HOA Board System is a Faulty Product

Dear Task Force Members,

I have read every story submitted here, re: the HOA Task Force. Many--most--sound angry.

This is not a surprise. They should be angry.

The original founder of CAI, Byron Hanke himself, stated around 2000, that the industry itself was doing fine, making money for attorneys and managers and vendors--but the homeowners themselves were NOT doing fine inside --and something should be done. That's a long time--and lot of homeowner suffering--ago.

Many times in American history, a product has been found to injure or harm those persons using it. And then laws and standards are passed to protect the consumers. Think about asbestos. Cigarettes. Cars without seat belts. The product had been found to harm--not everyone--but sufficient numbers so that people in general needed to be warned of the pitfalls of that product and provided ways to mitigate it.

The HOA Board model produces harm. As the model is currently set up-- individuals charged with tasks they're wholly unqualified for, are given total responsibility, unlimited power and placed under a bright light of group pressure--all too often, an HOA Board devolves into bullying, ignorance, shifting of blame, wasting of money. The evidence that the HOA Board model produces the worst sort of human behavior is everywhere and undeniable.

To blame that behavior on the people themselves, rather than look at what causes it, is--at this point--unconscionable gaslighting.

You either need to fully educate a Board--which is no 5-hour or even all-weekend affair! It's a serious undertaking!--or devise a system where these properties are managed by highly skilled professionals. NOT the unlicensed, predatory management companies that currently abound.

I write these words with great frustration and sadness.