Las Vegas judge blocks foreclosure by HOA collection agency

Nevada Association Services (NAS) is at the center of legal and political battles over how much homeowners -- and investors in foreclosed homes -- should be required to pay for past-due HOA assessments, fines, fees and collection costs.

Several lawsuits are pending involving NAS and other collection agencies including a proposed class-action case in federal court in Las Vegas claiming NAS has violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and other counts.
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It seems that Steve Green of the Las Vegas Sun is well-informed on this issue.

Citation over front yard toilet planter dismissed

Flush with success, Terry told the Knoxville News Sentinel he might celebrate by flanking his driveway with two more commodes.
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Someone call the HOA.

Testy in Texas over HOAs

Calling associations “at least quasigovernmental,” Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, said that “the scales are still tilted to HOA protections.”

And Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, bemoaned a decade and a half of lawmaker discussions with little progress.

“This committee is really challenged,” said Giddings, the longest-serving member of the Business and Industry Committee. “The House could name a standing committee just to deal with HOA issues. That’s how many we have. And it seems like we just don’t move on.”
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Texas legislators according to this article from The Dallas Morning News are wrangling about 40 bills involving HOAs this session. Some are voicing frustration that HOA issues keep coming back year after year without meaningful resolution.

7 reasons why the mortgage crisis is dragging down the entire economy

Some dramatic charts that put the magnitude of this thing in perspective.

HOA tears down lost doggy signs

PHOENIX -- An adventurous Yorkshire terrier took off Tuesday morning, sending panic through the Malley family of Cave Creek.
They frantically placed posters around the neighborhood to help find Baby Boy, but said someone from the Tatum Ranch Homeowners Association started tearing them down because the posters were against HOA rules.
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What was the perfessor just saying about HOAs hanging "give us some bad publicity" kick me signs on themselves? Here's yet another example.

America's Foreclosure Ghost Towns

Huffington Post is asking for people to submit photos of the foreclosure crisis.

Kids' lemonade stand curtailed by their homeowners association

HOAs: the only institution in our society that makes its own "Kick Me!" sign and ties it around its own neck, week after week.