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Beware The Associations - Part IV

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Contributed by: Jan Jackson on 5/8/2008

Many if not most readers will be able to relate to "The Dark Side of Paradise," a so-called "paradise" which is, in reality, is a little dictatorship called a "homeowners association."

Homeowners associations have been mandated by every state legislature in the United States, and they are often run by controlling, tyrannical association presidents and their follow-the-leader HOA board members.

The HOA lawyers in these ecologically and financially destructive HOAs are often members of their state's branch of the national organization Community Associations Institute (CAI). Some of those CAI lawyers in each state are also lobbyists who appear to be in collusion with certain power-and-money-seeking state legislators. Here in Colorado, the CAI has its offices mainly in the Denver area near the Capital, but its member lawyers-lobbyists live and practice in major cities all over the state of Colorado.

So, BEWARE, if some real estate agent tells you that the house in the homeowners association that you're thinking about buying will be your little bit of heaven right here on earth. More than likely, it will turn out to be your hell on earth for as long as you live there.

Jan

Beware The Associations - Part IV

The Dark Side of Paradise

According to dissenters, nowhere else are private property rights restricted more than in homeowners' associations across the nation."The entrepreneurship, creativity, sense of individuality that we prize is being ground down relentlessly under the conformity and regimentation that has been foisted on people's homes." [fn16] California based consumer organizations such as the San Juan Capistrano, California American Homeowners Resource Center [fn17] [aka "AHRC"]liken the associations to "giant bulldozers that ravage the rights of homeowners' in this state and across the country and now the world." [fn18]

For some owners, a disadvantage of living in an association is the requirement of mandatory membership in the owners' association, with the accompanying financial burdens of dues and assessments, and the possibility of having to abide by majority decisions contrary to the owner's interests or wishes. The financial obligations increase the cost of housing whether or not the owner uses the extra amenities or agrees with the financial decisions made by the association.

Living in association-controlled property subjects homeowners to total control of the decisions of boards of directors who have responsibility for assessing, collecting and expending fees to carry out operations of CID. Because there is a contractual obligation between owners and the association to pay assessments through the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), [fn19] the association has the power to lien homes[fn20] and to foreclose on property for non-payment of assessments. [fn21] Owners, however, have no right of "offset" for claims the owner has against the association for its wrongful acts such as breach of the association CC&Rs. [fn22]

Emotionally entrenched board members may indulge themselves in heavy-handed erratic enforcement of the governing documents and make up their own rules, thus violating homeowners' rights. Association boards of directors can take the position of wielding a big stick and conducting themselves unfairly and sometimes outrageously.

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Jan Jackson

Florissant , CO

Jan Jackson has posted 425 stories and 37 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Jan Jackson 's average story rating is 4.45.

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