It all started for me in late May 2007 when I receive a green post card stating that my Homeowners Association was postponing a vote on adopting a fining system for my community. I became very angry because the little green card was the very first I had heard of a fining procedure. There are 748 homes in this community just outside of Houston. When I purchased my home I didn’t do it with the knowledge that I would be fined $15.00 if I put my trash can out before 6:00 am or $25.00 if mold was seen on my property or $50.00 for any violation my HOA had not currently thought of. Notices were to come in the form of letters, lawyer demand letters, fines, liens, and yes they said foreclosures. The card said that the HOA wanted to know what residents thought and encouraged them to write a letter. I did and also asked other people to write.   The president seemed to ignore the attempts of residents to express their opinion. In June I attended my first Homeowners meeting.   I should have been attending those meetings all along but I was living with a false sense of security because I assumed that the people on the board were sane. I underestimated what a little bit of power can do to some people. At the June meeting I understood that my three member board was in a state of flux, having had two people resign. One person was named to the board that night and it was apparent that he didn’t agree with fining, as he wanted to table the fining issue. The president said fining would make his job easier so he just postponed the vote for one more month until July. It also appeared to me that the president was the one pushing for this and no one wanted to stand up to him. WRONG! I decided I would stand up to him! The lawyer the president wanted to invite into our community said his work is done with a results-driven legal fee billing approach. It doesn’t cost the HOA anything if he collects. What it does not say is, once he is in the community the homeowner can no longer negotiate a resolution to a problem with the HOA and the HOA no longer has the power to negotiate with the homeowner. The lawyer tells everyone what to do, or he takes back his results-driven deal and gives the HOA a big fat bill.                  I started by reading my deed restrictions and my by-laws many times.

In June I created a petition to stop the fining from taking place; 125 people signed it out of the 133 that were asked. I could have gotten more signatures but the weather was horrible in June and it took a lot of time to explain the issue to people that had no idea what was happening. I was on the Tom Martino Troubleshooters radio talk show, he said I needed to put out fliers and it would be my responsibility to tell homeowners what was going on. I contacted a television station and the TV station thought I was being sued so I didn’t follow up with them. My only ray of sunshine was Harvella Jones. She responded to my phone call and my e-mails. She so graciously wrote a letter on my behalf to my HOA. Next, I found this helpful website owned by Richard Alderman who teaches law at the University of Houston. It’s free for you to ask him a question. I also used the State of Texas website for property code information.In July a third person was temporarily named to the board and the fining vote was once again put off because the President was absent. There was some discussion about where the idea for fining came from and no one would lay claim to it. I remembered Ms. Jones telling me if you have a bad president you should get him off of the board. Removing the president would be very hard to do, but I could do the next best thing, get my own candidate elected to the upcoming opening on the board. I sent out a letter to each of the people that signed my petition and I told them about my candidate and how much our president wanted the fining procedure. Someone apparently gave the president a copy of my letter. At the annual meeting on August 29, 2007 the president did some major, major back peddling in front of over 175 residents. He disassociated himself from his very own idea, and stated to everyone present that there would be no fining in our community. My husband looked over at me and said, “you won.” I think the president underestimated the opposition he would get from the fining issue (and me). My next move would have been to write letters to the editor and I planned to interview people in Real Estate. My question to them would have been, would it be any harder for you to sell a house in a community that had fining compared to the same house in a community that did not have fining? I still have a few other things up my sleeve but I plan to use those on the next issue if there is a next issue.            HOA’s in America are fast becoming the tail that wags the dog. They want to dictate to homeowners instead of doing the jobs they were elected to do, which is working for homeowners. As for me I’ve learned never to miss a monthly HOA meeting. My advice to you is if you are having a problem in your community is to be prepared to work and if necessary to do all of that work yourself. Volunteer’s mean well, but life happens. Start with reading your deed restrictions and by-laws, more than once. Don’t let apathy in your community or by your so-called friends stop you. I received no support from my supposed friends that I now consider mere acquaintances. They said they would deal with the fining issue when they had to. Any truly intelligent person knows it’s to late to deal with a problem when it’s knocking on your door. That’s like saying I’ll help you take care of the dog with rabies that’s in our community when it’s standing in my front yard. I found out first hand that it’s very true; to think independently you need to be comfortable standing alone. Be carefully what you say in public about your issue, keep it factual and unemotional with no personal attacks.   If you get excited or emotional it can affect your creditability. No matter what it takes you must stay calm and let the other person become unglued and intimidated by your determination. I know this is a hard thing to do because a bad HOA can be like a bully on the playground.     Don’t be intimidated by formal education, social status, or money. I did have the support and help of a great husband; I would not have wanted to do this without him. My husband looked at me and said, “It’s a really good thing that you are doing”. That kept me going at times when I wasn’t feeling so positive. I can’t believe I had to drag 1494 people along with me to reach my goal, but it makes no difference, as I wouldn’t have given up. One person can make a difference and next time that one person might be you. MISSY ARMSTRONG         http://www.troubleshooter.com/ Tom Martino talk show Houston 740 KTRH Monday through Friday 9am to 10am 713-212-5874. It does say 9 to 10 but I think it’s on for two hours. I never had success getting anyone to answer the phone. I went onto the Internet typed in Tom Martino. That’s how I got to the correct site. When the show is on the air a box opens to send a message. I asked my question stating who I was, what state I lived in and my phone number. In about ten minutes they called me and asked if I wanted to be on the radio.troubleshooters@click2houston.com I didn’t follow up with television although they did respond to my e-mail.Ralderman@Central.UH.edu Richard M. Alderman is best known as a lawyer for the people. He is a professor at the University of Houston Law Center. You can ask him a question on his website and it’s free.   This was my question:I’m told that in the state of Texas that a Homeowners Association cannot put a lien on a person’s home because of fines that they have issued. Can you help me find this information in writing?” The answer is: A HOA can’t foreclose on a lien solely for fines or attorney fees because it is prohibited by section 209.009 of the Texas Property Code.http://pages.prodigy.net/hoadata/is a wonderful website filled with great information, but it is a little dated. It’s listed as Houston Area HOA Foreclosure-related Filings. http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/pr.toc.htmThe State ofTexas property code.harvellajones@yahoo.com Harvella Jones - 713-639-4991 Ms. Jones of the Texas Homeowners Advocate Group is a wealth of information and she was very generous with her help. She wrote a letter to the president of my HOA that I know made an impact on him. She also required the president to answer her letter and he did. Ms. Jones also has a watchdog list for abusive HOA’s. It all started for me in late May 2007 when I receive a green post card stating that my Homeowners Association was postponing a vote on adopting a fining system for my community. I became very angry because the little green card was the very first I had heard of a fining procedure. There are 748 homes in this community just outside of Houston. When I purchased my home I didn’t do it with the knowledge that I would be fined $15.00 if I put my trash can out before 6:00 am or $25.00 if mold was seen on my property or $50.00 for any violation my HOA had not currently thought of. Notices were to come in the form of letters, lawyer demand letters, fines, liens, and yes they said foreclosures. The card said that the HOA wanted to know what residents thought and encouraged them to write a letter. I did and also asked other people to write.   The president seemed to ignore the attempts of residents to express their opinion. In June I attended my first Homeowners meeting.   I should have been attending those meetings all along but I was living with a false sense of security because I assumed that the people on the board were sane. I underestimated what a little bit of power can do to some people. At the June meeting I understood that my three member board was in a state of flux, having had two people resign. One person was named to the board that night and it was apparent that he didn’t agree with fining, as he wanted to table the fining issue. The president said fining would make his job easier so he just postponed the vote for one more month until July. It also appeared to me that the president was the one pushing for this and no one wanted to stand up to him. WRONG! I decided I would stand up to him! The lawyer the president wanted to invite into our community said his work is done with a results-driven legal fee billing approach. It doesn’t cost the HOA anything if he collects. What it does not say is, once he is in the community the homeowner can no longer negotiate a resolution to a problem with the HOA and the HOA no longer has the power to negotiate with the homeowner. The lawyer tells everyone what to do, or he takes back his results-driven deal and gives the HOA a big fat bill.                  I started by reading my deed restrictions and my by-laws many times.In June I created a petition to stop the fining from taking place; 125 people signed it out of the 133 that were asked. I could have gotten more signatures but the weather was horrible in June and it took a lot of time to explain the issue to people that had no idea what was happening. I was on the Tom Martino Troubleshooters radio talk show, he said I needed to put out fliers and it would be my responsibility to tell homeowners what was going on. I contacted a television station and the TV station thought I was being sued so I didn’t follow up with them. My only ray of sunshine was Harvella Jones. She responded to my phone call and my e-mails. She so graciously wrote a letter on my behalf to my HOA. Next, I found this helpful website owned by Richard Alderman who teaches law at the University of Houston. It’s free for you to ask him a question. I also used the State of Texas website for property code information.In July a third person was temporarily named to the board and the fining vote was once again put off because the President was absent. There was some discussion about where the idea for fining came from and no one would lay claim to it. I remembered Ms. Jones telling me if you have a bad president you should get him off of the board. Removing the president would be very hard to do, but I could do the next best thing, get my own candidate elected to the upcoming opening on the board. I sent out a letter to each of the people that signed my petition and I told them about my candidate and how much our president wanted the fining procedure. Someone apparently gave the president a copy of my letter. At the annual meeting on August 29, 2007 the president did some major, major back peddling in front of over 175 residents. He disassociated himself from his very own idea, and stated to everyone present that there would be no fining in our community. My husband looked over at me and said, “you won.” I think the president underestimated the opposition he would get from the fining issue (and me). My next move would have been to write letters to the editor and I planned to interview people in Real Estate. My question to them would have been, would it be any harder for you to sell a house in a community that had fining compared to the same house in a community that did not have fining? I still have a few other things up my sleeve but I plan to use those on the next issue if there is a next issue.            HOA’s in America are fast becoming the tail that wags the dog. They want to dictate to homeowners instead of doing the jobs they were elected to do, which is working for homeowners. As for me I’ve learned never to miss a monthly HOA meeting. My advice to you is if you are having a problem in your community is to be prepared to work and if necessary to do all of that work yourself. Volunteer’s mean well, but life happens. Start with reading your deed restrictions and by-laws, more than once. Don’t let apathy in your community or by your so-called friends stop you. I received no support from my supposed friends that I now consider mere acquaintances. They said they would deal with the fining issue when they had to. Any truly intelligent person knows it’s to late to deal with a problem when it’s knocking on your door. That’s like saying I’ll help you take care of the dog with rabies that’s in our community when it’s standing in my front yard. I found out first hand that it’s very true; to think independently you need to be comfortable standing alone. Be carefully what you say in public about your issue, keep it factual and unemotional with no personal attacks.   If you get excited or emotional it can affect your creditability. No matter what it takes you must stay calm and let the other person become unglued and intimidated by your determination. I know this is a hard thing to do because a bad HOA can be like a bully on the playground.     Don’t be intimidated by formal education, social status, or money. I did have the support and help of a great husband; I would not have wanted to do this without him. My husband looked at me and said, “It’s a really good thing that you are doing”. That kept me going at times when I wasn’t feeling so positive. I can’t believe I had to drag 1494 people along with me to reach my goal, but it makes no difference, as I wouldn’t have given up. One person can make a difference and next time that one person might be you. MISSY ARMSTRONG         http://www.troubleshooter.com/ Tom Martino talk show Houston 740 KTRH Monday through Friday 9am to 10am 713-212-5874. It does say 9 to 10 but I think it’s on for two hours. I never had success getting anyone to answer the phone. I went onto the Internet typed in Tom Martino. That’s how I got to the correct site. When the show is on the air a box opens to send a message. I asked my question stating who I was, what state I lived in and my phone number. In about ten minutes they called me and asked if I wanted to be on the radio.troubleshooters@click2houston.com I didn’t follow up with television although they did respond to my e-mail.Ralderman@Central.UH.edu Richard M. Alderman is best known as a lawyer for the people. He is a professor at the University of Houston Law Center. You can ask him a question on his website and it’s free.   This was my question:I’m told that in the state of Texas that a Homeowners Association cannot put a lien on a person’s home because of fines that they have issued. Can you help me find this information in writing?” The answer is: A HOA can’t foreclose on a lien solely for fines or attorney fees because it is prohibited by section 209.009 of the Texas Property Code.http://pages.prodigy.net/hoadata/is a wonderful website filled with great information, but it is a little dated. It’s listed as Houston Area HOA Foreclosure-related Filings. http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/pr.toc.htmThe State ofTexas property code.harvellajones@yahoo.com Harvella Jones - 713-639-4991 Ms. Jones of the Texas Homeowners Advocate Group is a wealth of information and she was very generous with her help. She wrote a letter to the president of my HOA that I know made an impact on him. She also required the president to answer her letter and he did. Ms. Jones also has a watchdog list for abusive HOA’s.