Shared by Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
Ward Lucas links to an interesting USA Today article on the lack of access to affordable legal assistance. That’s definitely a problem for HOA residents, because there is very little state or federal oversight of Owners’ Associations.
Virtually every HOA dispute ends with the homeowner giving up, rather than spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees on a civil court case that can drag out for several years.
Ethical attorneys have to work within this “cartel” system. But a group of those attorneys has created a Washington DC-based non-profit orgnization, named Responsive Law, dedicated to being “the consumer’s voice in the legal system.”
Very few attorneys represent HOA homeowners and residents. Most prefer to represent developers and HOA corporations, because they have deeper pockets and an endless supply of potential legal disputes.
Residents of Association-Governed Communities desperately need access to affordable legal assistance and representation that helps to level the playing field, where laws are now stacked heavily in favor of the HOA industry, to the disadvantage of the consumer.
Read more here:
Source: Lawyers and HOAs (Neighbors at War blog)
Here’s the link to Responsive Law’s state by state report:
https://www.responsivelaw.org/report-card.html
