YOUR VOTE DOES COUNT

November 03, 2008

By AHRC News Services

Nobody will deny that the country is in bad shape. The yawning chasm created by the economic collapse has swallowed up many victims - workers, homeowners, retirees. Our troops are locked in endless battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. America's image in the world ranks near the bottom. Internally, small groups have preyed on the ordinary citizen - from the Wall Street pariahs to the obscenely compensated CEOs.

This same pattern has infected homeowner associations for years. A handful of lawyers and allied politicians have fleeced homeowners of the equity in their homes and of their life savings. All across the country, homeowners report attack after attack by greedy lawyers intent on self-aggrandizement at the expense of homeowners. In many homeowner associations, inexperienced, corrupt board members are utilized by management companies and lawyers to extort money from homeowners.

A disturbing trend has also emerged among judges who almost invariably side with the homeowner associations against the homeowners. In Orange County, California, every known case decided by a judge has been for the homeowner association.

What can be done about all these problems?

Obviously, there is no easy or quick solution, but November 4 provides an opportunity to lay the foundation for reform. While there is no perfect candidate, we must choose whom we regard as the better candidate.

AHRC recommends Barack Obama.

AHRC does not recommend him because of any blind ideology. AHRC does so because it believes that Obama is more temperamentally balanced than McCain, is intellectually more insightful, and has not been allied with the failed policies of the previous generation and administration.

While the issue of homeowner associations has not been on the front burner of the campaign, Obama offers more hope for the future on this issue than McCain who has done absolutely nothing regarding homeowner associations in his home state of Arizona - home to some of the most notorious associations.

Even if Obama gets elected, it will take the combined efforts of each homeowner to root out the corruption in homeowner associations, and to rein in the lawyers who cause so much devastation in them.

November 4th. then should be a period of renewal in homeowner associations. Only you can make it happen.