This "collection service" has become big business. TOO BIG!!

January 17, 2004

By Richard Craig (View author info)
Copyright Richard Craig

The Legislatures of the several states were infiltrated by the CAI management company Lobby within the past 25 years. These hired law firms worked back room politics to introduce and pass the CAI's mandatory membership non-profit corporation doctrine into American free states. No opposition existed at the time, for there were no established mandatory homeowner association regimes for constitutents to complain about.

These lobby parties said that this new form of association would provide for management over neighborhoods and protect property values. The selling points were many, including the promise to end blighted neighborhoods within the next 20 to 30 years. All very realistic and believeable rhetoric. Tn Texas, the first chapters on mandated HOA legislation -property code 201- became law in 1985. It wasn't until about 1997 or 1998 that they invaded and established a presence in Louisiana, my home state.

It took a few years for the management empires to gather momentum and become the "standard" form of housing in Texas, and up until very recently there hasn't been a huge outcry by the masses in Texas.

The seeds of tyranny will eventually spawn "horror stories" by the hundreds at the Louisiana State house. Just wait a few more years - when the "developer's control" ends the original intent of the CC&R's. Then the continued enforcement of these "contracts" will come under fire just like everywhere else.

This insideous spread of Dictatorial regimes finally snowballs, and an irresistable force begins to appear: American Homeowners demanding FREEDOM from this dictatorial form of government.

The management company lobby established the seeds of tyranny. As a collective entity, this industry operates as the largest "protection racket" ever seen in this country, by civil conspiracy.

Be it by civil conspiracy or criminal intent, today's management empires work with the largest housing mills ever known to mankind - Pulte, K.B. Home, Centex, etc.- establish cash cows for management companies. These regimes exist today via unconscionable contracts hidden in purchase agreements that come attached to what is largely homestead property. The contracts deliberately circumvent the consitutional protections of the Homestead Act, and other rights including Freedom of Speech (no signs, no villifying the developer on the internet, etc.).

We, the hosts of this Liberty Sucking Parasite, seek freedom from this infestation of "Mandated Memberships" in non-profit corporations.

Mandatory Association, by Human Right, is an unconscionable agreement Click here to see universal declaration of Human Rights article 20

A non-profit corporation's "right" to demand dues payments - and claiming the dues "protect property values" is an absolute scam. The vast majority of this "protecion money" goes to management fees in most of these HOAs today - there are no pools, no clubhouse, no parks or any infrastructure worth "paying protection" for.

We pay for a collections service - which uses most of the money to pay the collections company to "manage" the collections process.

On December 31, 1997 the City of San Antonio annexed my neighborhood into the city. We now pay city taxes for garbage pickup, streetlights and maintenance, building permits/code enforcement. My wife and I didn't pay the homeowners association's $60 bi-annual dues payment in January 1998 - with the mindset that we no longer wanted to pay for a HOA that was no longer needed and offered no services or benefit due to the city government's annexation and assumption of these services.

In March 1998, we received a letter from a collections lawyer which included a $175 collections fee (payable to the law firm), plus $30 in late fees, plus the initial $60 principal dues payment. Failure to pay this demand would result in initiating the foreclosure process on our homestead, the letter said. We paid the extortion with a pound of flesh.

Repeat this scenario thousands of times each month - CHA CHING!!!! Big business. The statistics are impossible to tabulate - because this is a "private matter" held behind closed doors and hidden from public scrutiny, you will never find the real numbers. Most people are too embarassed and too frightened to do anything about it except find another place to live, or just make sure that dues payment is never late again. What is it like to get this steady stream of income with very little effort?

Educating "Professional Property Association Managers" (PCAM on the end of a graduate's name) Is big business. They train scores of people how to keep homeowners in line. Inflict paranoia and fear into those who fall out of step, by extortion and threats of making them homeless. These association are well run - and the dues come in on time with no risk of becoming "unmanaged" by such a professional management and lien sevicing corporation. The ulterior motive is a perpetual income source for the Managment empires of today - this insight of 20 or 30 years ago is paying off handsomely in Texas and many other states today.

Buffalo Springfield said it best - "step out of line, the man come and take you away"

Enough already with the pretense that these regimes actually "protect property values". What they protect is the source for management fees - and the continued protection of an extortion racket by our legislatures in the several states.

The CAI Bismarck has sailed un-challenged for decades. We now know the ulterior motive of these hired guns. They no longer enjoy un-challenged access to our legislative hearings, but they continue the back-room politics and control every aspect of the HOA bills that make it to the law books.

You might say they should just cancel their engagements for the foreseeable future, to insure the reputation of their captain and crew. When they sail into Texas next session, they will come under fire without mercy.

I've testified that "this is the largest organized crime gang since the Italian Fascist party" pointing to the CAI lawyers in the Texas Business and Industry hearing on HOA bills in 2003. I'll testify again and again. Others will come - in larger numbers than the CAI Law Firms - lined up by the hundreds to repeat these same words:

"THOSE STANDING HERE OPPOSING BILL XYZ (which OUTLAWS foreclosure for non payment of dues to a non-profit corporation HOA) REPRESENT AN EXTORTION RACKET INDUSTRY, THEY MUST BE SHUT DOWN !!!

BEWARE of the CAI Bismarck, sailing to a legislative hearing in your state. OPEN FIRE ON SIGHT!!!!