Southern Bread

HOA’s are absolutely despicable. If you needed any more proof of this, look no further than this:

[Capt. Mike Clauer was]…halfway through his deployment [in Iraq] when he got a bolt from the blue — a frantic phone call from his wife, May, back in Texas.

“She was bawling on the phone and was telling me that the HOA [homeowners association] had foreclosed on our house, and it was sold,” he says. “And I couldn’t believe that could even happen.”

Clauer had a hard time understanding what his wife was saying. His $300,000 house was already completely paid for. Could it be possible that their home was foreclosed on and sold because his wife had missed two payments of their HOA dues?

In many states it is not difficult for an HOA to foreclose on a member’s home for past dues even if the amount owed is just a few hundred dollars.

But by the time he got back to Texas, it was too late. The Clauers’ four-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot home had been sold on the courthouse steps for just $3,500 — enough to cover outstanding HOA dues and legal costs.

The new owner quickly sold it for $135,000 and netted a tidy profit.

“Basically it’s everything to us,” Clauer says. “Having a house like this paid for was huge for us, for our retirement plans. We thought we were so far ahead, and now it’s like we’re starting from the beginning.”

Lawyers for the HOA say that while Clauer’s case is regrettable, it was his and his wife’s fault for not paying their dues in a timely manner.

“The fact of the matter is, the laws of the state of Texas allow the homeowners association to file assessment liens on properties who haven’t paid their assessments, and they also allow foreclosure on those liens,” says Patrick Whitaker, who represents the HOA. “And the homeowners association followed the letter of the law.”

–Wade Goodwin, NPR

So, this HOA, stole this active duty soldier’s house and sold it out from under his wife and kids while he was deployed. Tell me again why I should ever want to subject myself to that type of unfairness. And what makes it worse is that it was probably some member of the HOA that bought and flipped the house and made a killing on it:

There have been complaints that some members of HOA boards have bought HOA-foreclosed properties for a pittance, and then sold them for a hefty profit.

In Texas, there are no laws to prevent this. Carona says the best way to address this apparent conflict of interest is not by passing new state laws but by letting the HOAs handle it internally through modification of the association’s constitution.

“I think that an association can avoid that type of thing by adopting conflict-of-interest rules,” he says.

–Wade Goodwin, NPR

Uh… yeah sure. That’s BS. You use the government to give yourself an unfair advantage over your members and then act like you’re all free-market. Get that crap out of here.