Tag: HOA book

The battle for HOA Constitutional Government – supplement

It should be well understood that the real purpose for HOA reform legislation is to seek homeowner-member justice and fairness. Either with respect to day-to-day denied under the HOA legal scheme, as set forth in the Declarations of CC&Rs and state laws. 

To be more specific, these rights affect free speech, participation in HOA government, fair elections procedures, due process with respect to fines and punishments including foreclosure abuse, and an effective means to hold the board accountable under the law. In other words, challenging the validity and constitutionality of the HOA legal structure.

Over the past year I have noticed a favorable increase  in legislation and in court decisions as a result of increased claims by homeowners and advocates who, by their actions, are winning with the winners.  What is there to fear? Reforms have moved at a turtle’s pace over the past 30 years. Nothing to lose by taking a strong stand backed by legal authority.

“There can be no change without change”

Encourage others to take a strong stand by providing authoritative support to win with the winners, as can be found in HOA Constitutional Government: the continuing battle. My Collective Writings over 24 years.  Spread the word to others to act without fear.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  • HOA Constitutional Government: the continuing battle / George K. Staropoli
  • 145 p. StarMan Publishing, Surprise, AZ | includes index | Published January 9, 2024
  • ISBN: 978-0974448886 (pbk) | ASIN: B0CSC5LCY8 (KDP eBook)
  1. Constitutional law – Constitutional principles – public policy – form and structure of government
  2. Political science – sovereignty – consensus. Consent to be governed –  law making  – local government
  3. Social sciences – community – social influence

K3154 – 3370 LCCN classification

standing up for HOA reform legislation

The publication on Amazon of my paperback Collected Writings (for Kindle version) is the latest in my long-term plan and strategy to achieve HOA reforms across the country. An opportunity exists for seriously motivated owners and advocates to come to the aid of the HOA reform movement on a national scale, and call attention to the invalid HOA legal scheme.

It’s simple: put your $$$$ where your mouth is.  By purchasing Collected Writings on a national scale on a leading international website, Amazon, our outcry for reforms can no longer be denied. You can purchase for others, or for a group of others. Amazon will not permit price discounts for these books.

An unworkable alternative at this time would be to set side a percentage of the profits into a nonprofit account to be used to support statewide lobbying of selected reform bills. But this would require substantial purchasers/donators in the order of 10,000 or more.

For those who do purchase these important issues, all presented in one collection, you can write and submit an Amazon review —  no charge.

Of course, there will be a few who will claim  that he’s just looking to make some money. Over my 22+ years  I have received minuscule payments after spending some $10,000 of my own funds.

Publications on HOA constitutionality and legal structure

Peter F. Drucker was an internationally re-nowned management consultant in the 50s and author of the management “bible,” The Practice of Management. “A classic since its publication in 1954, The Practice of Management was the first book to look at management as a whole and being a manager as a separate responsibility.” Bob Woodward you should know.  View my publications (none more than $6.00) here:

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HOA social dynamics — “freedom of mind” pt. 2

HOA social dynamics and the loss of “freedom of mind”

Continued from Part 1

By: George K. Staropoli, March 18, 2019

Part 2.

The best explanation I’ve found, and reinforced after some 7 years, for this illogical mass conduct by HOA members can be found in my 2012 six-page paper re-titled as, HOA social dynamics and the loss of “freedom of mind.”[i]  The following is my Conclusion.

In the Milgram[ii] and Stanford Prison[iii] Experiments researchers explored what evil men can and will do to others 1) under repeated pressure from authority figures to follow the rules, and 2) in an environment where one is expected to act in accordance to the  roles of the community.  The researchers found that basically good people will indeed do harm, even do severe harm, to others.  The conditions and factors present in these experiments exist within the HOA community, and the harm being done to others in these HOAs is well documented in the media and in the courts.

 The authoritarian insistence on enforcing complete obedience to the CC&RS, as repeatedly impressed on HOA boards by their attorneys, is well documented. The compliance by the directors and officers with these pressures for enforcement is well documented.   The blind obedience, apathy, and passivity  to authority by HOA members – the “prisoners” — who sign and agree to provisions blatantly detrimental to their interests, is well documented.  The adoption of the roles demanded of them by the system  and by the situation —  state laws and the court opinions, the adhesion CC&Rs and governing documents, and the lack of effective recourse — is well documented.  

The numerous “educational” seminars taught  by the attorneys and managers, many of which are sponsored by state and local governments,  serve not to fully inform but to indoctrinate the members into roles of obedience  and passivity, is well documented.  Good people doing bad things or remaining silent in the midst of wrongful acts and actions by the HOA is well documented.

State governments, the legislatures,  cannot allow HOAs to continue to  run amuck and to  freely violate the laws and their contractual obligations without legitimate and necessary constraints holding them accountable for the harm that they do to others.  BODs are getting a free ride from their state legislature.  

State legislatures and town/city governments must stop supporting the propagandists responsible for creating this unhealthy attitude.  They must immediately conduct a valid and independent vetting of the principal party that conducts their educational seminars and conferences that advance their misleading party line. A fully informed citizenry within HOA subdivisions is a necessity for democracy to function and protect individual rights and freedoms.

References

[i] See Social dynamics freedom of mind.pdf (2019), footnote 1.

[ii] Obedience to Authority, Stanley Milgram, Harper Perennial (1720) (1983).

[iii] The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, Philip Zimbardo, Random House (2008).  Made into a movie in 2015, The Stanford Prison Experiment. 

Continue reading HOA social dynamics — “freedom of mind” pt. 2

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