Texas, Arizona, Florida, California and possibly other states' homeowners have and are beginning to feel what it is like to be assessed outrageous homeowner association (HOA) attorney fees and penalties along with their maintenance fees. Many homeowners erroneously think their state or Federal Constitutions are protecting their homes from homeowner association foreclosures. This is not true.  A homeowner association can and will add exorbitant legal fees and fines to your maintenance fees for anything from nonpayment of your maintenance fees to failure to cut your lawn in a timely manner. While this may appear to be an excellent idea to micro-manage your neighbor's property and keep so-called "property values" in check, you are really affirming a growing cottage industry started by a core group of Community Association Institute (CAI) attorneys in Texas that have raised a stable of new extortionists seeking to increase their bank account and take control of your neighborhood through the "volunteer" homeowner association boards. Please beware. Watch out for the various forms of a proposed act that is an Uniform Planned Community Act. It generally is preferenced with your state, for example, the Texas Uniform Planned Community Act or TUPCA.  Pay your maintenance fees and join our homeowner advocate group, The National Homeowners Advocate Group, LLC, and let's stop this gang of thieves together, alert our legislators in our respective state and demand new bills that will forever put a stop to this growing feeding frenzy on our rights, our life and our Constitution.   Our membership is free.

To join The National Homeowners Advocate Group, LLC (The National HAGs) click onto the “join us – PDF” icon to the left of this article and follow the instructions.  You can also check out what we are doing in Texas at  http://www.stoptexashoaforeclosures.com
You can do the same in your state.  If you already have an advocate group in your state, you should join it.   Some groups are free and some are fee based, perhaps charging a minimal fee of $20.00 per year.  What is $20.00 if this is your only alternative when you are networking to protect your property and Constitutional rights?  Remember you are entitled to certain rights as a homeowner in any state.  We are all entitled to notice to any action on our home and a meeting with our homeowner association board to work it out and if our homes have been foreclosed, we are entitled to redemption in recovering our foreclosed homes.   If you have become a victim of foreclosure, consult an attorney to find out what the redemption laws (if any) are in your state.  Texas has redemption laws. 

Remember it is better to pay your maintenance fees and then fight.  It is better to fight with a full belly than an empty one.  In the last three weeks, I have received calls from four desperate families who waited until the hammer fell.  When you do not pay your fees, you give the homeowner association and their Community Association Institute attorneys an opportunity to take advantage of you.  I personally know this because my family and I let the hammer fall on us December 5, 1995 for the same reason these four families did.  We did not think a homeowner association could take your home when you were timely paying your mortgage to your lien holder.   These foreclosures will continue to happen as long as our legislators fail and refuse to write laws to stop this extortion and fail and refuse to repeal laws that allow this extortion.  We must start holding our legislators accountable for their failure to protect us,  the taxpayers, the voters, their constituency, so join an advocate group and let us all start fighting together.  harvellajones@yahoo.com