financial and emotional stress and even deaths attributed to the enforcement of HOA rules uber alles (German for “above all”). The latest shocking incident, after the Trayvon Martin incident (HOA liability: respondeat superior and agents as in Trayvon case), is the incident reported in the Sun-Sentinel article, “Parking at home shouldn’t bring tow — or death.”

Ask yourself why do towing companies roam the streets towing cars in private communities without obeying the laws, or without getting a complaint from the HOA? BECAUSE they can and because the HOA really doesn’t care — its rules are being enforced by someone else. And there are no penalties against HOA boards violating their own governing documents. The HOA is the sovereign, and it can do no wrong!

 However, there is hope. An indication of a return to sanity comes from the Republican Party’s realization that its obsessive adherence to dogmatic principles of laissez-faire corporatism has been a failure. (HOAs are a prime example of corporatism in operation in America).  Republicans are beginning to think in terms of less dogma but a more principled “protecting private property,”  always a fundamental principle of this country.  It stands in opposition to socialist states operating for the benefit of the corporation and not for the rights of the people.

 State legislators should take heed. They have created a dysfunctional society with their unreasonable and irrational support of authoritarian HOA regimes.  It’s well beyond time for an awakening, enlightenment, in their views of authoritarian HOA private regimes.

White House petition to defend US citizenship of people in HOAs

To My Fellow Americans,

As a long-time advocate for constitutional local government I am greatly disturbed by the existence of local governments that exist and function every day throughout America, but are not subject to the US Constitution.  They are known as homeowners associations.  Special interests have effectively campaigned not to have HOAs viewed as a second form of political government, but this effort is misleading and self-serving.

HOAs do provide a beneficial service to the community, but at the cost on an unknowing surrender and waiver of basic homeowner rights and protections – the misleading aspect of the statements made by pro-HOA special interests.  However, the benefits of HOAs can be obtained within our constitutional system of government, which provides protections that are absent in the imposed profit-seeking developer CC&Rs contracts.

I ask each of you to consider the following question:

Is it proper for the state to create, permit, encourage, support or defend a form of local government of a community of people that is not compatible with our American system of government?

The answer to this question by state legislatures has been, Yes, thereby permitting HOA secession and establishing the HOA as an independent principality.   

As stated in the We the People petition to the White House, state legislatures have failed to uphold the Constitution and protect homeowner private property rights, and their privileges and immunities under the Constitution.  In view of this default, only the Federal government can provide this protection. It is a necessary and legitimate function of the Federal government to protect your rights and freedoms without overburdening contractual rights.

Let Washington know that we are still citizens of this country; we are still Americans!! 

Please read and sign our We the People petition that can be found at: Petition.   Because of the limitations on the We the People website, you can read rhe complete petition at: FULL PETITION

(Expired Dec. 21, 2012 with a pitiful 76 petitions).

Respectfully requested,

George K. Staropoli

new HOA book — Neighbors At War! by Ward Lucas

Amazon review By George K. Staropoli

This review is from: Neighbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association (Paperback)

Neighbors at War! is a refreshing description of what living in an HOA (homeowners association, property owners association, common-interest community or condo association) that the average person can understand. It is not another legal treatise, or academic journal or book, but the writing of an experienced and award winning investigative reporter.

It is a long needed book for prospective buyers of HOA controlled homes or those already living in an HOA. All those state mandated documents do not tell it all, as state legislators are pro-HOA and accept the denials of homeowner rights contained in HOA adhesion contracts.


Ward Lucas ranges far and wide, from questions of constitutionality and denials of bill of rights protections to more down-to-earth issues of HOA procedures and operations. Foreclosure, no fair elections, and kangaroo hearings on violations are examples of the cases and issues that are discussed in easy to understand terms.

I’ve been repeatedly told by legislators that complaining homeowners are trying to get out of a contract, should have read the CC&Rs, and should have gotten a lawyer. And not a word about misrepresentation and fraud.


Do not fall into the trap of Buyer Beware! Read this excellent book and discover what you are not being told by the special interest national lobbying organization formed to protect, not your rights, but the HOA status quo. Neighbors at War! is a must read for informed homeowners and state legislators

Indiana AG given authority to pursue HOAs for criminal acts

My to my surprise I had discovered that a state Attorney General must have specific legislation granting the AG to act against wrongful acts by an HOA.  Homeowners contacting their AG, like myself and many others, have been told that such legislation is needed.  Fortunately one state, Indiana, stepped up to the plate and enacted a law granting the AG to so act (PL 49-2011, HE1058).

Here’s the simply and succinct wording of this groundbreaking law, the first that I am aware of.

 

(b) IC 32-25.5-3-8 applies to all homeowners associations.

Sec. 8.

(a) The attorney general may bring an action against a board or an individual member of a board of a homeowners association if the attorney general finds that:

(1) the association’s funds have been knowingly or intentionally misappropriated or diverted by a board member; or

(2) a board member has knowingly or intentionally used the board member’s position on the board to commit fraud or a criminal act against the association or the association’s members.

(b) A court in which an action is brought under this section may do the following:

(1) Issue an injunction.

(2) Order the board member to make restitution to the homeowners association or to a member.

(3) Order a board member to be removed from the board.

(4) Order a board member to reimburse the state for the reasonable costs of the attorney general’s investigation and prosecution of the violation.

Please note that this authority is restricted to criminal acts and does not permit the AG to get involved in the multitude of civil matters such as, breach of contract, rules enforcement, assessment collections or maintenance.  Basically, it’s about theft, embezzlement, misuse of funds, etc.  However, it is an important move in the right direction of the equal application of the laws and due process protections under the 14th Amendment.

This past August the Indiana AG filed suit against The Harbours Condominiums Association and against board members Kevin Zipperle, Mary Lou Trautwein-Lamkin and Sharon Chandler for allegedly breaching their fiduciary duty and committing fraud.