The Ridgerunner

Friends – I’m passing this along. It’s from our neighbor Tom Davis. Please help spread the information below by either emailing it or otherwise making you neighbors and friends who live in or own property in Woodcreek North aware of it. We still have time to stop this bill if we will marshal our neighbors and get the message out to our state legislators that we’re against it. I will also be publishing this information in the upcoming issue of the Ridgerunner.

Folks:

I know you have some very busy schedules, and I wouldn’t bother you unless it was important. If you thought life under a POA was bad up to now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Real trouble is brewing for Texas homeowners. If the Texas Uniform Planned Community Act passes as written, POAs will have even more power and control over homeowners. I believe that this proposed law is bad for Texas homeowners.

R.H. “Beanie” Adolph and David Kahne (two attorneys from Houston who helped me with my Advanced Legal Studies Research Paper when I was at Texas State), along with other concerned attorneys and citizens in Texas, have formed Texas Homeowners for HOA Reform, Inc. (their site is at http://www.texashoareform.org/). Here is Mr. Adolph’s analysis of TUPCA:

From: Beanie Adolph – Texas Homeowners for HOA Reform, Inc.

We do not like TUPCA. TUPCA is contrary to the Texas Constitution. Article I – Bill of Rights, Section 26: “Perpetuities…are contrary to the genius of a free government and shall never be allowed…” TUPCA 83.004 states: “…the rule against perpetuities does not apply…”

TUPCA 83.151 – “…the rights listed…are not exclusive or intended to limit the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States and this state.” Yet section after section gives unlimited powers to the HOA board.

Sec.83.067 states that the governing documents will be liberally construed in favor of the organization – not the homeowner. I’ve been here almost 50 years and I know that this is totally contrary to Texas law – an individual rights state. Governing documents should exist to serve homeowners, not the association.

TUPCA 83.113 – Architectural standards means a person or persons with power to approve or deny applications for proposed construction, etc. Here you have American homeowners who have bought their homes, hold responsible jobs, raise their children and TUPCA forces them to be subject to an unknown entity who will control their lives.

TUPCA 83.114 – Accumulation of Assessments. This is a booby-trap for homeowners and a boon to the greedy industry. Most homeowners are on budgets and cannot bear a sudden demand for exorbitant assessments with the alternative being foreclosure. This appears intended to overrule the Brooks case where the Supreme Court ruled 9 – 0 for homeowners. Associations don’t need this power. It encourages excessive spending without accountability to the homeowners who pay the bills.

TUPCA 83.116 – Foreclosure – Obscene for an HOA to have this power. Nobody else does – not doctors or other professions – not even Enron. But TUPCA makes it worse: “A court may not set aside a sale under this section solely because the purchase price at the foreclosure sale was insufficient to fully satisfy the former owner’s debt to the association.”

TUPCA 83.204 – puts the burden of disclosure on the seller of the property to advise the purchaser of HOA rules and assessments. Sellers won’t do this correctly. That won’t protect buyers. –Buyers won’t know what CAI knows. On this I agree with CAI’s Dick Spears who said buyers “surrender their civil rights”. He said buyers do it voluntarily. We say buyers don’t know..” Do you honestly believe that Texas homeowners voluntarily surrendered their civil rights when they bought their homes?

There are major problems with Property Code 204. Our website www.HOAdata.org. shows how foreclosure lawsuits grew in Harris County alone after passage of 204. At first 204 only applied to Harris County. It’s bad enough that 204 was recently expanded to adjacent counties. TUPCA would make this a truly statewide problem. TUPCA says it must be statewide. We from Harris County are here to warn all Texans that TUPCA takes away basic property rights. TUPCA means a homeowner does not own his own home. Do your constituents know what you are considering? Do your children, grandchildren, relatives and friends know that you are considering denying them their rights “in perpetuity”?

As TUPCA states – 83.012 – Uniformity of Application: – Any amendment… to limit this application to less than the entire state, e.g. population or geography is void.

For decades basic Texas law has said that deed restrictions must be clear and that limitations on the use of property are disfavored. TUPCA 83.067 has overturned this. TUPCA says the DRs don’t have to be clear.

TUPCA 83.116 (a) creates the right to foreclosure even if it is not in the deed restrictions. That should violate the Texas Constitution because even Inwood and Brooks require the right to foreclose be included in the deed restrictions.

TUPCA 83.116 (b) seems to allow an association to sell your house by non-judicial foreclosure without going to court and even allows the association to buy the house at firesale prices. That creates a real incentive to trump up and boost the fees. Look at the long list of laws CAI has had enacted against the homeowner. Stop these anti-homeowner laws. Represent your constituents – the people of Texas. Do not take any portion of TUPCA. Support the Homeowner Bill of Rights.

AARP has become involved and is joining the fray in favor of a Homeowners Bill of Rights. See AARP’s information at:

http://www.aarp.org/research/legal/legalrights/2006_15_homeowner.html

and

http://www.aarp.org/research/legal/legalrights/inb128_homeowner.html

I urge you to contact Representative Patrick Rose(P.O.Box 29 10 * Austin,
Texas 78768-2910* 512-463-0647* 512-473-9946-FAX, Senator Jeff Wentworth(P.O. Box 12068 Capitol Station Austin, TX 78711 Phone: (512) 463-0125 Fax: (512) 463-7794. and the chairs of the key committees that will address TUPCA in the coming days.

House Chairs: Helen Giddings, Business & Industry; Anna Mowery, Land & Resource Management

The Honorable Helen Giddings; Committee Assignments include: Business & Industry, Chair

Capitol Office for Giddings
Room CAP GN.12
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0953
(512) 463-5887 Fax

District Office for Giddings
1510 North Hampton #220
De Soto, TX 75115
(972) 224-6795
(972) 228-6796 Fax (972) 228-6796 Fax

The Honorable Anna Mowery; Committee Assignments include: Land & Resource Management, Chair

Capitol Office for Mowery
Room CAP 1N.05
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
(512) 463-0608
(512) 463-8342 Fax

District Office for Mowery
6421 Camp Bowie Blvd
#310
Fort Worth, TX 76116
(817) 732-1372
(817) 735-1362 Fax

Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee

The Honorable Royce West; Committee Assignments include: Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee-Chair

Capitol Address for West
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0123

District Office Address for West
5787 S. Hampton Rd., Suite 385
Dallas, Texas 75232
(214) 467-0123 (tel)
(214) 467-0050 (fax)

What can you do? Write, call, tell your friends and neighbors — TUPCA appears to be on a fast track and could wind up being considered an “uncontested” bill unless pressure is brought to bear. Please do what you can.