Subdivision Home Buyers - Be Very Afraid
If Texas was ever really the property-rights state it used to say it was, those days are long gone. It's now a state of private fiefdoms run by the worst people in your neighborhood. Specifically, HOA's are powerful non-profit corporations run by people with no qualifications to run a candle shop, let alone a community.
Signs of this are everywhere, but the single most troubling one is how existing boards wield their control over owner contact lists and voting procedures to steamroll amendments or rules which impose draconian new restrictions on owners and then fine or charge huge sums. In North Texas in particular, HOA's are banning all leasing or else demanding complete control over it. In other areas, voluntary HOA's are forcing everyone into a mandatory HOA even when people purposefully purchased in a subdivision to avoid being in an HOA. How is all this being done? Because Texas appeals courts are holding that any kind of amendment imposing new restrictions is valid. And, for reasons I cannot fathom, local judges seem unwilling to question what HOA boards do.
So, as I've said in prior posts, and at the risk of repetition, whatever you think you're buying when you buy in a subdivision — even if there's no HOA — you're not buying much of anything.
In a related trend, as time marches on, the deed restrictions ("Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions") in subdivisions are now getting so long and legalese that it is all but impossible for any ordinary person to understand what they are buying. And it is all but impossible for homeowners who serve on HOA boards to understand what they're supposed to do. That said, the new restrictions often let HOA directors do almost anything they want, so even when directors don't understand the deed restrictions, they know they can wield power over their neighbors.
As a necessary side-effect of these long, complex deed restrictions, it is mandatory for HOA's to hire expensive association management companies and lawyers to run things behind the scenes and ensure their continuing control. In my practice, I'm seeing this result not only in propping up horrible regimes, but abuse of the collections and foreclosure process. The HOA-Industrial Complex is doing a repeat of the mortgage servicing crisis of 2009, where ordinary homeowners get caught up in a web of "lost" payments, unreachable customer service reps, and huge attorney-fee charges — even into the tens of thousands of dollars for a few hundred dollars in unpaid assessments.
Texans, you don't live in a property rights state. You live in a state which has privatized local government and empowered the worst Texans to control others' lives.
So, as I've said in prior posts, and at the risk of repetition, whatever you think you're buying when you buy in a subdivision — even if there's no HOA — you're not buying much of anything.
In a related trend, as time marches on, the deed restrictions ("Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions") in subdivisions are now getting so long and legalese that it is all but impossible for any ordinary person to understand what they are buying. And it is all but impossible for homeowners who serve on HOA boards to understand what they're supposed to do. That said, the new restrictions often let HOA directors do almost anything they want, so even when directors don't understand the deed restrictions, they know they can wield power over their neighbors.
As a necessary side-effect of these long, complex deed restrictions, it is mandatory for HOA's to hire expensive association management companies and lawyers to run things behind the scenes and ensure their continuing control. In my practice, I'm seeing this result not only in propping up horrible regimes, but abuse of the collections and foreclosure process. The HOA-Industrial Complex is doing a repeat of the mortgage servicing crisis of 2009, where ordinary homeowners get caught up in a web of "lost" payments, unreachable customer service reps, and huge attorney-fee charges — even into the tens of thousands of dollars for a few hundred dollars in unpaid assessments.
Texans, you don't live in a property rights state. You live in a state which has privatized local government and empowered the worst Texans to control others' lives.