patrick.net

That's giving the HOA some teeth. Should of set up autopay. This HOA was brutal and heartless. The HOA knew the legality of it all.

"At the very least wouldn’t the owners get the money from the sale of their home?"

They did, the HOA probably just collected the HOA due and direct expense, the rest went back to the owner. Selling at 3K was pretty sick, most likely a related party transaction or HOA person got a huge kickback. (it looks that there was only one knowing buyer on the courthouse auction.)

"Who would ever sign a document that states that 3 missed HOA payments means we can sell your home to the highest bidder and kick you out?"

Lending and title and even HOA policies are cluttered with legal jargons in the inches that even educated people don't fully understand nor want to read through and understand. I bet the family just didn't know.

That's why we have government to put in place reasonable protection laws, otherwise something like this happens.

Just another reason not to live in TX.

SF ace says

That’s why we have government to put in place reasonable protection laws, otherwise something like this happens

Or you simply void the current HOA and write one which is more understandable and reasonable. Why do you need government with all their 'protection' laws to add more complexity? There isnt anything magical which sets the HOA in stone for eternity.

Really it's not a whole lot different than the "HOA" we have here called "Tax Collector, Santa Clara County".

thomas.wong1986 says

SF ace says

That’s why we have government to put in place reasonable protection laws, otherwise something like this happens

Or you simply void the current HOA and write one which is more understandable and reasonable. Why do you need government with all their ‘protection’ laws to add more complexity? There isnt anything magical which sets the HOA in stone for eternity.

Except the Force of Law, which starts from the sales contract one signs and ends with the taser darts the county sheriff can fire into you to gain compliance to judicial actions.

Another excellent reason to avoid homes with home owners associations. Although perhaps you could expand that to Texas? Thanks mthom that was priceless.

I feel this particular situation was a sneak attack. I agree with their right to take the home. But seems like they wanted to do it as silent as possible because they knew that the owner could probably pay. The person who bought it for $3500 was probably a friend of the HOA.

SF ace says

“At the very least wouldn’t the owners get the money from the sale of their home?”
They did, the HOA probably just collected the HOA due and direct expense, the rest went back to the owner. Selling at 3K was pretty sick, most likely a related party transaction or HOA person got a huge kickback. (it looks that there was only one knowing buyer on the courthouse auction.)

According to the article, there was no "rest." the hoa sold for $3,500; the new owner turned around and sold for $135k. The article said that the hoa doesn't have to play by the same rules as the banks, etc... so the 27 days to sale on the courthouse steps doesn't include a whole lotta advertising. Kind of interesting how that works, huh?

These laws need to change - and hoa's need to grow a heart. At the very least it makes them look bad. The people should have paid their bills, tho. power gets shut off if you don't pay it, so does the gas...

Hm I was pretty sure they had to at least try and get a reasonable price for the sale. $3500 isn't reasonable for a home. If someone owes you $1 and you take their million dollar home and sell it for $1, it's not being done it good faith. You've taken an asset worth far more than the debt and intentionally undersold it. Selling it quickly, or for less than market perhaps, but not for 1% of it's value.

It will probably create a legal battle somewhere. It was obviously done out of spite, and intentionally in a way that would get rid of him as a neighbor, which they might be able to sue for as well.

I read this some where before long ago, and recalled a follow-up story. The community heard about it and raised enough funds to purchase the property back for this family. Did I remember wrong?

In Texas HOA's have all power. The management companies along with their attorneys can pretty much do as they see fit. I will never live in another HOA controlled area.

Shrek

Look this is a nation of 300M people spread out in 50 states + DC in many square miles, we will not have the capacity to micro manage ever issue at the government level. I get that nor do I want that.

But when an HOA sells your fully paid for Condo for 3500 at a courthouse step without your knowledge and the only thing the lawyer tells you is don't cry to me, cry to the HOA, something is wrong and worth protecting.

How would you like it, if you spent 5 years years paying off your mecedes, missed one insurance payment and the insurance company sells your 30K mercedes residual value for 500 dollars to cover the premium. This is 10 times worst because the value is 10 times more. These are life changing events. It's like missing paying a $100 parking ticket violation and they go ahead and slap a 250K tax lien on you garnishable by wages. The freakin HOA due is probably around 100 bucks a month, but the penalty is 300K. I am not being liberal just logical.

and btw, I am fiscally conservative, I don't (vote) care for social issues.

I wonder how many letters and visits were made before they sold the property. The home owner does have some responsibility here.

Inflection Point, it looks like the husband was away at war, with his wife and kids still in the house. If nobody from the HOA actually visited the home to get the money -- and it seems, given that one of the other HOA members was first in line to grab the house out from under them, that that might be the case -- the wife might not even have known about it.

I wonder how payments are made to the HOA. My condo's association demands that the monthly maintenance fee be made by bank transfer to a specific account on a specific day -- no walking down one flight of stairs and handing cash to the head of the association! That the HOA was able to bypass the courts and "steal" the house so quickly and efficiently is scary.

"The home owner does have some responsibility here."

That is sure, but the consequence does not fit the crime. Look, his husband is in Iraq and she is with the kids, perhaps her mind may be into something other than bills. Sometimes people fear opening the mail for fear that they get a bad news letter from the Army or whatever.

If you are going to to sell someone's house that is worth 300K, shouldn't that person be served notification at the minumum?

This article made me sick to my stomach. If I was that guy I'd take that Stryker he's in and level the property of everyone on the HOA board. That was just a completely chicken-shit move. How much of a burden would it have been to knock on their door or put a note on their door to say, You owe us $X if you don't pay in 30 days we're taking your house. It seemed like the wife just forgot, not that they couldn't pay.

One more reason to never buy in a place w/ an HOA.

Actually the wife was in denial and not opening any mail during this time.

It's disgusting that people here are actually defending the HOA. There is a fairer eviction process when you rent an apartment and don't pay the rent for goodness sake. If the HOA wanted their money so badly, they should have just sued him in court.

Troy says

Actually the wife was in denial and not opening any mail during this time.

How come you know this?

Some things are not clearly stated in the article. Why she can't pay HOA is one of the missing part. Wan't there the other way for HOA to get what it wants? Why HOA has this much power at the first place? Was there any other mistake or negligence on her part that made HOA do that? What notice was given by HOA, when and how often? Is there any relation b/w the HOA and the guy who bought the home and sold it with hefty profit? Etc. All those are unanswered in the article.

To me, it seems HOA's action way too excessive, and that could happen to you guys when you're living in HOA controlled area in those 33 states.

I have seen several articles about this over the last several months. Apparently while the husband was away at war, the wife went into a bit of a depression, and she was afraid to open the mail. I seem to remember reading that there were notices in the unopened mail, but no one knocked on the door or phoned or made any further effort at contact. They followed the letter of the law. The HOA is run primarily by an outside company with a history of doing things like this.

So, probably the wife should have opened the mail. But I can understand why she might not have done it. And there's no way I can see taking a $300K house as an appropriate penalty for going through a difficult spell and failing to open your mail for awhile. I am pretty on top of my obligations, but I can absolutely understand how a person in the midst of a major life event--anything from a deployment to a serious illness in the family--might, for a few months, fail to get to their paperwork in a timely manner.

HOA's need to have their rights limited, especially in Texas. A rapid, secretive foreclosure is simply inappropriate.

As for why people buy in HOA-controlled areas--well, in some places there is no other choice. My husband's parents moved to Atlanta a few years ago and wanted to buy a house out in the suburbs. All of the recent developments out in the suburbs were HOA-controlled, and the properties that were not HOA-controlled were, by and large, not for sale. Newer developments tend to be HOA-controlled by default, at least in their area. They did not want an HOA, but they did want a house, so...

seaside says
Why HOA has this much power at the first place?

The owner gladly gave them this power by buying a home in an HOA controlled tract and agreeing to the HOA contract. The owner took into consideration how the homes would be kept up, the yards always would look nice, etc. They didn't take into account that they would ever miss out on their dues. Sneaky, underhanded, slimy, unethical, immoral, bad form? Yes. All of that and more. Legal though? It appears so, considering the owner signed his life away..... Scratch that, his house away.
I hate associations and the people who run them with a passion. Never will I live in an HOA controlled house. I never expected them to do something like this though. Griping about the length of the lawn, the rv, or the unacceptable potted plant in the front yard was enough for me to hate them.

Even if mail was sent to the wife, wouldn't it have been sent by registered mail, requiring a signature?

Also, what if the man owned the condo by himself, and left it unoccupied while he was deployed? Even if he set up some kind of automatic payment from his bank, he'd have no way of knowing if there were some kind of mix-up that prevented the money from being delivered. What if were taken as a prisoner of war and had no way of getting in touch with anyone for months on end?

The HOA used legal trickery to steal this couple's house. Something needs to be done to severely restrict their power.

The problem with HOA laws is they were written by attorneys so that they can make all the money. One should lobby their legislature to enact a HOA Bill of Rights for Owners.

There are too many HOAs that are run by power-hungry BOD's who have no experience with running a company (a HOA is a not for profit org).

The management companies are also control freaks. Their sole role should be to pay the bills when directed by the BOD and ensure that all regulatory fillings are made. Too many times these companies pass business to their friends for repairs, etc....

I feel that there is no compassion on this Board's HOA and as others have said, a phone call or visit would have been a better course of action to take.

robertoaribas says

the house was not sold for 3.5K, if memory serves it was sold for about 150K, and yes the owner would have gotten everything after the hoa + fees;

Wrong. From the article:

But by the time he got back to Texas, it was too late. The Clauers' four-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot home had been sold on the courthouse steps for just $3,500 — enough to cover outstanding HOA dues and legal costs.

The new owner quickly sold it for $135,000 and netted a tidy profit.

So the original received $0 for their house.

By all means the HOA should come after them for the balance - hit their credit score, etc. But taking a house to cover a $3,500 debt is ridiculous.

Maybe HOA's should change. You cannot sell their property until it is VACANT. Good idea?

Eliza says

I have seen several articles about this over the last several months. Apparently while the husband was away at war, the wife went into a bit of a depression, and she was afraid to open the mail. I seem to remember reading that there were notices in the unopened mail, but no one knocked on the door or phoned or made any further effort at contact.

She should have opened her mail. Depression is not an excuse for refusing to live in our world. If her depression rose to the point that she wouldn't open the mail, she should have sought counseling. They sent notices and she didn't respond? Sure they were heartless, but she was responsible for paying the bills. She should have done so.

I am certainly not supporting the home owners association. I also respect the husband was in Iraq. If the HOA was outside the law I am sure they will be made to correct the issue.

I agree with ellie. The wife is responsible to open the mal and repsond. I am glad my wife pays the bills.

I think it just illustrates that HOA's can be a problem, financially and otherwise.

elliemae says

Eliza says

I have seen several articles about this over the last several months. Apparently while the husband was away at war, the wife went into a bit of a depression, and she was afraid to open the mail. I seem to remember reading that there were notices in the unopened mail, but no one knocked on the door or phoned or made any further effort at contact.

She should have opened her mail. Depression is not an excuse for refusing to live in our world. If her depression rose to the point that she wouldn’t open the mail, she should have sought counseling. They sent notices and she didn’t respond? Sure they were heartless, but she was responsible for paying the bills. She should have done so.

Sorry Ellie you are wrong... Sure the wife didn't open the mail, but ever hear of the "crime doesn't fit the punishment".
I don't care what the legal contract said it should be voided if if stipulated a HOA member could sell your house out from under you and buy it back for pennies on the dollar for missing a few HOA payments.
That's like me squeezing in some fine print in a 100 page HOA document, that I have a right to kill you and your family if you miss a payment for any reason.
This isn't quite as excessive.. but the next closest thing.
HOAs can not be allowed to operate like thugs coming around to break some legs for missed payments. To be honest.. this is almost worse.. I'm sure the husband would choose to have his arm or leg busted than to lose his $300K paid for home.
I know i would.