An exhausting 6 weeks it was.

A small group of very nasty people have spent the last three years running the developers of our community out of the neighborhood with their vicious lies and rumors. Our community suddenly transitioned from a developer-owned community to a homeowners association.

I and a few people tried to run against them. Without even knowing me, they slandered me - personally - in the newspaper and online. I am simply flabbergasted at what I read about myself.

They won the election last night.

It's going to be a long winter because aside from tearing other people down, they have no clue how to run a community and homeowners association. The people who hijacked the community were delusional from the very beginning and continue to be so.

I worry about the finances of the elderly here in this community, who can barely afford the annual dues as it is. I worry about the high rate of unemployment in our community as well and how this will impact their lives.

All this over a pool that nobody ever swam in.

Small people - small minds ! Good luck Barb.

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regards....roger (no sig)

It would drive me crazy to live in a house where I have to pay dues and abide by rules that I may or may not agree with just because some group said so.

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NRA Endowment Member

We all moved to this community because there wasn't an HOA and there were no rules. The developers plowed the roads, mowed the common areas, etc. for a nominal annual fee of $475. There was a pool available for $35 more a year but it had to be closed because maintenance cost $30,000 while they only brought in $3,000 a year to run it and the dam needed mandatory repairs so the money was diverted to that use. The pool never reopened.

This group thinks that they were also entitled to an armed security force, street lights, a new pool, and a tennis court. What they fail to understand is that while the road fee is mandatory, the "amenities" fee is optional, by deed stipulation, so there is no way in hell they can force people to pay for the extras, nor can they use the road fee money to pay for it either.

My platform was that these community amenities should be paid for and maintained by the people who actually want and use them. A playground committee should raise the funds, build the playground and maintain it. The recreation committee should raise funds and maintain their own facilities. If the teenagers want a clubhouse, they should raise the funds and build it themselves - they'll take care of it that way.

But these people wanted someone else to foot the bill and provide it for them and threw a temper tantrum when it wasn't.

Barb, when I moved to Pennsylvania I lived in a community. Had to pay a community fee that came to be over 800.00. It was like an extra tax. We sold our house and built a house on private land no community. Much nicer.

It really becomes worrisome when these people get to the national level...

Kapuna

My mother owns a condo in a community like that. After seeing what she has been through, I would never live in such a place. She has been talking about selling her condo and moving to a new senior apartment building, but with the current housing market, she'd lose a bundle. Good luck to you Barb. Sounds like you're in for a fight.

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Misty

Maybe B.O will send them some stimulus money. Sorry you're having trouble. Where you gonna move to?

Barb - While living in NJ and prior to my retirement my wife and I shopped and researched home sights all up and down RT 739 in your area. By the grace of God we were privileged to have known people from a number of the communities located there. After listening to their tales and seeing first hand what we did we decided NEVER to become a part on any homeowners association or lake community. We found a piece of private real estate here in Wayne County and couldn't be happier. If ever you search for a new location spend a lot of time researching it in any way you can including the US Census website which gives complete demographics for the municipality and county. Among those we investigated in depth were Gold Key Lake, Sunrise Lake, Pocono Water Forest, and Pocono Woodlands. All of these had factors which scared us off at the time.

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Lost in Penn's Woods

We recently moved from a HOA community, about 210 homes. It cost aprox. $35,000 per year just for the pool (open from Memorial day to Labor day). People don't have any idea how much these recreational assets cost to maintain and operate. Pools, playgrounds, basketball courts, tennis, etc, etc. Our total annual budget was over 100K per year. It all adds up. You either pay up, or you do without. There are no other options.

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Martin Co,FLA(finally made it)

Isn't that stipulation sufficent to render their "tax and spend" efforts useless and allow the residents to simply ignore them?

Just another case of people spreading other people's money around to suit their needs. Sooner or later they will run out of other peoples money and have to spend their own or do without.

LTC

I am in Sunrise! Everything had seemed to me to be fine. I thought the best course of action was for people who wanted certain things to get together and take care of those things themselves as committees with volunteers and private fundraising. I thought Community Watch and vigilant neighbors were cheaper and more effective than a "security force". Silly me.

This sounds like an amazingly familiar story!
Did something like this happen late last year?

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Yes, exactly. They cannot fulfill any of their promises, so instead they ran on the platform of trashing the opposition with extreme lies and completely off the wall accusations. And the simple sheep applaud and follow them.

No wonder this country is in the state it is in.

"Our community suddenly transitioned from a developer-owned community to a homeowners association. "

you're not trying to sneak in political commentary are ya?

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I'm sorry you are going through that Barb. Can you take any action against the Libel?

I have to say I am proud of the way I conducted myself and the way my team mates did too. We gave them the facts, we didn't trash the opposition, and we weren't so sneaky as to use pseudonyms in the local paper's online blog so that we could trash them anonymously as they did us.

I tried to contact the paper and their website host, but nothing happened. Although they posted only lies, there is no real recourse in politics. They think it's "a difference of opinion" and "let's agree to disagree" and "it's just partisan politics".

But I also found out that although I've only lived here less than three years, I was only 64 votes behind the highest vote-getter, who had aggressively campaigned for three years.

There's good people here. Although I'm disgusted with a few of them, I'll still go to the HOA meetings and put my face and opinions back out there. It will be interesting.

Hang in there barb, I know you can really relate to sarah pallen!

Had much the same situation except the developer was wanting to bail and the ones driving the formation of the HOA were the ones wanting to sell and get out. They figured their property would be easier to sell if they had "covenants" in place.

Sure enough, the first 'administration' lasted only as long as it took them to sell their homes and those of us that planned on staying had to deal with what they wrought. In like fashion, those good leftists that always seem to have a plan on how to spend my money soon took over by stacking the deck at the meetings and running over anyone who opposed them. But not before we managed to insert a little codicil that said that any bylaws changes , raising of dues, or major expenditures had to be approved by at least 80% of the homeowners who had actually paid their dues. That kind of knocked the bottom out of their little love boat. They too wanted a street light in front of their house, sidewalks in their section and the community to pay to build a pool. Enough of the rest of us told them that if they wanted those things all they had to do was pay for it themselves. That cooled their jets after a little gnashing of teeth and name-calling.

Now the only way they can get more than a handful to show up at their annual meeting is to start a rumor that they'll be discussing raising the dues, which only the uninitiated fall for since the way we structured it (above) they have no real power to do so. They push they limit on what they can charge for dues by the HOA charter, which, when they formed it 25 years ago was little steep, but now (since they can't raise it) has evolved into a bargain.

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Qui plantavit curabit

Our 55+ community is going through the same turmoil. We prevailed in the last court case and "with prejudice" so hopefully when the losers are sued for court costs they will calm down.

""these people wanted someone else to foot the bill and provide it for them and threw a temper tantrum when it wasn't.""

Man, that sure sounds familiar. There's a lot of that going around.

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PC, censorship
with a smile.

You will not like the Villages in Florida, now they have some rules and fee's.

The Villages - Florida's Friendliest Retirement Hometown

It's the slash and burn style of politicking we've all come to know and love of late Barb. Seemingly anywhere ego and hubris intersect with rational thought and fiscal responsibility these spark occur. Sorry their being such a load of nippleheads? It was the same way when my Wife made the error of becoming president of the association our last home in Chicago was controlled by. She finally threw up her hands due to them arbitrarily manufacturing situations (fiscal and otherwise) that required as much maintenance and attention as a shuttle mission. And from the sound of things, your situation sounds like some think they HAVE the budget of a shuttle mission, too!

The Villages are a whole different story, books will be written if they haven’t already. Strictly retirement yet has the highest incidence of STD in FL. What is Gramps doing?

Barb; HOAs are like University Faculties, the viciousness of the interactions is inversely related to the importance of the problems.

We live in a HOA, I used to think what they did is important, no longer. The meetings are to be avoided at all costs, never go armed unless you are a saint.

However, our covenant has a very important rule, no dues increases without a referendum, no spending for added amenities without referendum. So the board argues essentially about nothing.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

This group is so insane and rabid that one of my co-runners just called to say his wife got a call from someone else who told her that she heard they were really brother and sister and he was just living there to help take care of her kids.

Are people crazy or what??

I am in Sunrise! Everything had seemed to me to be fine. I thought the best course of action was for people who wanted certain things to get together and take care of those things themselves as committees with volunteers and private fundraising. I thought Community Watch and vigilant neighbors were cheaper and more effective than a "security force". Silly me

There were a group of us that used to commute from your area and NW Jersey to the city everyday and we talked on CB radios to pass the time. One of the girls who was in the group was in your community and I got an earfull about the place. There were significant troubles there back then (a good many years ago).

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Lost in Penn's Woods

Sounds like you need to get a hit man , just kidding. Just remember - what goes around , comes around. They will get thiers in the long run. Sign them up for Playboy and a bunch like that and take PIC's of it when they get them out of the mail box .

Barb,

Sorry to read about your issues there. It sure sounds like the neighborhood "Taliban" has taken over.

"Our community suddenly transitioned from a developer-owned community to a homeowners association. "

You may want to contact a lawyer familiar with real estate law. If that transition was as rocky as you have described, it's quite possible that the deed restrictions were either not properly filed, or invalidated by the change in status. If so, you can tell that HOA to go pee up a stick.

Barb; Another thing I have noticed is that the types you mentioned really burn out quickly, many of them resign before they finish their full term in office.
We have community horse trails and a stable, the fighting over who does what to whom and when is remarkable. And then there is the swimming pool some want to build.....................
It seems that pushing through things isn’t as easy as it looks. Reminds me of the Democrats in Congress fighting about who is going to get all of the goodies.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

I've lived in neighborhoods that had restrictive covenants...and those without. On the whole, I think I prefer those "with". My wife does not.

I lived in one in Denver and it was very restrictive...but it kept control of the neighborhood. We had no "trashy" houses, no beater cars on the street, and many other pluses. Also there was a downside. They had restrictions against window air conditioners and the old fashion satellite dishes (the big ones). Some of the confrontations they had over these were absolutely ridiculous. It all needs to be tempered by common sense, but as we all know, that seems to be in short supply recently!

I live in a neighborhood now in Oklahoma that doesn't have restrictive covenants, however, I've been very successful in calling the city's code enforcement office into addressing violations, and so far I've been lucky.

Small town mentality? Yes, I've experience that too while being a school principal in very small towns. If you haven't lived that life, you simply wouldn't believe it. Many people want to serve on school boards, or similar governing boards, that have no idea of how to conduct themselves, and like politicians at the state and national level, act like pigs at a trough. Nothings makes up for common sense and common decency.

Hang in there Barb. I know you are trying to do the right thing.

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G.P. Charlie

I had a long talk with the editor of the local paper that printed the inflammatory blogs and strongly suggested that a disclaimer be posted indicating that these opinions are of the posters only and are neither moderated nor guaranteed to be factual. Some people believe that if it's on the internet, it must be true!

The editor suggested I write an article for the paper with a positive slant, so I did. We'll see if it's published:

Now [this little upstart group] has achieved what they have worked so hard for over the last three years - the transition to an association, trustee or beneficiary as suggested in the final recommendations of their expert witness report dated February 2008.

The original owner of the common areas is a private corporation and as such it had operated as a for-profit organization. It could pick the contractors it wanted to use, charge a fee for use of its facilities and roads, and forgive debt. The corporation's principals are the three children of the original owner, the heirs to his estate, which include the sister, who is just as much a partner as the two brothers.

Our deeds were simple, the restrictions few, the annual dues low. The mandatory road fees paid for the paving of the community roads. It paid for the snow plowing and sanding. It paid for the resurfacing of the aging sections.

The amenities and common areas were owned by the corporation, which charged an optional fee for the use of its facilities. By deed restriction, no one could ever be forced to pay for the optional facility usage.

Wear and tear and age caught up to the community and as the development grew, resources thinned. The corporation tried to keep the dues low. It felt obligated to the working class families who had raised their children here and now were retired on meager pensions. It forgave debt until estates were settled. If someone was faced with medical bills or a loss of job, dues payments could be delayed until the sale of the property or better financial times were reached. With limited staff, it tried to maintain the quality of life so many had come to take for granted.

But discontent reared its ugly head. Worse than discontent was entitlement. For a nominal fee, the lowest dues in the county, people expected their desires to be met without having to expend any effort themselves.

And now, after a needlessly bloody battle, after reputations have been torn and discarded, we are in the exact same place as we were before this process started.

Road fees still may only be spent on roads. All those outstanding dues are the mandatory dues designated as road fees and so must legally be spent only on the roads, not on any other facility or amenity.

The amenity fees still may only be spent on amenities, which are voluntary and optional.

The back dues that people complained weren't collected - they'll be collected now. It was kind to suggest a collection agency that would do this for a commission and only put a hit on someone's credit if they didn't pay. The actual full recourse for uncollected back dues is foreclosure (Section 5315 of the UPCA). The little old lady may now be threatened with eviction, as would the struggling family whose wage earner has lost his job or who faces high medical bills. There is no more option to grant a little grace and compassion. Association law doesn't allow for that.

"Transparency" and "sound fiscal management" are not campaign slogans -- they are mandated by law. Association law is very tightly binding to the board of directors, upon penalty of jail. Board of Director liability is very real. The strong arm of association law can ratchet down on both the residents and the board of directors.


If you can do anything for the true protection of our people, put a covenant in the new bylaws that there shall be no dues increases or special assessments without a referendum that passes with at least 2/3 of the entire membership-in-good-standing. Those who pay their dues should have the say in the impact of them.

If a pool is to come back to our community, it must be financed and operated by the participants, with no impact on those who can neither afford it nor care to participate in it.

The amenities and recreational facilities must be supported by the people who want to participate and benefit from them. A recreation committee can be formed to host picnics and events that are supported by ticket sales. The Athletic League can raise money to fix up the baseball field and run games for kids and adults, as is done in independent communities all over this country. The playground committee can have a fundraiser and then build and maintain the new playground. Are your teenagers bored? Let them have their own fundraiser and then teach them how to build a clubhouse with the proceeds. They'll take good care of something they worked for and built with their own two hands.

Form work parties to pick up trash. Tidy up your own little homestead. Keep an eye out for goings-on and call 911 for criminal concerns. Limit your own activities that may annoy the neighbors, such as loud noises and unruly ATVs, so that blanket restrictions aren't imposed upon all. A little neighborly courtesy and respect will go a long way toward keeping the independent lifestyle we all have enjoyed.

We must each do our part now more than ever to to keep costs low while improving the quality of our community. The future is literally in our own hands.

Very well stated, Barb. Good luck.

Good Letter Barb.

We live in an older (for Florida) development. The pool question drives people nuts. Most people who want a pool have one. The costs to have and maintain a home in ground pool here are much lower than PA, and you can use it many more months.
We have a group who think that a pool for the development would enhance property values and they have this opinion about other amenities as well. So they present very optimistic installation and maintenance estimates and try to get enough suckers to bite.
Most of the rest of us would much rather keep taxes (add amenities and assessments go up regardless of property values) and dues low.
I think this is the basic fight everywhere, perhaps over different things, but the spenders of other folk’s money versus those who would rather keep and spend their own.
Roger

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Owned a house in a community with an HOA. When we were packing up and leaving we had to park with one wheel of one vehicle on OUR grass. The little Barney Fife of a HOA president came over in his little golf cart thingie and informed us we had to move or he would "write us a ticket." I can't repeat what he was told, Mr. Ejector might not like it.

The hypocrisy of the situation there was on a last drive through the neighborhood we saw literally dozens of "violations" like having a garage door open (big no-no), or the hood up on a car (bigger no-no). I cannot fathom why anyone would willingly live in something like that.

Give me a break from self-important little people.

The Highlander

Sadly, that appears to be a sign of the present times.

Sounds like some states-New England, e.g.-where all sorts of people move in because taxes are low, no real pockets of poverty, the landscape is so bucolic, etc. Then they want all the things they left behind, the fancy schools, the pools, the community center, etc. Next thing you know they're hollering about taxes, overcrowded roads and schools, etc., "newcomers" who don't share "their" values

Sorry to hear.

Now all the "power" will go to their heads.....

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- The Federalist #46 -