Saturday, July 17, 2010

Texas HOA property owners outraged over lack of transparency, questionable expenditures

The neighbors wanted everyone to know exactly where their dues were going, so they also presented their findings at a recent HOA meeting that got so out of control some people were threatened with arrests.

"People are outraged," exclaimed Peggy Sue Wilson-Schmueckle. She’s the homeowner leading the fight to rid the association of what she calls gross mismanagement of funds by the board. “Once we uncovered it and did an audit, people were very outraged. They want them [the current board] to resign.”

The information we uncovered explain why the homeowners are so bent out of shape. Records detail board meetings at nice restaurants; meetings that were not open to the public. We also found a document showing a $4,200 expense paid to the board president's son-in-law for brush work he did in the neighborhood. Additional records showed the HOA donated thousands of dollars to random charities. The HOA even gave more than $1,300 to a group of HOA lawyers to help them lobby the legislature.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

> The HOA even gave more than $1,300 to a group of HOA lawyers
> to help them lobby the legislature.

Republicans (and myself) have long been proponents of "paycheck protection" laws, which which prohibit labor unions from using union dues for political lobbying.

Yet they have no problem with HOA corporations using homeowners' dues for lobbying against the interest of homeowners.

In a similar vein, Republicans are also proponents of "right to work" laws (as am I), which would prohibit mandatory union membership as a condition of employment.

Yet when it comes to mandatory membership in an HOA union as a condition of home ownership, the conservative/libertarian talking point is that government should not interfere with such "voluntary" contracts.

Not that the Democrat Party is any better, since parasitic tort lawyers are one of their most important donor bases. Don't expect Democrats to deny their lawyer friends access to the feeding troughs that are HOA corporations.

Anonymous said...

I am in the same situation with my HOA. I was hoping to get more details. My HOA is near Austin.