Tag: good neighbors

Where is the “community” in a community association?

On the HOA Reform (FB) page a woman in medical distress and need of support wrote, in part, “Home health couldn’t get in, friends couldn’t get in, I live alone, no family here. I tried every local government and legal aid, no help. I wrote the BOD many times, and said at August meeting that I had stroke and need gate open.”

Her situation has occurred countless times — single or elderly woman, not on good health, low-income status, and living alone is the object of HOA board abuse. And she cannot get any support from her neighbors. I responded with:

This is the biggest hypocrisy of the use of the name, community association. There is no healthy, productive community of people and calling it so doesn’t make it so. Where is the good neighbor, help thy neighbor policy, and the compassion and the charity toward your neighbor by those who allegedly sought these values. No, none at all! Trying to call it an investment or a business is laughable when we all signed a real estate contract and not a commercial business (UCC) contract! The public has been conned. And your government believes its none of their business. It supports and encourages a successionist private government allowed to function outside the Constitution.

Welcome to The New America of Independent HOA Principalities.

Now comes the downside to HOA paradise

It is only natural for a family suffering from the economic affect of the virus to save the mortgage payments first and to not pay their assessments. Members do not understand that the BOD is obligated not to allow this to happen and an increase in foreclosures looms a head. Their friendly, neighborly, smiling BOD directors will turn to foreclosures in an ineffective attempt to stem the tide.

We’re all familiar with the saying “there are no free lunches.” As the current economic crisis becomes more severe hitting the pocketbooks of many families, don’t neglect paying your HOA dues if you can. The survival of the HOA has always been a motivating factor of HOA boards supported by court rulings, and if assessment income drops as a result of decreasing member finances, guess what?

Whatcan the board  do? Stop maintenance, stop events, clubs, shows, etc. to save cash and help their members survive in an act of good neighbors. Hopefully you may have an enlightened, progressive BOD that ignores the advice of their HOA attorneys, who probably will scare them into you’re gonna get sued.

There are no free lunches living in an HOA.