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"The HOA: Dynasties Of Dysfunction" (part 1 of 3) "

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Ward Lucas

guest blog by Donie Vanitzian, JD

"In centuries past, an emperor could decide the fate of an entire community with nothing more than a nod of his head. Some believe a similar system exists today, but instead of one emperor there are boards of emperors who on a whim can decide the fate of an entire community of homeowners.
A quasi-judicial authoritarian panel is established — called a “board of directors” — which has an unmatched gift for political maneuvering. Directors don’t need campaign contributions to stay in power because association operating funds can be plundered at will. The unchecked controls to distribute, gather, and process ballot and proxy votes ensures the imperial board continues its reign. Like dynasties of old, homeowner associations can fall prey to a debauched mistreatment of its owners.
MANAGERS OF MODERN TYRANNY
In the face of crumbling individual rights, censorship is encouraged and laws are passed that further prejudice homeowners. Not unlike feudal systems, boards delegate their authority to handpicked aiders and abetters who carry out their demands. Rebels, dissidents, and rivals of those in control are easily meted out then silenced or alienated from the faithful followers. In struggling to fight their aggressors, owners are peppered with intimidating salvos delivered by modern day lackeys like lawyers, managers and industry vendors — not to mention industry propaganda. The job of aiders and abettors in the pecking order is not so complicated, it consists of pushing through the board’s agenda. As those minions become autonomous, the result is a wholesale disenfranchisement of those who are not part of the “chosen” few. The “chosen” being part of the “majority” A-Listers.
Soon a systematic gloom consisting of a forced adaptation of living under the rule of those in control, the majority, you know who they are, you voted for them didn’t you? If you did not vote, then you voted for them by default. Anyway, forced adaptation and loss of personal freedom is a radical shift in direction — away from democracy. Hillman describes it as a shift “sideways rather than up and down.” He describes a type of “ruthless leveling where no head dare stick up too high and where no one to look up to is the price of not looking down on anyone.” It is the new political correctness gone awry. It is where respect and admiration no longer exist because the terms have been redefined by the autocracy to instead encompass some perverse perception of who rules over us and in what direction this horse gallops. Never mind it is a riderless horse. Soon conformism and political correctness begin to dominate and a new tyranny emerges, it is the absolutism of a board of rulers. (Villa Appalling!)
The reality of forced adaptation to circumstances beyond one’s control is something, if not experienced, is very difficult to explain.
YOUR COOKIE, THEIR FORTUNE
Confronted by aggressive sales techniques, owners are seduced into an illusionary world of affordable housing developments. Frequently, buyers are led to believe they are buying a house “and” a community. Such synthetic communities should be viewed as “commodities” that are in turn reaped by another commodity called “buyers.” Of course, the ultimate commodity permeating this housing scheme is “money.”
Because voluntary purchases are difficult to regulate, buyer problems usually surface only after parting with thousands of dollars in down payments. No owner wants to admit they failed to adequately investigate what they bought; yet buyers have been known to do just that.
Some buyers may seek to justify their bad decisions by overestimating the definition of “value.” No doubt believing they are graduating from the middle-class, new owners are quick to brag to friends that they have just purchased a condo packed with amenities. Irrespective of whether the buyer uses that gym or lap pool, they still boast of it. Buyers usually do not fully understand the definition of “liability” if they did, they would know that all “amenities” simultaneously are “liabilities.” While wanting to leave others with an impression of personal accomplishment, little thought is given to the maintenance, risks, and liabilities of all those “extras” accompanying their purchase. Owners choosing to ignore these added financial risks and obligations later find themselves strapped for cash and unable to make ends meet. Unfortunately, the “largeness” of a development is often mistakenly analogized to the owner’s personal success. Quite the opposite is true.
HUNTER AND HUNTED
“When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.” –George Bernard Shaw.
Generally, community association industries are parasitic businesses, constantly blurring the line between profit and profiteering. This has resulted in the evolution of an industry that does little more than look and act indispensable. Everything is calculated to trap. The industry hunts those buyers down. – New communities – They bait them. – Low fees and affordability – They bait lawmakers. – Have lunch with the Governor and insert legislation to protect attorneys – They throw down raw meat, then with Samurai in hand they wait: Your home just got taken from you.
Sucking the lifeblood from owners held hostage by imperialism and a defective legal system, such industries are organisms that have perfected taking advantage of those that are most vulnerable, or as some have joked, most stupid. Those who have already sunk their life savings into a, c-o-m-m-u-n-i-t-y, convinced themselves it was just what the herbalist ordered.

Without the legislative mandate that owners must belong to the association and pay fees, the organism feeding and growing on those laws shrivels up. Unable to otherwise nourish itself, the homeowner and community association industries can be found wallowing below the association’s bowels eagerly living off its excess and swallowing whatever morsels it sucks from its host. It is the homeowner’s personal wealth that feeds those parasites which contribute nothing of consequence to the owners’ well being. Like traditional hunters, the industry’s survival depends on eating their kill."