
Recently, I was part of an e-mail exchange which discussed changes to laws and what language could be included which would be agreeable to most parties involved. In my experience thus far, I’m finding that legislators are hesitant to consider the idea of taking HOAs’ powers to foreclose on residents. Frankly, that baffles me. In the course of this journey, I have increasingly realized that what I assumed was a universal value that A Person’s Home is Their Castle, is not so universal, and although I’m quite sure every individual feels their private home is their sacred and universally respected right, they don’t hold that same respect for others. Of course, that is at the root of the problem with HOAs, in my opinion. My work on the psychology of HOAs, which I plan to expand on, discussed power-centered personality types and how they are wreaking absolute havoc in the lives of millions of Americans via the platform of HOAs. More on that ahead, but today, I wanted to share with you the core of my argument against HOAs’ ability to foreclose.
Here is part of my response to the e-mail discussion I mentioned, and I am referring to proposed legislative language which hedges on the matter of foreclosures.
“It does not actually address the problem of HOAs and their power to foreclose. Ultimately, the punishment does not fit the ‘crime.’ It is my firm opinion that no one other than the bank that holds the mortgage should have the power to take someone's home and equity - especially a group of unsupervised, ad hoc neighbors who have no particular training, qualifications, or other means of checks, balances, and oversight to hold them responsible.
People lose their homes over the color of their paint, because one of the family suffers serious illness or becomes elderly and can't quite keep it up to Better Homes and Gardens standards (subjective and ultimately unrealistic), because a petty tyrant decides to take out a personal grudge against them, or other utterly nonsensical reasons.
Again - the crime must fit the punishment, and I cannot see how any reasonable person would agree that anything other than not paying the mortgage is any justifiable reason to take someone's home.”
If we all really do believe in the idea of America and what that stands for, we have to have it in practice in everyone’s everyday lives and in all of our actions. The sanctity of the American home is, of course, one of those core values that we are all promised as it ties directly to our values of individuality and personal independence, freedom, and safety.
HOAs violate that very promise and ideal, and not just for the fact that they are able to violate ethics, decency, and the law itself, but on the other side of the coin is that they are freely able to do so and are—for inexplicable reasons—allowed to continue to do so.
The injustice of what they are able to do to people is exacerbated by the fact that there is no viable or reasonable means to hold people who are acting unethically and illegally accountable with consequences for bad actors. When it comes to HOAs, Justice truly is blind. HOAs and their collusions with attorneys, property management companies, and other entities are often compared to the Mafia.
Supporters of HOAs, particularly the bad actors themselves, are quick to dismiss this comparison as an overreaction (recall that dismissal of others’ feelings and experiences is one of many signs of an abusive, control-dominated personality). Yet, historically speaking, it is a fair comparison. The only difference is that, thankfully (and hopefully!), physical violence isn’t a standard practice of control. That being said, however, there are horrific stories out there that do include physical violence, murder, shootings, assault, and death threats—over HOA matters. That fact alone should be enough to make everyone—from homeowners to legislators—sit up, take notice, and realize THIS SYSTEM DOESN’T WORK. Not in America, anyway. Not as a legal entity.
And even though not every dissenter ends up “swimming with the fishes,” people are, on a regular basis and as a matter of course, financially and socially executed by HOAs. Aside from actual physical eradication, if one wants to destroy another person, they will destroy them financially, which is what home foreclosure, compounded fees and fines, and the costs of attorneys on both sides do and are meant to do to dissenters of HOAs. People who speak up against the bad actors, who demand democratic justice, who demand their rights as American citizens and as human beings are eradicated. They are silenced and they are made an example of for others.
And this is perfectly fine and legal. As I have stated before, HOAs are worse than organized crime, they are legalized crime. And yes, they are highly organized.
We as homeowners and American citizens must organize as well and be larger, stronger, and louder than they are. We must do it to protect ourselves and each other from them. As I always say, not every HOA is a bad HOA, but the ones that are can cause such an incredible amount of damage that it is very much in the best interest of those good actors to stand with us in order to fight and make this system, if we must have it, fair and truly democratic.
Democracy means an agreed-upon and respected system of checks and balances, rules and consequences which are applied equally and consistently for all. Anything else is a true crime that we all suffer.
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(Any errors and omissions here are unintended. Corrections are always welcome!)
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