legislation – Page 8 – HOA Constitutional Government

State legislators have placed HOAs above the law

There are strong parallels between the shameful conduct of our elected officials in Washington and that of “elected” HOA boards, each made possible by the strong support of irrational, dogmatic cult followers. In turbulent Washington with the upcoming impeachment of trump, Congressional Democrats and some Republicans are staunchly upholding a fundamental principal of democracy: no one is above the law!

To allow any person or organization to operate above the law is to reject the US Constitution founded on representative democracy. In Washington there is the minority faction of Republicans and in HOA-Land[1] there is the a majority faction of homeowners who accept the conduct of the leadership, failing to recognize its wrongful and illegal conduct. By their active support, these authoritarian followers[2] are placing the leaders above the law. Cults exhibit a lack of any freedom of mind by their followers who blindly and irrationally submit to the will of the cult leader.

“What has this to do with state legislatures and HOAs,” you may ask. Plenty!

Over the years state legislatures, each and everyone, have by acts of commission and omission enacted special legislation — generally known as PUD, CID, HOA, POA, etc. Acts — for a special class of nonprofits that placed HOAs above the law. While granting and permitting broad de facto political governance over the residents of the HOA subdivision, HOA boards of directors, the directors themselves, the officers, and their attorneys and managers/firms are not subject to effective enforcement by the application of meaningful penalties.

There are none or hardly any provisions for the enforcement of the law that are substantial enough to serve as a serious detriment to continued HOA board violations of the law and their contractual obligations. This unconscionable state of affairs is the result of the failure to enact legislation to hold HOAs answerable to the law. It is the public policy set by the state legislatures, themselves, as found in their enacted laws to hold and place the HOA and its leadership above the law.

If Trump is not impeached and removed from office, there would be little hope that the state legislatures would feel compelled to honor their oaths to uphold the US Constitution and to hold HOA-Land to the laws of the land. The shameful conditions of HOA-Land statutes will continue with little fear of Congressional interference. Without the fear of enforcement – shared by HOA- boards — State legislatures would be given an enlarged “free ride” that violates the US Constitution.

Author’s note: The public needs to stop being conned by “political correctness,” which is the real-world embodiment of Orwell’s Newspeak.

“Many can see the parallels and extensions of Orwell’s 1984 in the real 1984, and current world. In 1949 George Orwell published 1984 where the fictional Oceania (formerly known as England) is a totalitarian state that has instituted a new society designed for the survival of the country. . . . Thought Police (don’t speak out or question, or else); Doublethink, creating the ability of the people to hold and accept two contradictory thoughts at the same time; Newspeak, the official language, replacing English, that redefines words and concepts; Ministry of Truth, the agency of propaganda and historic revisionism; and the Ministry of Love, the agency of regulations and enforcement.”[3]

Political correctness is not ethical or moral correctness! It has been instituted in the US to support the government from attack or criticism. Its purpose is to intimidate the public, by social ostracization, from its right to free and open political free speech and discussion. And it has been very successful both in general and in regard to HOA members.

References

[1] Definition of HOA-LAND: HOA-Land is a collection of fragmented independent principalities within America, known in general as “HOAs,” that are separate local private governments not subject to the constitution, and that collectively constitute a nation within the United States. For more see, Defining HOA-LAND: what it is. (George K. Staropoli, HOA Constitutional Government.)

[2] See in general, “HOA political dynamics: totalitarian democracy.” George K. Staropoli, HOA Constitutional Government.

[3] George Orwell’s 1984 is alive and well in HOA-Land, George K. Staropoli, HOA Constitutional Government.

HOA-Land “one size fits all” injustice

It is important to understand that the vast majority of the public and government officials are under the mistaken impression of a homogenous, one-size fits all view of HOAs as presented in CAI’s voluminous descriptions and promotions of what are HOAs. Only in its Statistical Reviews are Large-scale associations (LSA) presented in passing with an estimated 6,000 – 9,000 associations over 1,000 units.

However, in June 2016 LSA survey CAI did go into some detail to categorize associations by primary theme or function: Residential, Resort/Residential, Age Restricted, Private and Mixed Use. (I had introduced these categories in my 2005 analysis of CAI’s survey). The survey found that 44.3% were Residential, 26.8% Resort, and 14.1% Age restricted, with Age restricted not further refined. There are very important distinctions between these categories among which the Resort and Age restricted associations had 6 times the number of part-time/seasonal owners than Residential.

This huge disparity in part-timers and primary theme make it quite evident that Resorts/Age Restricted associations can be viewed as 365-day timeshare resorts. The owners’ expectancy of, and agreement to, HOA regulation is significantly more pronounced than those of Residential owners who believe that they were just buying a nice home.

There’s “no one-size fits all” when it comes to HOAs!

I cannot discover the distribution of HOAs by units/lots anywhere including the CAI websites and pages. However, I did uncover a glimpse of this breakdown in the 2011 CAI Nevada LAC’s “Why Legislative Advocacy Matters” where it showed only 1.8 % of Nevada’s associations had over 1,000 units. Units less than 200 amounted to a massive 74.8% and the combined 500 or less amounted to 90.5%.

The bottom line

It is my view that the CAI Central pronouncements and propaganda addressed to the policymakers speak to this pitiful minority of Resort/Age Restricted associations and not to the massive 90% of associations where the members believed that they were buying a home protected by their HOA. The vast majority of HOA abuse and rogue boards, but not all complaints, stem from this 90% ignored by state legislatures.

HOA-Land Nation publication to aid constitutionality

The important question of HOA constitutionality has generally been avoided and given token lip serve by all interested parties: homeowners, homeowner rights advocates, state legislators, real estate departments, attorney generals, nonprofit private entities proclaiming a defense of the Constitution, and the media at large.

Even the renowned Wayne Hyatt’s^[1] statement in 1976 went ignored.

“One clearly sees the association as a quasi-government entity paralleling in almost every case the powers, duties, and responsibilities of a municipal government. All of these functions are financed through assessments or taxes levied upon the members of the community, with powers vested in the board of directors, council of co-owners, board of managers, or other similar body clearly analogous to the governing body of a municipality.”[2]

Clearly challenging the constitutionality of the HOA model of local government and legal scheme is well beyond past due. To correct this horrific and inexcusable oversight I have published, The HOA-Land Nation Within America,[3] a white paper, an exposé of the HOA legal scheme violations of the Constitution. The eBook and paperback editions can be found on Amazon.

This task of constitutional HOA reforms may appear overwhelming and almost impossible to achieve, but constitutional HOA reforms can happen. It will take tremendous effort and perseverance, and a “never give up” mentality. David Cole passionately makes this point[4]

“If Americans now and in the coming years insist that . . . our most fundamental values, including equality, human dignity, fair process, privacy, and the rule of law, and if we organize and advocate in defense of those principles,” we will succeed in bringing about the necessary fundamental and constitutional reforms to the HOA legal scheme in existence since the HOA “bible” was released in 1964. In order to accomplish this important task, “it will take a persistent civil society, a vigilant media, brave insiders, and judges and other government officials who take seriously their responsibility to uphold the Constitution. But first and foremost, it will take an engaged citizenry.”

“The defense of liberty depends . . . on citizens engaging collectively to fight for the values they believe in. . . . The preservation of liberty through a written constitution . . . has survived . . . because ‘we the people’ have consistently taken up the charge to define, defend, and develop liberty in our own image, so that it reflects our deepest commitment , not just those of a privileged elite who do not represent us.”

It falls upon the homeowners in HOAs, as has always, to advance constitutional arguments that are valid and credible. And that takes knowledge and understanding of the issues. The HOA-Land Nation, and other of my publications and Commentaries, as well as those of others, provide the “ammunition” that will pass the valid and credible challenges to be expected from CAI and other lawyers, provided the arguments do not get bogged down in irrelevant arguments from the opposition.

CAI cannot handle a broad Bill of Rights challenge. Period! I have never been challenged by CAI because they well know that they are defending the defenseless.

Read the book, paperback or eBook, and spread the word. Use it in those many HOA violations where state statutes support the HOA. Work to hold seminars and conferences to openly discuss the issues raised in The HOA-Land Nation. Expose their defense of HOAs, now!

Notes

[1] Wayne Hyatt was a prominent figure in the promotion of HOA-Land as well as an important person in creating CAI in 1973, serving as its second president.

^[2] I have extensively quoted Wayne Hyatt’s 1976 statement on HOAs as mini-governments, as cited in the 1983 California case, Cohen v. Kite Hill.

[3] I have concluded that there exists an HOA-Land Nation within America that is comprised of fragmented and local HOA governments across the country and have designated them collectively as “HOA-Land.” The commonality of their declarations of CC&Rs, flowing from the 1964 Homes Association Handbook (ULI publication), their shared beliefs, values, traditions, and institutions qualify HOA-Land as a nation.

[4] David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU, Engines of Liberty, Basic Books (2016).

So. Carolina HOA study committee misses the point

As a follow up to my “State legislature not concerned” commentary, the SC HOA Study Committee released its recommendations on HOA legislation.[1] On the issue of, “Education for Homeowners and Board Members,” a committee member recommended CAI as a source for HOA education in general. Apparently, with all due respect, he is not fully aware of CAI’s history and its views on maintaining authoritarian private governments.

This property member representative offered, “Education is already available. According to one source, “CAI (Community Associations Institute) webinars offer specialized, professional training without leaving your home or office. . . . Homeowners should have reasonable access to an organization such as Community Associations Institute (CAI) or a knowledgeable State agency to obtain unbiased, accurate information.

Fortunately, the recommendation was not to have a private entity, including CAI, provide HOA education.

“While the Community Association Institute (CAI) and other private entities offer educational resources to homeowners and managers, state government cannot place the sole responsibility of educating homeowners and board members on a private entity.”

The committee recommended that several state agencies “to seek reliable and unbiased information available from private entities” and to publish and make such programs by private parties available online. So, the door is still open for CAI biased influence given the current climate that CAI is the only source and has no self-interest.

There is an abundant supply of information to inform the legislators of the true nature of CAI, its 42 year history of failure, and its policy to keep HOAs as authoritarian private governments.[2] But the problem is is to first educate the legislators in line with HOA Common Sense: rejecting private government. This requires a source to provide alternate perspectives on HOA governance: civil government, local government, constitutional law, and city managers.

A simple HOA bill would just have to say,

The association hereby waives and surrenders any rights or claims it may have under law and herewith unconditionally and irrevocably agrees 1) to be bound by the US and State Constitutions, and laws of the State within which it is located, as if it were a subdivision of the state and a local public government entity, and 2) that constitutional law shall prevail as the supreme law of the land including over conflicting laws and legal doctrines of equitable servitudes.

There is much to be accomplished in order for meaningful HOA reforms to occur. If advocates continue to fail to speak out and ignore, as I have urged, the principles of constitutional government as applied to HOAs, the outcomes over the years will also continue.

“We must continue to provoke until they respond and change the laws.” Gandhi.

References

[1] STUDY COMMITTEE ON HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS, Dec.18, 2015 (http://www.scstatehouse.gov/CommitteeInfo/HomeownersAssociationStudyCommittee/HOAStudyCommitteeFinalReport12182015.pdf).

[2] See Will the real CAI standup: its contradictory beliefs, pronouncements and goals and CC&Rs are a devise for de facto HOA governments to escape constitutional government. In general see, Unconstitutional delegation of power to HOAs, HOAs violate local home rule doctrine and are outlaw governments; and Privatopia: Homeowners Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Governments, Evan McKenzie, Yale Univ. Press, 1994; Community Associations: The Emergence and Acceptance of a Quiet Innovation in Housing, Donald R. Stabile (Greenwood Press, 2000).

HOAGOV EDUCATION SERIES: understanding the real lives of HOA members

My purpose for the Education Series, taken from a collection of my Commentaries (WordPress blog), is to present the other side of the HOA legal concept that has been intentional kept hidden from the public, the media, and the legislators. Homeowners associations (HOAs) — generic for POAs, CIDs, planned communities, and condominiums — have become an institution and are unquestionably accepted as “that’s the way it is.”

Over the years, the general public has heard only the benefits of HOA regimes, but has heard nothing about the means to achieve these benefits. The rationale, I suppose, is that the end justifies the means. This quiet acceptance of the HOA private government regime came to be as a result of aggressive lobbying by the HOA special interests, also known as HOA stakeholders (homeowners not included). The media, that was granted 1^st Amendment freedom of speech rights in order to ensure a properly informed electorate, failed its obligations by remaining silent. Nothing bad, seriously bad, about HOAs is publicized by the media. As you can read in my post on George Orwell’s 1984, the Ministry of Truth (a 1984 agency) parallels Goebbels’ Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda:

The Ministry of Truth uses control over the education system and the communications media to keep the masses in a state of ignorance and incapable of perceiving the facts of their manipulation. By controlling all sources of information, and playing one ignorant group off against the other, they ensure that effective opposition does not arise. While the masses attempt to make sense of the false reality fed to them in the schools and on the telescreens, the elite manipulators that write the scripts laugh at their confusion. (Freedom is Slavery, The Modern History Project, April 24, 2015).

The Commentaries listed below present a broad picture of the current conditions, culture and environment relating to living in an HOA controlled home. Violations of the Constitution’s equal protection of the laws and inadequate due process protections, pro-HOA state laws, legislative support for HOAs, the national business lobbying organization misleading the public that it is an unbiased educational organization, and the HOA attorneys and managers are all presented and discussed in these posts.

For readers who are interested in the history of how HOAs came to be can read my 121 page analysis, with references and legal authorities: The Foundations of Homeowners Associations and the New America.

Become informed. Please read on.

READING MATERIALS (click on links to access posts)

A. Constitutional issues

HOA Member Declaration of US and State Citizenship
HOA Common Sense: rejecting private government (complete series as PDF)
CC&Rs are a devise for de facto HOA governments to escape constitutional government
HOAs violate local home rule doctrine and are outlaw governments
The unconstitutional delegation of implied rulemaking powers to HOAs
Unconstitutional delegation of power to HOAs
HOA reforms needed to guarantee U.S. Constitutional protections
model HOA regulatory agency bill

B. HOA oppression

C. Community Associations Institute (CAI)