The art of "MAKING CONNECTIONS"

I must admit I've never thought about the role of the HOA in protecting me from the absolute property value chaos that would exist absent the HOA. Nope, never gave it a consideration at all. In fact, I think the HOA should have a GIANT reader board right outside with the HOA sign that gives a daily count of the number of violations given, the fine revenue, the daily number of liens and foreclosures from the day the HOA took control. That'll show the riff-raff the HOA means business! The real estate flyer should contain the same information. Yes, this is excellent! Preserving Property Values, One VIOLATION at a time!

Course along with that information, the HOA would have to announce the amount of the assessment for NO amenities, the construction defect lawsuit (because there is nothing like going to court and saying we have a gazillion construction defects, settling the lawsuit and no audit to show remediation was done and then wondering, hmmm ... the insurance premium is going up) and then showing your budget now is burdened by increased insurance premiums and administrative costs. Yep, that'll definitely work in favor of property values, right?

It's easy to blame the homeowners. My HOA has a form you must fill out to even express interest in serving on the Board. This form goes TO the management company and contains ten questions, including "what is your PHILOSOPHY of Covenant Enforcement and Architecture Control". I have never seen the results of this questionnaire for ANY Board Member, elected or appointed. However, as expressed in the Annual Meeting, all questions MUST go through the management company, I'm really not quite sure WHY we have a board and the members of the BOARD are not listed on the HOA website, so there's that.

Homeowners aren't complaining because they don't want to follow the "rules". They are complaining because the "rules" only exist in one direction. Against the homeowner. Period. Full Stop.