New organization will work to protect homeowners from abuse of power by management companies and attorneys

August 01, 2006

By Beanie Adolph - TexasHOAReform.org

The following is a press release from Beanie Adolph forTexas homeowners For HOA Reform.org

August 1, 2006

Dear Texas Homeowner:

You may have heard about the abuse of power by rogue HOA boards, property managers, and attorneys in the Houston area.

Because we want to protect the citizens of Texas from HOA abuse, we, a group of Texas homeowners throughout the state, have formed a new organization - TEXAS HOMEOWNERS FOR HOA REFORM, INC. - to try in some small way to give Texas homeowners a fighting chance for protection against the almost unlimited powers of HOAs.

Most Texans want HOAs. But most Texans also want protection from HOA abuse. Right now, no law and no group offer this protection.

The legal scales have tipped so that HOAs, property management companies, and their attorneys have almost unlimited power against homeowners.

Powerful groups exist to protect this imbalance and to create even more laws giving ever-more power to the property management companies and their attorneys, but no group with any power exists to protect homeowners from this abuse.

We need regulation to protect Texans from HOA abuse.

We have laws to protect Texans from murder - even though most Texans are not murderers. We have laws to protect Texans from drunk drivers - even though most Texans are not drunk drivers. We have laws to protect Texans from fraud, theft, embezzlement, and numerous other crimes - even though most Texans never commit such crimes. We have no laws to protect Texas homeowners from HOA abuse.

We ask you to join us. We are not against HOAs. We are against abuse.

THE HIDDEN GRAB OF POWER OVER THE LAST TWENTY YEARS

Like most Texans, you may not know how a powerful group of property management companies and HOA attorneys has quietly and methodically changed Texas law - taking away the basic rights of Texas homeowners.

Until the early 1980's, Texas law reflected the simple maxim: "A man's home is his castle". You may think that this still reflects Texas law, but it does not.

Texas law has changed with each legislative session: granting to HOA boards complete legislative, executive and judicial power over homeowners, so that a homeowner in conflict with his board must file costly litigation in any attempt to obtain justice.

Most homeowners in HOAs have no idea of the injustices that abound. Foreclosure filings against their neighbors are done in effective secrecy unless the victim complains publicly.

Baseless violation letters are used to harass homeowners - without the knowledge of their nearest neighbors. This is a very lucrative business. Thousands of foreclosure filings occur in Houston every year over trivial amounts. ( See www.HOAdata.org).

Huge fees are generated by and for the attorney, none of which benefit the neighborhood. Management companies' contracts often include incentive fees to create violations and to turn matters over to attorneys.

Now the lobbyists for the property management companies and attorneys want to expand this injustice from the Houston area to ALL OF TEXAS.

Specifically, they propose a new law - a "uniform law" (Texas Uniform Planned Community Act, or "TUPCA") which would bring to the rest of Texas the unchecked power of HOAs in the Houston area. A few years ago, these same groups pushed for a similar "uniform law" in Arizona.

That "uniform law" would so empower the property management companies and attorneys that one proponent, Lynn Jordan, stated that it should be their policy even to "...COERCE (and) BRIBE...states to adopt a uniform act." In the face of such a commitment to take power from homeowners we must commit ourselves to fight for our rights.

We want to protect the citizens of Texas from the abuse of power that the law has given to property management companies and attorneys - and from the power they yet seek to take.

Our goals are:

• To eliminate the HOA foreclosure threat to Texas homeowners.
• To correct Property Code Chapters 204 through 209, restoring homeowners' control of their own property as opposed to HOA boards having "all powers".
• To seek justice and equal treatment for Texas homeowners under the Constitutions of Texas and of the United States.
• To correct Property Code Section 5.006 so a homeowner has an equal opportunity in any HOA suit to receive an award of attorney fees.
• To make all Texas HOAs subject to the Open Records and Open Meetings Acts.

The HOA lobbyists have been in control for decades, and homeowners have suffered because of it.

All Texans must unite to protect their rights, their property. Join with us. Go to our website:

http://www.TexasHOAreform.org/

Become a member. Together we can reclaim our rights - our constitutional protections.

United we can demand that our State Legislators represent us and not the lobbyists. United we can once again be a Government of the People.

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Related link: • Texas Homeowners News

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