Why Not?

I haven't heard anyone here, certainly not me, say "Oh we shouldn't have fines". Just for the record nobody has said that. So it isn't about that.

- Connie Van Dorn, H.O.A. Task Farce, January 16 2024
@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyDa3Rh0J4U T+2:57:15

Why not?

Why is the abolition of non-judicial H.O.A. fines not a legitimate topic to discuss in a committee that was allegedly created to protect and promote the rights of H.O.A.-burdened homeowners?

The abolition of non-judicial H.O.A. fines is exactly the type of policy that homeowner rights advocates should be talking about.

If non-judicial fines are necessary to deter rule-breaking behavior and ensure compliance with H.O.A. rules, then individual homeowners should be allowed to assess their H.O.A. board members with non-judicial fines, too.

Otherwise, there exists a gross and unconscionable inequity of legal remedies:

Where one party -- the H.O.A. corporation -- can unilaterally declare the other party -- the individual homeowner -- to be in breach of contract without due process, impose a non-judicial fine, and then declare that fine to be monetary damages without actually having to demonstrate that they suffered any actual harm. Any legal action to collect the fine then becomes a debt collection case -- because the fine is treated as an "unpaid assessment" -- not a covenant enforcement case.

Whereas the other party -- the individual homeowner -- must file a suit in an Open Court of Law, prove that the H.O.A. corporation is in breach of contract and/or the actual law, and prove that they suffered actual damages under the rules of due process.

And that inequity is not going to be resolved by allowing the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) to usurp the role the Judiciary.

In my opinion, community association boards and owners should both be subject to the same requirements to enforce restrictive covenants. If state legislatures repealed their fine and foreclosure statutes, the boards would not be left without a remedy. They would not go bankrupt. Chaos would not emerge. They would simply have to get in line at the courthouse and play by the same rules as other property owners seeking to protect their rights under the covenants or common law.

- John Cowherd. "Are Legal Remedies of Owners and HOAs Equitable?" Words of Conveyance. July 20, 2017.
Mr. Cowherd is an attorney specializing in real estate and contract rights in Virginia.

We don't have to guess or imagine or speculate what life would be like without an authoritarian and heavy-handed H.O.A. corporation with the power to assess non-judicial fines. America was like that for decades -- actually, centuries -- and many of us grew up in such free communities. Somehow, things turned out O.K.

For more information on how residential covenants can be enforced without an H.O.A. corporation, and why it would be better if they were, see my earlier post, "re New Homeowners Generally Uninformed" (January 11 2024).