J. Patrick Sutton Cases & Issues Blog

Texas homeowners in the HOA-Industrial Complex

Over the past year, I've noticed a disturbing change in HOA management in Texas. Specifically, it appears that association management has gotten consolidated into a mere handful of very large management companies. So large, in fact, that they resemble mortgage collection companies.

That's no coincidence.

These large association management firms aim to drive down costs and increase revenues through consolidation, cost-cutting, and abuse. What homeowners experience is lost payments, unexplained or unjustified charges, an inability to speak with anyone competent or knowledgeable at the association management companies, and then the imposition of thousands of dollars in attorney's fees along with the filing of foreclosure. It's like the bad old days of the mortgage crisis, where ordinary people were caught up in a Kafkaesque system designed to punish and frustrate them.

I've also noticed that HOA industry lawyers formerly of the better sort seem to have succumbed to the temptation to become collection and foreclosure mills.

So, on top of all the other reasons Texas homeowners should be scared of buying into a subdivision, particularly one with an HOA, add to the list becoming victims of corporate overlords.
J. Patrick Sutton Cases & Issues Blog