Legislators must accept responsibility for HOA problems

After a heated discussion at my annual HOA meeting relating to the board's failure to setup CC&R mandated reserves, a board member said to me,

"George, lighten up. This is a small social gathering of friendly neighbors seeking to maintain property values."

I replied,

"So long as the HOA has a right to take my house, or to impose financial difficulties for me and my family, supported by state laws that do not allow me proper due process if I disagree with the HOA, there can be no social gathering of friendly neighbors. This is a contractual arrangement that is one-sided against me, and all other individual homeowners. If you want a friendly social gathering of neighbors, throw away the threat of financial distress, the state supported CC&Rs, and we can then act like good, friendly neighbors."

Homeowner association problems continue year to year in each and every state as a result of the creation of laws, and the repeated refusal to correct their errors of judgment, by state legislatures that "sanction" and "bless" the unconscionable adhesion CC&Rs contracts.

The arguments made in this 2003 publication, The Case Against State Protection of Homeowner Associations, sadly, remain valid in the Arizona legislature and in the legislatures of others states, including California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Nevada. The problem can be stated in simple terms as had just occurred in regard to my small HOA in Arizona.