AMERICAN DAILY SUN - The War On HOAs – Letter to Marsha Blackburn

The War On HOAs – Letter to Marsha Blackburn

By John M Disque

Edited By Joel Darnell

8/13/2013

This is a continuing series to keep the readers updated on the effort to stop the self-created power of abusive HOAs throughout the state of TN.

After receiving years of complaints over harassment and unfair bylaws which limit business competition and destroy the American freedoms of homeowners, we felt compelled to act on behalf of the citizens while our local, state and federal governments sit idly by.

Hello Marsha,

My name is John Disque from JPM Enterprises and EastTNNews.com.

Stacey Campfield is looking for a house sponsor to begin working on a bill which would limit the power of Homeowners Associations and clear up a lot of legal confusion regarding HOAs.

Each day many HOAs are pushing their boundaries, being overcome with their self-appointed power and disregarding their city, county, state and federal laws.

Today – some are telling people in the their subdivisions that they cannot rent their property, that their kids cannot play outside their property, what kind of flowers they can and cannot plant, that they cannot post political signs in their yards and........ the list goes on and on.

Another blatant violation is the illegal signs in front of subdivisions stating “No Soliciting." This country is built and operates on solicitation. Without it this country shuts down ---- In order to keep costs low for the customers and continue to compete – many companies have to target their consumers. Ex: a landscaping company that gets 3 new customers in one neighborhood is eliminating travel time and gas expense and can hand off these savings to the customers. If these companies were to put their money into newspaper advertising their work would be too spread out, they'd spend most of their time traveling and the result would be: less work getting done and higher costs for the customers. As these companies distribute their fliers or go door to door they are being severely harassed and threatened while the homeowner points to an illegally placed “no soliciting” sign which holds no sign permit and is on taxpayer property. --- If a person does not want to be bothered by door-to-salespeople there is nothing legally stopping them from putting a no-soliciting sign in their yard or at their door.

**In many cases the HOAs posting these signs at the entrance of the subdivision have monopolized the business... put their children or grandchildren in charge of a business such as landscaping ALL the lawns in the neighborhood and therefore eliminating the competition - they proceed to over-charge the customers and get their asking price. This is unfair, un-American and ILLEGAL.

I believe it’s extremely dangerous to allow a handful of people to take the laws into their own hands and dictate how people can and cannot live their lives. I realize that a person not maintaining their property is decreasing the value of all property owners in the neighborhood but we have city and county laws that can and do address these issues. Renters are also mandated to sign leases requiring them to maintain the property and when they don’t they can be legally evicted.

While I believe most HOAs begin with the good intentions to keep their neighborhoods safe and their land-value up… many have taken this tiny bit of self-appointed power and it has gone to their heads – at the same time our governments seem to be sitting on the sidelines allowing this to happen.

It needs to be addressed.

Thank you for your time.

Sent - 8/13/13