Wednesday, February 03, 2010

State lawmakers study homeowners associations - News14.com

State lawmakers study homeowners associations - News14.com: "RALEIGH – Thousands of North Carolinians live in neighborhoods with homeowners associations. Now, North Carolina lawmakers are studying the nonprofit organizations and what rules they have to follow.

The House Select Committee on Homeowners Associations held a public hearing Tuesday afternoon to hear from homeowners, homeowner association board members, attorneys and management companies"

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Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link. He is about as enthusiastic as I am, and points out that here we have another example of the CID Reform Cycle.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Professor McKenzie,
Below is the email I received concerning these hearings. This email was distributed Friday, January 29, 2010 at approximately 4:00 pm. I did send it to you right after I received it, with a lot of additional info. In addition, I am posting the committee members email addresses, for anyone interested. This hearing is long over due and I hope the committee does consider similar hearings in multiple parts of the state, and/or, web casting throughout the state of any future hearings, public input sessions, etc. Not, many people knew about the hearings and we tried to spread the word as fast as possible. If the general public is not made aware of the hearings, how can they plan to attend.
In addition, there is a sign on for the North Carolina General Assembly that will email the subscriber a notification of the meetings in the future. I will post this info below as well.

1.)
Public Hearing on Homeowners Associations
The NC House Select Committee on Homeowners Associations is holding hearings concerning the operation and practices of homeowners associations (HOAs) in North Carolina. The next hearing will focus on the experiences of homeowners. Members of the public are invited to attend and share their stories with the committee members. This meeting will be held on February 2nd at 2:00pm in room 643 of the Legislative Office Building. Homeowners who have complaints or concerns with their homeowners associations are encouraged to attend.

For more information, please contact Carley at cruff@nchousing.org or 919-827-4496. For directions to the Legislative Office Building, click here....

2.)
From Carley Ruff, NC Housing Coalition:

" The committee is chaired by Rep. Weiss and Rep. McGee and the members include Rep. Cleveland, Rep. Earle, Rep. Heagarty, Rep. Howard, and Rep. Wray. The committee came about for many of the reasons that you have mentioned. In North Carolina, HOAs have had the ability to charge fees to homeowners and if those fees aren’t paid they can move straight to foreclosure rather than having to pursue a settlement. Last year The General Assembly did pass bill H806, sponsored by Rep. Weiss, Rep. Earle, Rep. Glazier , and Rep. Cotham. This legislation ensures that HOAs must make a “reasonable and diligent effort” to locate and notify a homeowner before a lien is placed on the home. This is a good step forward, but as you know, there is still much to be done. It is important for our legislators to hear from homeowners who have faced challenges and have concerns with the actions of HOAs. The legislators on the committee are genuinely concerned about the abuses of HOAs and are interested to hear of concerns/complaints of any kind. Nothing is off the table.

If you, or any homeowners that you know will be able to make it to the committee hearing, please let me know. Also, for if you are unable to make it, please email one or all of the Representatives on the committee with your concerns and stories prior to the hearing tomorrow. I have listed their emails below.

Thank you for interest. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Carley

Carley Ruff
Policy and Outreach Coordinator
NC Housing Coalition
Office: 919-827-4496
Cell: 919-208-4229
www.nchousing.org

Rep. Weiss – Jennifer.Weiss@ncleg.net
Rep. McGee – William.McGee@ncleg.net
Rep. Cleveland – George.Cleveland@ncleg.net
Rep. Earle – Beverly.Earle@ncleg.net
Rep. Heagarty – Chris.Heagarty@ncleg.net
Rep. Howard – Julia.Howard@ncleg.net
Rep. Wray - Michael.Wray@ncleg.net

Too many characters, so I will post the NC general Assembly Sign up next.

Anonymous said...

3.) North Carolina General Assembly Sign up for House Select Committee/Commission Meeting Notices:
http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Committees/Committees.asp?sAction=ViewDLForm&sActionDetails=House%20Select&sActionDetails2=HSCHA

House Select Committee/Commission Meeting Notices
Non-Standing Committees and Commissions meeting notices are available through the NCGA's Email List Server. Subscribe or unsubscribe to these listservs below. You will receive an e-mail message confirming your subscription or removal from the lists.
Select Committee on Homeowners Associations
Email address:
Confirm email:

Anonymous said...

That's because they do not want you there. They schedule a hearing, no one knows about it, no one shows up which means there are NO problems in HOAs.

Anonymous said...

Well that last comment is mostly correct. Frequently the hearings are shams and have been setup by trade-lobby groups seeking reform that gives HOAs more authority over homeowners. Look at the "call to action" notice that CAI posted at www.cai-nc.org.
You'll notice that they wanted members to paint false images of utopian subdivisions. 1) They make the same false claim that HOAs "protect property values" (for who?). Wasn't it Lenin that stated that a lie told often enough.....2) They claimed HOAs provided security, order, and "quietude" - yet another false statement. In fact, the primary purpose of an HOA is to disenfranchise the vast majority of the members, threaten and engage in litigation on a regular basis, and generally to disrupt any semblance of security or even basic principles of ownership for owners. 3) They claimed that HOAs provide an opportunity to participate in "community activities" (lawsuits?) or enjoy amenities that might not otherwise be available. Really? I wonder how civilization made it without HOAs? As to everything else, there is no right to vote, no open elections, no open meetings in HOAs nor is there any inherent right to use the "amenities". The HOAs frequently prevent homeowners from accessing those amenities. If people realized that their homes were security for any debt the HOA chose to accrue, perhaps they would prefer driving to the nearest city park their tax dollars already pay for. 4) Provides an opportunity for the "governance model" of your community to be a "captain of our own ship". Really? Seems to me that the HOA usurps every owner's ability to be the captain of their own ship. 5) Now the rest was all pablum for the HOA sheep, here was CAI's real objective: keeping strong legal tools in place to enforce collections of assessments from all members so that the paying members are not picking up the tab for non paying members to maintain a financially health organization. Certainly CAI members are engaging in the "priority of payment scam", imposing unlimited obligations on the homeowners, etc. under these theories of "responsibility" without the consent of the homeowners.

BS Detector said...

"You'll notice that they wanted members to paint false images of utopian subdivisions. 1) They make the same false claim that HOAs "protect property values" (for who?). Wasn't it Lenin that stated that a lie told often enough.....2) They claimed HOAs provided security, order, and "quietude" - yet another false statement. In fact, the primary purpose of an HOA is to disenfranchise the vast majority of the members, threaten and engage in litigation on a regular basis, and generally to disrupt any semblance of security or even basic principles of ownership for owners. 3) They claimed that HOAs provide an opportunity to participate in "community activities" (lawsuits?) or enjoy amenities that might not otherwise be available. Really? I wonder how civilization made it without HOAs?"

You don't think policymakers really believe this pap, do you? It's just rhetoric to distract from the real underlying policy issue, i.e. whether local government should be privatized and to what extent.

Anonymous Homeowner said...

In other news, from Reason magazine, "British court rules that a man's castle is no longer his home."

Anonymous Homeowner said...

From the article:

"Without help, our home values will continue to decline because of the amount of time it takes to collect delinquent assessments and legal expenses we incur,” said Elliott Cornet, a Charlotte homeowner and president of his homeowners association.

According to this line of thinking, home values are primarily determined by the financial interests of the HOA corporation and its lawyers.

It's time to bring back the fine political tradition of tar-and-feathers.