| Good place to come home to? |
|
Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel By
Wayne T. Moses
The idea of creating homeowners associations isn't new, but
the way it's done has changed in recent years, because service providers such
as management companies and attorneys have realized that these associations
are a great cash cow.
The reason: Legislators all around the nation created laws
governing HOAs -- ambiguous laws, easy to interpret any which way you want to
twist them and nearly unenforceable.
There is no accountability demanded of the people in
charge, but they have the money to fight you in a court of law -- right or
wrong. Many owners don't lose in court because they violated the laws and/or
rules; they lose because they plainly run out of money to fight for their
rights.
This opens the door for all kinds of shenanigans -- from
just plain power-hungry board members to greedy managers and attorneys. The
money is always there, and don't forget, your home is collateral for any bills
they create.
It is our responsibility as the owners to change that. We
may not have the finances the industry is putting up to defeat owner-friendly
bills, but we have the power of numbers. Together we have a chance to create
the necessary changes that will help us to turn our communities back into
friendly neighborhoods!
Our property values will not go up because we all have the
same beige-colored doors. Our communities will not get better because we all
have the same peach-colored shingles, or whatever color the board president's
wife likes. Our neighborhood will not be more neighborly because the condo
commando is running around with a notepad writing violation notices for
flowers with too bright colors in the front yards.
And it surely doesn't improve our lifestyle if our board
forecloses on a family for small amounts of unpaid dues! Is that what our
society should stand for?
We need to get back to the better times when neighbors
talked to neighbors, communities helped families in need and everybody
respected each other as neighbors and human beings!
These better times will only return if we all work together
to create the laws that will stop most of these shenanigans.
United, we can convince our legislators that they need to
create the laws and enforcement of such laws that help to make our communities
good places to come home to! Everyone's help is needed to help us achieve our
goal: fairness in all associations.
Wayne T. Moses lives in Boca Raton.
|
| NEWS PAGE | HOME | HOA ARTICLES |