Patriotism and Pride of service called "Advertising" by HOA President

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This is just a small wake up as to the attitude and indifference some "Americans" hold toward those who have served their country.

Is it any wonder the Constitution that servicemen swore to support and defend is constantly under attack with attitudes in this country like this HOA President has?

:cuss:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/national/dpgo_HOA_Asks_Vet_to_Remove_Bumper_fc_20090528_2518563

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HOA's in general are the finest form of petty tyranny ever invented. A couple years ago, the Colorado legislature passed a law to reign in some of their more extreme abuses of power.

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I basically hate HOA's and call them "Home Owner Nazis". Only once have I received a letter from them after one of their "walking inspections" and it was about my mailbox tilting too far from vertical (it's on a post by the curb). I shimmed it some and sent a letter back informing them of same. I also mentioned that if I were to do much more, both I and the HOA would be in violation since this is how it was delivered to my with my new home.

I already know what I would do if I received a letter from them with a complaint lodged by some homeowner. I would return the letter to them with the following;

"I would be happy to address the problem/violation in question but first, I must request the following. Please send me the name and address of the individual(s) making the complaint so that I may begin rectifying this."

You see, under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, I have a right to confront my accusers. Wonder how they'd like this?

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I'd tell them to go kiss my marine green *ss!

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I love how the 'Board President' was out of town and unavailable for comment. The same went for the management company.

I've had similar run-ins with my local Civic League (they have delusions of being a HOA) and from the Codes people in Norfolk VA (they like to enforce complaints from citizens without any investigation or follow-up). Neither group likes me much since I went and researched their respective rules / regs. If they want to play ball, they **WILL** play by the published rules.

At least both groups have had the sense to not say a word about me having firearms. I really don't want to have to take them to task via the courts.

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When you buy a house in a Home Owners Association controlled area, you give up many things, willingly.

If you don't like what they want you to give up, you don't buy a house there. Actually, you don't really buy a house there when you buy a house there, anyhow. You're just a little more solid than a renter, as you CAN be evicted from the property by the HOA for violating its rules enough.


There was no violations of his freedom, his car was likely an eyesore with SEVEN bumper stickers on it, and someone complained.

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Il_Duce wrote:

When you buy a house in a Home Owners Association controlled area, you give up many things, willingly.

If you don't like what they want you to give up, you don't buy a house there. Actually, you don't really buy a house there when you buy a house there, anyhow. You're just a little more solid than a renter, as you CAN be evicted from the property by the HOA for violating its rules enough.

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Exactly. I don't see the issue. You buy there for the express purpose of being under the governing rules. If you don't like them, leave.

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Very true, Il_Duce. The rules are laid out in black and white and available to people prior to purchasing a residence in an HOA. It's not hard to avoid living in one. If you do live in one, I strongly urge getting a seat on the board to help prevent the adoption of policies that a person dislikes.

What's more...I...agree with AWDstylez. Pardon me, I have a heart attack coming up now.

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STOP STOP STOP

What about all the other vehicles with signs on them ?

1.] dealership logo and phone number

2.] soccer mom stickers

3.] GO PANTHERS pendants

4.] license plate holders [ WOW ]

5.] my child is a honor student

6.] PTA sticker

7.] How about a custom state license plate " MARINES R US "

8.] " NRA MEMBER "

9.] Realtor sign on door of Cadillac

10.] Business information on side of truck or van

11.] front plate where states only use a rear plate

I would pay a couple teens to take pictures of eachaddresswith every vehicleshowing a violation of the Home Owners Associations agreement and then sue for cost and being humiliated .

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Seven. Bumper. Stickers.

That constitutes an eyesore, where perhaps they let people get away with one, maybe two.

It's their rule, their right to enforce it as they wish

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Il_Duce wrote:

Seven. Bumper. Stickers.

That constitutes an eyesore, where perhaps they let people get away with one, maybe two.

It's their rule, their right to enforce it as they wish

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Ahh, but your not paying attention. The rule quoted by the HOA president (who appeared to have acted unilaterally in issuing this judgment, or at least did not consult the entire HOA board, which is not in keeping with HOA rules mind you) is that is was "advertising", while in the same video they stated several other cars were in the parking lot with stickers too.

Your right about only one thing, and that is, that an HOA can "make" any rule they want, but that dosnt meen they can enforce it.

There are laws that trup such things, and normally HOAs can only make and enforce rules that have to do with the the upkeep of the building and common grounds. My HOA restricts "vehicles that cannot move of their own power within the parking lots" because its a parking lot, not a storage lot, but they cannot restrict the type of vehicle kept there for instance. They cannot make a "covets only" rule, not only because such a thing would be rediclious, but because almost every state, county and city has laws against such things.

There are boundaries of sensibility, and the HOA President stepped over them on this one. No court will uphold such a fine and I bet you cash the HOA board will repeal and or re-define this rule over this incident.

In this case, the 1st amendment trumps. Also because he is putting them only on his own property, and not making modifications to the building or common grounds.

Consult an attorney, you will find I am correct, even in Texas.

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Il_Duce wrote:

When you buy a house in a Home Owners Association controlled area, you give up many things, willingly.

If you don't like what they want you to give up, you don't buy a house there. Actually, you don't really buy a house there when you buy a house there, anyhow. You're just a little more solid than a renter, as you CAN be evicted from the property by the HOA for violating its rules enough.


There was no violations of his freedom, his car was likely an eyesore with SEVEN bumper stickers on it, and someone complained.

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I have to believe that this would require court time and not just take place on the spur of the moment, so to speak. Could get some HOA people killed.

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If you have, or believe you are about to have, an issue with the home owner Nazis, read your regs very carefully. Read everything and anything that might work in your favor and against them if needed. Look for content, punctuation, lists, and any items contained within that could work for you.

Several years ago, one of my neighbors,let's call him "Big Bob", installed a fence which bordered another of my neighbor's, let's call him "Andy", and my property. A couple of years ago, Andy asked Big Bob about trimming the grass up against the fence. Well, Big Bob went off on Andy, calling him vile names and threatening to kick his a--. It was quite a shocker. So I made it a point never to have any dealings with Big Bob again. Andy's wife suggested to me that I am required by the HOA to trim the grass on my side of Big Bob's fence but I refused to do this. My wife also believed the HOA required this. So I pulled out my regs and read them and found that there was no requirement for me to do this. You see, a neighbor cannot have a fence built on your property.. that would not be allowed and you could sue. My measurements showed his fence to be between 3 and 6 inches on his side of the property line and I cannot touch his property without permission. And I am certainly not about to ask for that. So I don't trim and I don't have a clue who does.

As for lists, look for commas. If you see a list that looks something like this;

"fences, lawn features, decks and patios"

take note of the comma. The last two items must both exists for that part of the sentence to be true since there is no comma between "desks" and the word "and".

Look for anything that can work in your favor when dealing with these Nazis.

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The rules of grammar do not require a comma between the last two items in a list. It's an entirely optional comma.

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FMCDH wrote:

Il_Duce wrote:

Seven. Bumper. Stickers.

That constitutes an eyesore, where perhaps they let people get away with one, maybe two.

It's their rule, their right to enforce it as they wish

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Ahh, but your not paying attention. The rule quoted by the HOA president (who appeared to have acted unilaterally in issuing this judgment, or at least did not consult the entire HOA board, which is not in keeping with HOA rules mind you) is that is was "advertising", while in the same video they stated several other cars were in the parking lot with stickers too.

Your right about only one thing, and that is, that an HOA can "make" any rule they want, but that dosnt meen they can enforce it.

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It's just like private property. I can make a rule that says if you're standing on my property you have to stand on your hands and piss on your face while doing the hand stand. I can't prosecute you if you choose not to do that, but I can tell you to GTFO. This situation is no different. You WILLINGLY CHOOSE to living the HOA, then you abide by what the managment tells you or you leave.

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off topic...deleted

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I've heard of HOA-wannabe groups getting into pissing contests with ham radio people wanting to erect antenna towers. I don't have the relevant citation handy, but the courts ruled that congress was the sole regulatory authority over the airwaves and as long as you are duly licensed and in compliance with FCC (a congressional agency) regulations, there's nothing binding that anyone can say about it.

Still, if you voluntarily enter into a contract with such a group and waive various rights and privileges, I don't see how you have cause to complain when they enforce their regulations. No way would I want to live in such a petty tyrranical community, so I don't. Problem avoided altogether.

-ljp

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In San Antonio, Guilbeau Park HOA sued a couple who painted an American flag on their garage door immediately after 9/11.

And won.

I lived in that neighborhood at that time. The president of the HOA was a dictator wannabe himself, though he was a retired enlisted E9 (note, NOT a Chief).

At that time, I swore the existence of a mandatory HOA is enough to be a dealbreaker whenever I buy a house.

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I used to sit on my HOA's board, believe it or not. That was a fruitless and frustrating episode. I was the "Dr. No" of the group, and they hated and despised me for not giving them a unanimous yes vote for all their stupid proerty-violating rules. So come next election they went out and collect proxies from all the homeowners and voted me out. Suited me, I hated it and am content to go back to my house and ignore them as much as possible.

They cannot evict you from your house, because the HOA does not own your house.

What they can do is to levy fines against you for rules violations, and if you fail to comply or pay the fines then they will take you to court and put a lein on your property.

I live in a town house, which abuts two adjacent houses. So there has to be some sort of rules to keep my a-hole neighbor from banging his head on the wall all night and stuff. Also, someone needs to collect trash, mow the common area grass, and plow the parking lot. Aside from these simple things most of what HOA's do is completely unnecessary and nazi-ish.

And much of it can be handled by county or city government, which is much less likely to walk around and spy on people and tell you what color to paint your front door.

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Il_Duce wrote:

The rules of grammar do not require a comma between the last two items in a list. It's an entirely optional comma.

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I understand how this has come to pass, but when I went to school, the rule was clear regarding the use of commas with lists. For example, the sentence,

"Jenny likes red, blue, white and pink cars"

literally means that the "white and pink" are mutually inclusive and therefore means that Jenny likes two-tone white and pink cars. As a software engineer, the concept of mutually inclusive and exclusive constructs is very significant.

But as I mentioned, I understand how this came about and personally do not agree with it because of the violation of logic. Also there is this. Some years back I remember a story one of my college professors related about for want of a comma, a murderer was set free in England. Seems he could have been convicted had he murdered and mutilated his victim rather than just raping and murdering her. This all due to a comma left out where it was needed. Apparently the death penalty was an option for (I hope I have this right) treason, kidnapping, murder and mutilation.

Oh well, back to guns.