I received this write up from an HOA (POA, COA, etc.) homeowner advocate from Florida and thought their view and knowledge should be shared concerning the basis for the abuses inflicted by some HOA's on innocent homeowners in America.

Too many innocent homeowners are homeless due to no fault of their own.

They were in the wrong HOA, etc., at the wrong time, or someone on their board, or associated with their board didn't like them, or was jealous of them, or they were the easiest to get financially due to family/gender status, or as an elder, or disabled homeowner, or they had a lot of equity in their home, and/or they stumbled over some type of criminality, or wrongdoing within the association and they sought accountability for it. 

Please take the time to look at the decades of cases of innocent homeowners and how their lives, families and rights have been violated, while their finances and health have been devastated and their homes have been stolen.  There needs to be legitimate investigations in every state of these groups and who the perpetrators are. No matter who they are, or who they know, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

cs

"Nationwide, there are 300,000 H.O.A. corporations, governing more than 60 million Americans who pay $50 billion (with a “b”) in H.O.A. dues per year. It is an enormous industry. H.O.A. corporations are among the least regulated businesses in America. Consumer protections rules are non-existent or not enforced. Embezzlement and other financial crimes are occurring in epidemic proportions. And American home owners have been losing their 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th Amendment rights under the “repressive libertarianism” guise of contract law, because H.O.A.s are private corporations not bound by the United States Constitution.

For decades, municipalities have been requiring the creation of H.O.A. corporations as a condition of granting building permits to developers. The local governments get to collect taxes for goods and services – e.g., road maintenance, utilities, trash removal, open space, recreational facilities, etc. – that they no longer provide. As a result, homeowners in H.O.A.s end up being double-taxed; once by the government and again by their H.O.A. corporation. The growth of H.O.A.s has been supply-driven to benefit developers and governments, not
demand-driven by consumers.

Two-thirds of H.O.A. residents have a negative view of H.O.A.s, with 1/5 saying they “have been in what they call a ‘war’ with their H.O.A.” These are tens of millions of Americans, a large constituency that has been ignored by our policy-makers and pundits. Yet “free-marketeers” have nothing but praise for H.O.A.s, lauding them as a desirable model of corporate governance by private contract. Something is obviously wrong with their socioeconomic theories.

For years, our legislators have been offering the illusion of reform, deferring to H.O.A. corporations instead of individual home owners, while doing nothing to remove the perverse incentives and moral hazards built into the collective ownership of your private property. H.O.A. boards engage in destructive litigation against their involuntary members for trivial amounts and reasons, hiding behind the corporate veil, collecting and spending other people’s money to use against them. Meanwhile, Community Associations Institute (C.A.I.) attorneys profit greatly by feeding off of American home owners. “It’s called capitalism. It’s the free market,” they say."

AS, Homeowner advocate, Florida

Note:  The advocate stated: " H.O.A.s are private corporations not bound by the United States Constitution. I think they meant to say:

 "HOA's are private corporations, who act like they are not bound by the United States Constitution."

I am awaiting a response from the advocate on this, but I wanted to get this out, so I am sending it the way it was written.

cs