ACLU DAVID KAHNE’S AARP BILL OF RIGHTS FOR HOMEOWNERS IN ASSOCIATIONS
By
Harvella Jones
The National Homeowners Advocate Group, LLC
Texas – At first I was a little crushed and offended that my husband Johnnie and I were not in the acknowledgment portion of David Kahne’s Bill of Rights since my family, and I started the current movement to stop the abuse that we endured in our homeowner association and we were the first to bring to our legislators’ attention the case law Inwood vs. Harris that started all of this mess. The Jones family was the forerunners of this movement and awareness program and that cannot be challenged by anyone as we started in 1990 and were the only homeowner advocates in the hearing rooms in the early 90’s testifying on behalf of ourselves and homeowners in this state, yet our name was not mentioned in the acknowledgment. I do not doubt that the names that were mentioned have worked hard and long to correct the various homeowner problems in their respective states but how can you not mention the family that started the whole advocacy movement before anyone else you mentioned? How can you eliminate from your acknowledgment the first family in the state of Texas to lose their homestead due to non payment of maintenance fees to a homeowner association? This loss happened before Geneva Kirk Brooks’ lawsuit and before Winona Blevins’ loss of her homestead, although she did eventually get her homestead back, furniture and money in excess of $200,000. Read my book “The Texas Homestead Hoax” and you will have proof that I tell no lie. Shame on you, David Kahne. Now on to the review of Mr. Kahne’s AARP Bill of Rights for Homeowners in Associations.
The very first thing that jumped off the page when I finally got to the guts of Mr. Kahne’s AARP Bill of Rights was the approval for some foreclosures. Even though Article 16, Section 50 of the Texas Constitution does not allow homeowner association foreclosures, Mr. Kahne is recommending to AARP that under some circumstances foreclosures “for significant unpaid assessments, and any such foreclosure shall require judicial review to ensure fairness.” What part of any foreclosure can be considered fair?
After reading this very first Bill of Right (http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/consume/2006_15_homeowner.pdf), I then looked up into the heavens and thanked God in the name of Jesus, that David Kahne did not include my family’s name in the acknowledgment and eliminated the Joneses from the entire bill because God knows the Johnnie Jones’ family would never, ever be a part of any bill or anything that would in any way promote a homeowner association foreclosure of any kind. Everything the Joneses have ever done in this “stop the homeowner association foreclosure” movement has been to completely and permanently stop this egregious behavior of foreclosing on one’s homestead. How can you ever justify such a heinous act as a homeowner association foreclosure on your constitutionally protected homestead? There is never going to be an exception in which you should allow such a thing. Everyone that has worked fervently in my group The Texas Homeowner’s Advocate Group and now The National Homeowners Advocate Group, LLC support no homeowner association foreclosures of any kind. You cannot straddle the fence, you either support foreclosures or you do not. What we should be talking about at this “Point no. 1” is protecting and strengthening our Constitutional rights.
The “Rights” were familiar as my group The Texas Homeowner’s Advocate Group have worked for years to get “laws” created to ensure that there is oversight in homeowner associations. While I am overall happy that my family’s name is not connected to anything in which the foreclosure hammer still has power, I am amazed that Mr. Kahne was able to write so many pages without mentioning my group’s accomplishments. We were able to get the Texas Attorney General to answer a question we presented to him on behalf of the homeowners in this state regarding homeowner association foreclosures: “Does the placement of one-party foreclosable contractual liens on the land by the developer supersede the homestead rights created in Article XVI, Section 50 of the Texas Constitution violate the Texas Homestead Act?” The highest attorney in the state saw fit to include mention of my brief written to him to support our request to “repeal” the Inwood law (the law that created the homeowner association foreclosure right in the state of Texas). The Attorney General stated “that may be good policy (to repeal the Inwood law) and, as such, would be appropriate for the legislature to address or for the Texas Supreme Court to consider.” This happened in 2004. I am still waiting for Mr. Kahne and other homeowner advocate attorneys to join with us and other advocates to make this happen.
During the last session (2005), Rep. Harold Dutton saw fit to sponsor our bill written by this writer to stop homeowner association foreclosures. The efforts it must have taken for Mr. Kahne to write this Bill of Rights for AARP could have been generated to support the two aforementioned efforts of The Texas Homeowner’s Advocate Group.
Now that I am reading this AARP Bill of Rights, I finally have a total understanding of why we have not moved off first base with our advocacy work to totally stop homeowner association foreclosures because our “homeowner advocate attorneys and their supporters” think it is okay to have homeowner association foreclosures for “significant unpaid assessments”. What exactly does “significant” mean? I am sure the Community Association Institute (CAI) attorneys are bringing out the champagne on that one.
At this point, I question the right of David Kahne to claim this victory. Let us examine what he has actually accomplished over the years. One of his most high profile case was the Geneva Kirk Brooks, et al vs. Northglen lawsuit. What did he actually accomplish for Geneva and her neighbors? Northglen cannot charge above the amount listed in their deed restrictions; they cannot foreclose for fines only (but they can still foreclose for non payment of maintenance fees) and the association can now accumulate their fees meaning if they do not raise their fee one year, they can add it to the next year’s increase and so forth and so on. Thank you, Mr. Kahne, that was a real improvement to our property and Constitutional rights. He is an attorney that works for the ACLU. The ACLU, in Mr. Kahne’s own words, has never taken a homeowner case. I know because I asked Mr. Kahne to accept my lawsuit and my neighbors’ against our current homeowner association (yes, I was dumb enough to move into another homeowner association territory). He informed me the ACLU had never taken a homeowner’s case regarding an issue against their homeowner association. I asked him directly to take the case pro bono since he felt the ACLU would not take it. He said no, maybe for $3,000 but he would have to incorporate me and have me set up a fund in which it would be started with the $3,000 and then funded every now and then when it ran low. He wanted $500.00 just to meet with us. Based on the caliber of homes we have, this would help determine what his fee would actually be and he assumed we lived in blue collar homes as compared to upper income homes. This assessment of our homes would determine how much we (a group of 32 litigants) could pay. Now he has managed to convince AARP to allow him to prepare a bill of rights for its senior citizens that would affect every homeowner in this state not just senior citizens. He did this without consulting with the President of the first and largest homeowner advocate group in the State of Texas—the Texas Homeowner’s Advocate Group (The National Homeowners Advocate Group, LLC).
Throughout the AARP’s bill of rights, there is a feel good reference to things that make you go “that sounds good” and “how kind”, when actually it still masks the core of the problem—foreclosures. Paying attorney fees to the homeowner if he wins sounds good but this is on every homeowner advocates’ wish list and was carved by homeowner advocates not mentioned on Mr. Kahne’s acknowledgement list (they probably feel good about not being on it right about now like me). Mr. Kahne is suppose to be in a neutral position being as he is one of ACLU’s attorneys. It appears as though he has sucked up every homeowner advocates’ complaints over the years and decided who he was going to give credit to and then wrapped and put a bow on it and gave it to AARP as a bill of rights. Mr. Kahne has done nothing but take advantage of his position as an ACLU attorney and has done no real work for advocates. Nothing he has done has stopped foreclosures because now I have learned through his bill that he obviously did not want the foreclosures to stop. If he had, he would not have written this bill of rights in the manner in which he did.
While you may be told of the powers and charges at closing, you also must be allowed not to be a part of a mandatory association. If you do not sign the agreement, you do not get the house. This is not a democratic way of purchasing property. We are a land of choices. Remember? When is someone with a law degree or money going to put a stop to this “rape at closing”? When is someone going to have enough guts to stand up for the taxpayers and homeowners in this state and stop burying the homeowner with their rights further in the sand? Basically I found the rest of the Bill of Rights to be a luke warm concoction of meaningless words which continue to beat us over the head.
Then just when I thought I had read enough, the “tenth right” creates a job for someone or a complete department for someone (the ombudsperson for homeowners) …I wonder what team of employees that will include? There is only one group capable of filling that job and I do not see them in the acknowledgment list. How can anyone that believes in homeowner association foreclosures of any kind even suggest such a job? I see this as yet another honey pot.
Section 101 and any of the sections that covered foreclosure, made my hair stand up on my head. This was not a bill of rights. This was a bill of despair.
David Kahne has done more to hurt homeowner advocates than any other attorney in the entire state of Texas. I remember Thurgood Marshall, and David Kahne, you are no Thurgood Marshall. Having now seen the Bill of Rights, truly I understand why the foreclosure issue has never been stopped by a homeowner attorney. You had no right to put together this type of Bill of Rights that does not remove the power of foreclosure, Mr. Kahne.
So much inappropriate material is in this bill, it is difficult to comment on all of it. One other item that stands out is the reference in Section 106, #6, “no forced membership in another organization”. My question is what about the forced membership in the homeowner association? This should not be okay.
This state is in dire need of attorneys who care about homeowners enough to stop these foreclosures. David Kahne needs to take his Bill of Rights and burn it. Texas does not need any more pro homeowner association bills. We have enough people tugging at our property now. Eminent Domain, TUPCA, now this. What we need is simple. A three or four line simple bill that will repeal Inwood vs. Harris and forever stop foreclosures. I believe we had one like that last session that was sponsored by Rep. Harold Dutton. We do not need any more bill repairmen. The CAI attorneys do not need any more help burying us in the sand. We are buried deep enough. We need somebody to dig us out.
Basically, I see David Kahne’s AARP Bill of Rights as yet another band aid to fix the problems that homeowners have in our homeowner associations, some of which would be good stuff if it were not for the fact it is building another layer over a weak foundation. Our attorneys, legislators and some advocates cannot continue to straddle the fence on this issue. Either you are for homeowner association foreclosures or you are against them. You cannot be for some foreclosures. We have all seen how that kind of thinking has caused the abuse we have witnessed over the years, starting with my family and I losing our precious homestead on December 5, 1995, for a $184.92 payment by the same association that foreclosed the property. If they had fixed the problem when we were foreclosed, it never would have happened to Winona Blevins in 2002.
Let us stop shooting the messengers which consist of legislators who try to permanently fix the problem and advocates who are truly working on behalf of homeowners and trying to fix the problem. Let us stop putting band aids on these foreclosure cancers and cure this cottage industry disease with real bills, real statutes, real solutions. The only way is to permanently stop the homeowner association foreclosures—all homeowner association foreclosures. The Constitution must be resuscitated and respected in all instances. If this is done, the cottage industry wolves will go away because the money will dry up.
So at first I was a little crushed and offended, but after reading David Kahne’s proposed bill of rights, so glad my family and I had nothing to do with the writing of this Bill of Rights and I know my mailbox would have been filled with hate mail if I had been a part of such a thing, so for that, I am thankful to David Kahne for eliminating my family and I from his acknowledgement list for in his heart he must have known that we would never endorse anything that promoted any kind of homeowner association foreclosure.
Some of the names on his acknowledgment list I was surprised to see because I know them to be fervent defenders of the Constitution and for the rights of homeowners—perhaps they were not aware of the product they were endorsing or contributing to.
Everyone that knows of my family and my work, know that we would not endorse or support any bill, statute, nothing that would include an okay to foreclose clause. When you have been foreclosed yourself, you think a bit differently. I talk to homeowners most every day that are being abused one way or another in their homeowner association and I could not endorse something like this. How could I sleep at night if I did so? I believe in a good night’s sleep. On behalf of the real 100% homeowner advocates across this country, I write this article for you. This is for the advocates who have worked long and hard thankless hours trying to fight the giant with little resources but with a lot of guts. This is for your drives back and forth to Austin to testify. This is written to alert homeowners, senior citizens, everyone—do not support David Kahn’s AARP Bill of Rights or you will truly regret it. Write AARP and let them know what you think of this bill. This is dedicated to Gordy, Palmer, Steve, Brenda, Geneva (deceased), Marcia, Froggie, J. T., Stretch, Amy and her husband Clark, Brian, Aletha, Harold Dutton, Jon Lindsay, D. Vanitzian, Keith (deceased), Matt, Bob Hamilton, Nora, Linda Allen, Patricia Osiris, Brian, Mary Lou Durham, Bob Chrane, Melinda, James Nunn, Joni, and so many, many more. These are advocates that you will seldom see mentioned in anyone’s works but who have made this movement what it is. If I did not mention your name and you are part of my group, it is because you are on David Kahne’s acknowledgement list and now I am confused. When you have personally been thrown out into the street for not paying maintenance fees, forced to sell some of your furniture as you accumulate a lot over eight (8) years, get rid of your pet, disrupt your children (thank God they were both in college) and suffer immense pain and suffering, you do not sell out at any price or for any lukewarm bills, statutes, or for anything just to see your name mentioned in an acknowledgment list or in somebody’s power move. You fight until you win and get what you know this country needs to make the changes necessary to bring back real property and Constitutional rights. I am 100% homeowner advocate and I am still waiting for a cure. Are you 100% homeowner advocate? Email me and tell me so at harvellajones@yahoo.com
