Should the 14th Amendment protections apply to homeowners associations?

These problems and issues with CIDs have existed from their very inception with the publication of the ULI Homes Association Handbook, Technical Bulletin #50, in 1966 and will continue for the next 40 years unless the mental set and attitude toward planned communities undergo a major paradigm shift.

The inescapable conclusion to which the Commission will inevitably be drawn, if our Constitution is to remain meaningful and “that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth” and be replaced by the increasing number of private governments, is for CIDs to be subject to the same municipality laws of the state to which all other local government entities are subject. There will again be only one rule of law for everyone.

The following areas must be addressed:

1. Is it proper for the state to create, permit, encourage, support or defend a form of local government of a community of people, whether that form of government is established as a municipal corporation or as a private organization that is not compatible with our American system of government?

2. Is it proper for the state to permit the existence of private quasi-governments with contractual “constitutions” that regulate and control the behavior of citizens
a. without the same due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that
b. do not conform to the state’s municipal charter or incorporation requirements, or that
c. do not provide for the same compliance with the state’s constitution, statutes or administrative code as required by public local government entities?

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Excerpts from March 14, 2005 Citizen letter to California Law Review Commission Memorandum 2005-3 on homeowner bill of rights. The complete letter may be found at Rights.