Tag: Homes Association Handbook

Media fails 1st Amendment free HOA speech

The media has failed its First Amendment prerogative of protected free speech. The Founding Fathers well understood the need for an informed citizenry for a healthy democracy and made free speech the 1st Amendment. However, America has become divided and the courts, including the Supreme Court, have adopted a policy that biased, personal agenda speech is OK because America has many channels for opposing speech. For example, FOX  News and MSNBC.

But the media has silenced the opposing views of HOA members themselves.

The Supreme Court (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964),  with respect to newspaper articles, held:

“In the case of the newspaper that published inaccurate information, that form of speech would not be protected by the First Amendment if the newspaper published falsehoods knowingly and purposefully. . . . The Supreme Court ruled that the newspaper was constitutionally protected in this instance, despite the false allegations, since the newspaper did not knowingly and recklessly publish the inaccuracies.”

In response to a call for a media contact committee by HRLNG (FB) I wrote today:

“This has been a long-neglected point of power for advocates, realizing that the media is part of what I’ve designated as, “the unspoken alliance of NO HOA negative stories.” Ask yourself, recalling all the TV anchors telling you that they ask hard questions, they get to the facts, etc. yet nothing bad about HOAs that amount to substantial issues. Yes, they talk about this incident and that incident, but substantive issues go ignored. This must be the substance of your approach! Example: NAR and all state chapters claim they are here for you the home buyer and you can trust your Realtor (This term is the NAR members only). BUT HOA??? What’s that??

“The Homes Association Handbook, the 1964 “bible” for HOA-Land was supported by that version of NAR. AARP had some articles but no lobbying for its age 50+, members. Why not? This committee must not be afraid to ask these hard questions. What do you have to lose? They did very little for HOA reforms. CHALLENGE THEM and ask hard questions in pursuit of the truth!”

CAI: your friend or your foe?

Author’s note:  I’d like to thank the ever-alert Deborah Goonan of IAC for this important tip.

Unbelievably, the CAI Washington chapter spills the beans  on CAI’s mission and objectives.  As a tax-exempt 501(c)6 business trade nonprofit the oxymoron statements below admit to working for business entities and at the same time, serving the consumers of these services, the HOAs.  “to advocate on behalf of community associations.” 

CAI is not permitted to have HOAs as members, so it recruits the boards of directors as individual volunteers creating conflict of interest conditions. I offer this statement by the chapter to set the tone for my criticism of the following article.[1] Note it skips over serving its members, the attorneys and managers who are vendors to HOAs.

“Our Vision: “To be recognized as the leading resource for Community Associations and Business Partners.

“Our Mission: “Optimize the operations of Community Associations and foster value for our Business Partners.

“What We Do: 1. Advocacy – establish and enhance/maintain relationships with legislators and government officials and to advocate on behalf of community associations; 2. Member Development – boost membership and participation through enhanced outreach; 3. Education – provide a World-Class Education Curriculum for Stakeholders; 4. Member Services – maximize value provided to our current members, including Business Partners (events, conferences, materials, etc.).

“Who We Serve: “Community Association Leaders, Business Partners, CAI National, Community Association Members, Developers/Builders, Financial Institutions, Government Agencies, Insurers, Legislators, Managers, Media, Realtors, Sister Associations.

* * * *

Quorum Magazine article Based on the above stated mission and purpose of CAI, the Washington chapter’s magazine recounts a superficial, misleading whitewash portrayal of the history of HOAs in America[2]; it serves as good CAI propaganda and portrays an unprofessional social media illusion that  all’s well in HOA-Land. It is all real estate development oriented sold as a desired and well accepted housing alternative by uninformed individuals.

The article is devoid of constitutional and democratic concerns and validity centering on the HOA as another form of local government —  a contractual, private government.  These issues affecting the rights and freedoms of HOA members can be found in detail in the listed texts and selected quotes. Note the title of the texts, which says a lot.

  • Prof. Dilger wrote in Neighborhood Politics (1992)[3],

“For example, most of those who advocate the formation of RCAs [HOAs] assume that RCAs  . . . incorporate all the rights and privileges embodied in the US Constitution, including . . . the rights of due process and equal protection under the law found in the Fourteenth Amendment.”

  • Prof. McKenzie wrote in his landmark Privatopia (1994)[4],

“T]he property rights of the developer, and later the board of directors, swallow up the rights of the people, and public government is left as a bystander. . . . [Consequently,] this often leads to people becoming angry at board meetings claiming that their ‘rights’ have been violated – rights that they wrongly believe they have in a [HOA]. 

“CIDS [HOAs] currently engage in many activities that would be prohibited  if they were viewed  by the courts as the equivalent of local governments.” 

  • Steven Seigel wrote in his WM & Mary journal (1998)[5],

“Because of the traditional view, RCAs [HOAs] rarely have been deemed state actors subject to the requirements of the Constitution. As private entities, RCAs regulate behavior in a way that is anathema to traditional constitutional strictures;”

  • CAI-ULI funded publication Community Associations (2005)[6].

“[HOAs are] a consumer product sold by profit-seeking firm, a legal device, a corporation reliant on both coercive powers and voluntary cooperation, a democracy, and a lifestyle.  With this plan, TB50 [The Holmes Association Handbook] set out the plan that would be taken in forming the CAI.”

  • Franzese and Seigel argued in their Rutgers journal article (2008)[7]

“The laissez-fare approach to CIC [common interest communities]  regulation is reflected in the statutory law, which affords exceedingly few rights and protections to homeowners association residents.”

It can be safely concluded that CAI is not your friend, and any HOA in bed with CAI is representing its interests and not yours.

Notes

[1] Washington Metropolitan Chapter, CAI (Oct.18, 2022).

[2] “Community Associations – A Historical Perspective,” Quorum Magazine, CAI (August 2016, reprinted Oct. 2022).  

[3]  Roger Jay Dilger, Neighborhood Politics: Residential Community Associations in American Governance, p. 160, New York Univ. Press (1992). Formerly WVU Prof. Political Science and Director of Political Affairs.

[4] Evan McKenzie, Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government,  Yale Univ. Press (1994).

[5] Steven Siegel, “The Constitution and Private Government: Toward the Recognition of Constitutional Rights in Private Residential Communities Fifty years After Marsh v. Alabama,” Wm & Mary Bill of Rights J., Vol. 6, Issue 2 (1998).

[6] Donald R. Stabile, Community Associations: The Emergence and Acceptance of a Quiet Innovation in Housing, p. 144 (2000). Funded by CAI and ULI.

[7] Paula A. Franzese and Steven Siegel, “The Twin Rivers Case: Of Homeowners Associations, Free Speech Rights And Privatized Mini-Governments,” 5 RUTGERS J.L. & PUB. POL’Y 630 (2008).

HOAs: the modern instance of the medieval feudal system

A little bit of history is good for the soul; it puts a perspective on why things are the way they are.  Let’s go back before modern times and the creation of the modern HOAs as outlined in the 1964 The Homes Association Handbook.

Who controls and owns the land? Well, it was he who conquered it and took it from some other governing person or body. In 1077 William the Conqueror from Normandy took control of England from the Saxons, who earlier took it from the Anglos (Anglo-Saxons).

The social/economic system was known as feudalism in which serfs or peasants called vassals, were given  some land called fiefs by the owner, known as the Lord (of the manor). The vassal was to work the land and paid for the grant from the Lord in terms of produce,  services, and money. (It also included serving in the army to defend his Lordship).

In short, William as the “high” Lord gave land to his Nobles who became his vassals. The vassals, in time, “sublet” their lands and created another level of Lord-Vassal relationships, each subservient to the original grant, and so on.

“The consequence of the feudal system was the creation of very localised groups of communities which owed loyalty to a specific local lord who exercised absolute authority in his domain. As fiefs were often hereditary, a permanent class divide was established between those who had land and those who rented it.” (Feudalism – World History Encyclopedia).

By this time the parallels can be easily identified.  Follow along with the modernization of feudalism that required changes and additions to real estate property laws and the doctrine of CC&Rs was invoked. As a necessity, the doctrine known as ”equitable servitudes” and was made part of the CC&Rs. Laid out in the Handbook, equitable servitudes replaced the grant from the Lord to his Vassal in such a way as to bind all future owners.   In other words, the CC&Rs enabled perpetual control over the land or subdivision of today. Homebuyers are forced to be bound to this original CC&Rs, as validly amended.

Now to the legality that the owners never signed the CC&Rs created by the developer at the time of initial purchase.  However, the servitudes were hampered by the doctrine of “running with the land” found in your CC&Rs, which proclaimed that the CC&Rs, in order to be binding on subsequent owners, had to be in place at first sale—to the developer. Consequently, from the get-go, homeowners bought into an adhesion contract that did not permit a give and take bargaining  between seller and the new buyer —  you  — as required under contract law 101. I call it a huge GOTCHA!

So, here we are!

HOA defect: volunteers & boards of directors

There is a serious defect in the HOA model of local governance based on a private contract that requires a board of directors to manage the association through the use of unpaid volunteers. It seems as though the framers ignored the old truism: you get what you paid for. Now don’t get me wrong, there are qualified directors and those with an honest belief in volunteering and pitching in to make their HOA a better place. But the legal structure to often prevents them having any real impact. A topic to be addressed elsewhere at another time.

The framers of the model were well aware that to ask homeowner/members to fork up assessments that included director/officer salaries or compensation would never fly. It would not even fly today. Recourse then was made to the utopian concept, the private commune, where everybody chipped in and did what they were capable for the benefit of the commune. And that required individuals who believed in the model to volunteer their time. Without this above and beyond call for volunteers the mass merchandising of HOAs would have failed.

In order to explain my opinion, I must take members back to 1964 and the framing of The Homes Association Handbook that became the HOA declaration of CC&Rs “bible.”  All HOA declarations flow from this Handbook and constitute the vast boilerplate found in all CC&Rs over the past 58 years.

This topic was addressed in the Handbook. And since the growth in size of HOAs led to incorporation of the associations, the need for a board of directors was mandatory and a solid and necessary requirement. The answer was solved, they thought, by unpaid volunteerism. Further reaching out in order to make the HOA legal scheme work, the demand for involvement in the affairs of the HOA, especially for directors, ran against the national data on citizen involvement in government. (Just check the number of voters in presidential elections as a percent, not of registered voters, but of voter age people, shows on average a 35% turnout.)

As it has become apparent, many HOAs have resorted to “conscripting” members just to sit on the board to meet the statutory and governing document requirements. They are generally YES men, going along with the power clique or president’s wishes. This has led to anyone, qualified or not, to get him on the board.

Democracy Is Not Guaranteed in HOA-Land

For the past 58 years, the HOA model of local community government has been “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” This model of government rejects democratic principles and constitutional protections, depriving members of their fundamental rights.[1]

HOAs have been permitted to operate and function as such by the support, cooperation, and promotion of state legislatures. HOAs are based on intentional misrepresentations of authoritarian private contracts to unsuspecting buyers. Even today the self-proclaimed leading educator on the  HOA model and operation will not address questions of constitutionality that have authoritative legal support.

In my earlier commentaries I wrote about the similarities between the social and political  culture on the national level and that of the HOA declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs). I wrote that CC&Rs rejected democratic principles in the pursuit of enforcement in order to coerce compliance.[2]

President Biden, in his Thursday speech to the nation, reminds Americans that,[3]

“Democracy Is Not Guaranteed. “We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us. . . . regardless of your ideology.”

“We just need to remember who we are. “There’s nothing more important, nothing more sacred, nothing more American”  than preserving democracy. “That’s who we truly are. And that’s who we must always be.”

There is an old truism: “there cannot be change without change.” If we are to preserve democratic institutions in HOA-Land, then the members must unite across the country and organize  to preserve democracy; there’s nothing more American. Members of HOAs are citizens of America, and that’s who we truly are and that’s who we must always be.

Learn more about unconstitutional CC&Rs and the rights and freedoms as Americans unknowingly taken from you when you entered HOA-Land. Take time to read the articles provided under Notes below.

Notes:

[1] See The intent of the HOA “bible”, the Homes Association Handbook (March 2020).

 [2] See in general, George K. Staropoli, StarMan Publishing (making references to Donald Trump).

[3] Read the Full Transcript of Biden’s Speech in Philadelphia – The New York Times (nytimes.com)