....Another culprit in all this may be none other than George W. Bush. He defeated nasty Democrat Ann Richardson to become Governor of Texas in 1994. In 1995, Texas Property Code Chapter 204 was added to the Texas lawbooks, which defined and gave all sorts of powers to Texas Homeowners Associations.

Why would a freedom lovin' man like our great President sign into law a statute that trampled so hard on the rights of Texas homeowners? I'm just speculating here, but could it be to make his rich buddies in north Texas, who may have wanted some power to keep the riff raff in line and property values up in communities like Plano, happy as junebugs? Don't know for certain, of course, but I do know while our beloved President has been in office he certainly hasn't been shy about passing out political favors. And if he does it now, I bet he did it back then.

However, there is a silver lining to this sad, sad tale. In 2002 the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act was added as Texas Property Code Chapter 209. This little gem prohibits HOA's from foreclosing on property if the debt is solely due to HOA imposed fines or attorney's fees. And if an HOA does succeed in a foreclosure sale, the owner of the property has a right of redemption for up to 6 months after the sale.

From my reading of the statute it looks like our hapless homeowner in the story can't be foreclosed on for those $200-a-day fines. Only if he becomes so stupid as to force/ let the HOA to hire a contractor to remove the solar lights from his roof could he be faced with foreclosure.

But my experience with HOA's is they usually don't have the stomach for such drastic actions. When all is said and done, these are their neighbors and who wants to kick a neighbor out of their house? While the whole affair will make some attorneys a little richer, in most cases the dispute is resolved outside of court. Only when both sides become so stubborn to be stupid about it all does it end up before a judge. And then those become the stories about infringement on individual rights by HOA's that you read about in the liberal media.

Homeowners association supporters appeared to accept Carona's bill grudgingly, especially in light of Lindsay's bill, which they view as considerably more punitive. Lindsay does not believe his bill strips the associations of their ability to foreclose. He had filed three bills, two of which barred foreclosure altogether but were later dropped.