Something Is Terribly Wrong

This will be the last post I make here. With great sadness.

The Task Force meeting yesterday showed us the mess we are in. And why it will just get worse and worse. Think of history. When human beings suffer abysmal unfairness, they may cave for the time being. But all the pain this system causes will eventually result in ugly trouble.

This Task Force was called to discuss homeowner rights. But even the simplest and most basic right--to know what you are buying, to know what you are getting into!--was denied them yesterday, through the oldest of political tricks: killing the problem with endless professional mumbo jumbo until even the most sentient among us forget what the question was.

Even this simple issue--easily solved! A one-page sheet telling buyers they are entering an HOA and what that means--lay dead after thisTask Force killed it with mind-numbing, meaningless talk.

You people on this Task Force were chosen because you supposedly know more. So how come you don't know this, that the issue of informing home buyers they are entering an HOA was thought to be CRUCIAL by the person most instrumental in spreading HOAs across the US: Byron Hanke.

Byron Hanke--you guys on the Task Force know who he is, right? The one who started CAI. The main author of the Home Association Handbook, published in 1964? In that 476-page Handbook, which lays out every which way HOAs should and must be, the authors state unequivocally that "purchasers" must be "fully informed" as to what an HOA is and what their part will be. The "success of this new housing model depends", say the Handbook's authors, on explaining to home buyers what is expected of them.

Well, it turned out that if you explain the idea to homeowners well ahead of time, (NOT at closing! Do you Task Force people think we all just fell off the turnip truck?!), they'll choose not to purchase. Because the model of HOAs was not complete before developers started multiplying them across the land. Quoting Even McKenzie, they "left out the community piece." The people piece. Which could be put back in, if you guys would just think and listen and actually do the job you're assigned.

I have interviewed three different retired realtors. They all said, in different interviews, that years ago, they did explain the HOA concept. But when they did that, more often than not, the home buyer turned to another property. So realtors stopped explaining.

That turn of events was known. It should have been the red flag that some element was missing in the HOA model. That it needed refining to make HOAs decent places for people to live. An idea that could--still--be worked on. So that human nature is considered, rather than ignored.

But the current way HOAs are run does NOT access the good in humans, it brings out the worst. We all know this. We all see it. Changing this system so it is more human is possible. But it would cut into the industry's profits.

There's a reason the stuff about HOAs is hidden inside another contract. We may have no power but we are not stupid.

I bought into an HOA a dozen years ago. Not one person mentioned the word 'HOA' to me. I had never heard of HOAs. And I am not alone. I am a smart, educated person with two master's degrees. My neighbors are smart too. They didn't know what an HOA was, or how bad it could get. I have seen my community, and many others, deteriorate, for the very reasons this Task Force was called together.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Ms. Lallis Jackson skillfully performed the industry's favorite tactic: blaming the homeowner! It's not the industry's fault no one has a clue what they're getting into! It's the homeowner's fault for not performing "due diligence." This, and the statement she made last time, about there being "only a small percentage" of unfair foreclosures--show a profound immorality. Lallis should go back and read the Home Association Handbook. Byron Hanke knew what he was talking about. She does not.

Did SHE ever have her home taken away through no fault of her own? My friend Irene did. She suffered a severe nervous breakdown at age 71. Her whole extended family is now suffering financially as well as emotionally. This is not what any American should expect when they put down hard-earned money to buy a 'forever home." Which is what my friend Irene thought hers was.

Endless discussions of this law and that bill and a long lecture on Reserves (for whose benefit? Who is listening??) do nothing to ameliorate the situation. Or better anyone's life. So what on earth are you doing?

And why am I wasting my time writing?

It lessens the weight on my heart a little, is why I am writing.

What about you on the Task Force?

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