Almost half the homes hit with liens!

A board can't get much more abusive than this. . .

Almost half of the homes in an east Fort Myers low-income housing development have been hit with liens and threatened with foreclosure. It isn't because Hope Garden homeowners have failed to make mortgage payments, but because the homeowners have refused to pay association fees.

Fort Myers governmental offices should have many of the documents the homeowners seek, but the city can't find them. And the owners association board will not give the homeowners access to its records.

Carletha Griffin, the registered agent and assistant treasurer of the Hope Gardens Owners Association, refuses to provide receipts or copies of vendor contracts. She won't allow the owners to inspect the books because their dues aren't paid. She and other members of the board say they were either appointed or elected but can't provide any proof or even give a date the election was held.

But this year, Griffin and the other five members on the board decided to bill homeowners $289 each to maintain the property - cutting 1.15 acres of grass.

http://news-press.com/article/20081026/NEWS0110/810260404

Of course you then have to divide the amount into the number of mows per season to see if it is an outrageous figure. We average 25 mows per season which would be $357.60 per mow. However being warmer in Florida I would suspect more rather than fewer mows per year which would bring the cost down.

Sounds like a whole lotta people and agencies were at fault here.

I got to thinking about this and realized that the reason that we only see the negative side of HOAs is because that is the only stuff that gets written about. We never get to read about anything above and beyond good that Boards do. We never see how much time and effort many Board members dpend trying to make their HOAs better places. Thats the way the media works and blame them for much of this.
Look at the elections. I can tell you everything bad or what is made up to be bad about all 4 of the major candidates. Celebrities get the same treatment so I am going to treat all of these negative HOA stories the same as I treat the election and celeb news--as not truthful..

My Journalism teacher had a motto which she pounded into our heads. "BELIEVE NONE OF WHAT YOU READ AND HALF OF WHAT OF WHAT YOU SEE."

I gotta agree with Donna, Glen, and Michelle. Seems like everything George posts is either a link to a story that is bashing HOAs or he is responding to somebody else's post and stating that it's yet another example of why HOAs are so bad and we need more legislation to reign them in.

Sorry George, but I don't agree. I will agree that there are a few HOAs that have problems, but I can't agree that the answer for everyone then is more government regulation. Take a look at Despair.com for one view on government "solutions".

Donna - I think for some of us this one will also apply:

Meetings - None of us is as Dumb as All of us.

Of course, sometimes (most times?) that applies to my work as well......

Pot - Kettle - Black....

I think it is great that George is posting these examples of bad HOA's because for anyone who is open to learning and trying to see things from other perspectives, it could be helpful to maintain a good HOA and not make the same mistakes. It takes all kinds and just based on the articles it clearly demonstrates not everyone has as much common sense as we all do here to see the lunacy in some of these stories.

I can appreciate that DJ, but one gets tired of the same note over and over.

Donna:

You are so right that all of the bashing of HOA's and Boards are usually from disgruntled homeowners who received a letter or that a lien was placed on their home for non-payment and got their names into the newspaper and "wham" the board, MC or HOA is doing something wrong.

Now that is not to say some boards or MC's do not do everything up to code, but that is in life everywhere. Politicians (don't get me started) churches, Pastors/Priests, goverments; any business or organization is going to have their corruption and people who abuse their power.

Being in this business since 1982; I have seen some really wonderful, fantastic boards and committees who's sole purpose is to see their neighborhood become a community of people working together for the betterment of all.

In NC alone there are probably over 14,000 communities and growing, I am not sure what the static's is of the entire USA, however I believe close to 60 million (probably more) living in an HOA. I do not believe the articles posted by George is a fair representation of the millions of people that are living in an HOA to protect their investment.

The buyer needs to be educated when purchasing their home and do the research! They are purchasing in a Deed Restrictive Community. Read the Bylaws and CCR's before purchasing. If you cannot pay the dues or live according to those rules...look somewhere else. Once you buy you are a member of the HOA and obligated to follow the rules.

Of the many communities we manage, by far there are more GREAT boards that serve with good intentions, then bad boards.