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November 19, 2007
Reform - Not Rants; Innovation - Not Invective
Recently, another of the more prolific anti-HOA writers, lost her battle in court. Her association, tired of her tirades and litigation against the board, countersued and won - the judge rejected her claim the board had illegally changed neighborhood covenants and increased dues. And he upheld the board’s counterclaim that she had libeled them, perhaps hundreds of times. She had "pummeled her HOA board members with hundreds of vitriolic e-mails, in newspapers and on Web sites, calling them “corrupt; wannabe dictators; psychopaths; sycophants” and various other names". Now she has to go back to everyone who published these and ask them to remove them.
A few weeks ago, Prof. Evan McKenzie was interviewed on "On the Commons", a web based program that also isn't too fond of HOA's. He basically said that it isn't going to be people like the one above who bring about changes to HOA governance, instead, it will be the ones who quietly go about organizing their support, picking the right legislative and court battles, making their points without bashing everyone on the other side, and knowing that changes come in steps, not leaps.
A lot of the people who dislike HOA's would be surprised to learn (or believe) that many of the people who work with associations also believe that changes are needed. They just understand that it isn't quite as simple or straight-forward as some would like to believe. There are a lot of competing interests involved with community associations, starting with the developers who build them, and need to earn a profit; to those owners who actually chose to move into an HOA because they read the documents and wanted to live in that community; to the managers, attorneys, reserve advisors, insurance agents and other professionals who provide services to them; to the local governments who decide when, where and how they will be built; to the states who structure the frameworks to bring them into creation and to continue. And then there are the people who actually live in them, each with their own idea of what that means.
To bring all of these groups together to agree on anything would generally be tough, but to set the stage by implying or by outright accusations that they are guilty of mass criminal or unethical activity against owners does little to accomplish anything. Condominium and homeowner associations comprise the vast majority of new construction around the country and will likely be the major form of neighborhoods in the not-to-distant future. It's going to take some new ideas, hard data on what is actually working and what isn't and a lot of compromise, to actually bring about meaningful reform; and even then it won't be perfect, as too many people surprisingly expect it be. After all, there will still be people involved.
Change will come, too slow for some, too fast for others. My only hope is that it makes some sort of sense as it progresses.
Posted by joewest at November 19, 2007 7:30 PM