Comments for On the Commons Weblog

Comment on Subdivision residents vote to oust HOA board by rykikuq

rykikuq — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:05:25 +0000

rykikuq... Ww1 Tanks And ...

Comment on Can HOAs be “fixed”? by Mike Reardon

Mike Reardon — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:39:18 +0000

Hi Shu,
Great show with Pia Trigiani. You were very polite and cool in the face of the obtuse nonsense we always hear from people who have conflicting interests in this HOA mess. It is really a shame that people who profit (or hope to) from the status quo are put into positions of authority by the state to oversee the situation. The foxes have been running the hen house for so long! I have to admit that I was moved to anger when Pia mentioned one of the ‘big’ problems as being that of ‘angry homeowners’ at meetings! How inconvenient!
You were seeking suggestions on improving the HOA situation. I have a few.
I have been to the State House in Boston to testify for Homeowners friendly bills, and one of the things I hear quite often is that HOAs are democracies and the state should hesitate to interfere with this process.
This of course is nonsense. The differences in true democracy and what HOAs are is the difference between night and day. I think to improve this we should mandate by law some of the following:
• HOAs should be required to have opposition parties, and these parties should be given several entitlements.
• They should get equal time in the community newsletter
• They should be allowed to audit the books and records on an annual basis.
• They should be present when ballots are counted
• They should have equal representation in the ‘judiciary committee’ which can punish residents as recommended by the board (the board could recommend punishment, but the power to do so would be dispersed to this committee).
• The community newsletter should be opened to the homeowners for any concern or dissent they may have (indispensible to democracy)
In other words, dispense with the myth that HOAs are in any way democratic, and install some checks and balances that (for the most part) have kept our public government on track. James Madison said it best, we should institute a system where “ambition counters ambition”. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Keep up the great work and Happy Hollidays!
Mike Reardon
Falmouth, MA

Comment on Want to Sell Your House? First Pay the Management Company by Robert Metcalf

Robert Metcalf — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:13:43 +0000

Abolish “Constructive Notice”. This legal fiction is really the tool that enables the entire HOA apparatus. If the sellers were liable for damages caused by lack of notification you would see an immediate change in how business was done. The sellers would be bending over backwards to assure the buyers had adequate notice of the trap they were about to fall into. That fact alone could be responsible for more change in how HOAs are structured than any piece of tortured legislation could ever be.

Comment on The Road to Riches Runs Through the Misery of Others by Robert Metcalf

Robert Metcalf — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:40:20 +0000

As usual the “HOA Gravy Train” stops for no one. Furthermore, if the assessments were treated like debts, as with any other “business” this type of thing would not happen.

Comment on But Officer, I’m on a Public Street – - Not! by Robert Metcalf

Robert Metcalf — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:12:45 +0000

The word “but”. A simple little word that in the current environment is suffering from abuse. “Oh, we believe in and support the Bill Of Rights, BUT, they just don’t apply here.” What? This is a tale of “New Urbanism”, a concept that makes HOAs look tame by comparison. First it was just communities. Now it’s whole towns. What do you think is going to happen when an entire state is privatized? I’m no fan of the government but I am a huge fan of the Bill Of Rights. The truth is that the battle for the 21st century won’t be about terrorism, rather it will be the individual vs. the corporation. My real fear is that a generation who was brought up to believe that it is ok for a third party to dictate the color of your window treatments will not or even worse, can not, see the damage to their individual freedoms that results from the “Corporate State”.

Comment on We are From CAI, and We’re Here to Help! by Dude

Dude — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 01:23:36 +0000

My HOA had Koger Management. This story doesn’t surprise me one bit. In fact, I think the Post is being too kind.

We started to notice that something was awry almost immediately after we retained their “management services.” After working with them for 6 months or so, we realized their incompetence wasn’t limited to financial matters. Fortunately, we started looking for a competent company elsewhere, so by the time the story about the alleged “financial improprieties” broke, we were pretty far down the line of finding a new management company.

I honestly feel bad for the many HOAs out there that were mismanaged by this company – and the consequences Koger’s management had on their property values. The financials were probably the best example of Koger’s incompetence, but if you were to look much further, you would find it in the community managers and nearly all others.

After we dissolved our relationship with Koger, they continued to cash checks from our residents. They forwarded the funds to us, but didn’t give us a breakdown of who paid what. So, we got a check for $5000 without any of idea of which homeowner’s had contributed to that sum.

Additionally, the outprocessing clerk simply dropped files into a box and never turned over a listing of individual account histories.

After our term with Koger, our community had nearly half of our annual budget uncollected and our community looked terrible. Koger did absolutely nothing to maintain good lists of owners (an essential element of “managing”), they failed to perform even one community inspection despite their contractual obligations, what work we did do to assist them with, they screwed up beyond belif, and then to top it all off, we still don’t have a clue whether they stole from us.

I hope for the sake of humanity that Koger and all its employees find a new career, one as far away from managing the important business of how our individual homes and communities are managed. If it wouldn’t insult the competent workers in the rock sorting field, I’d suggest Koger employees would be best suited sorting big rocks from little rocks. But, even then, I’d want someone with some level of competence to double check their work… perhaps a 5th grader.