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View Full Version : HOA auctions off soldier's $300k fully-owned house over missed $800 payment



rossmum
May 18th, 2010, 03:49 PM
Copy-pasta from Goons in Platoons because I'm lazy, but this is all sorts of fucked up


FRISCO — A soldier returned home from combat to find his Frisco home, which was owned free and clear, sold off by his homeowners' association.

While there is a law to protect service members from financial disaster while they're off fighting a war, it is frequently broken.

On dangerous missions in Iraq, Capt. Michael Clauer of Frisco was responsible for the lives of 130 soldiers. He had a lot on his mind.

"You can't worry about what's going on at home," he said. "It's enough stress there the way it is."

His wife, Mae Clauer, was under stress, too. She was alone and taking care of her family in a $300,000 home her parents had given her as a gift.

"When Michael went to Iraq, I went into a very bad depression," she said.

The mail piled up unopened and Mrs. Clauer missed $800 in payments to her HOA. Then she missed the letters saying the association planned to foreclose.

"I ignored a lot of our bills," she said.

Even after the HOA foreclosed and sold the home at auction, Mrs. Clauer didn't open the letters that said she had six months to get the home back, and that time lapsed, too.

By the time Capt. Clauer returned from the war, someone else owned their home after paying just $3,500.

Who got that money? "I have no idea," Mrs. Clauer said. "I don't know. I don't know who got the money."

State Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) is critical of the power of HOAs to foreclose on homes in the neighborhood. He hopes to pass legislation next year to curb that power.

"Well, it is a business," he said. "Unfortunately, not what we would want to see in terms of a neighborhood."

Under Texas law, there's no way for the Clauers to get their home back. But the Clauers have one last chance under federal law.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) protects members of the military from many financial problems that creep up while they're away fighting for their country. But it's a law experts say is routinely broken.

"SCRA complaints are definitely one of the top issues that we see," said Lt. Janelle Kuroda, a Navy lawyer and expert on the SCRA law that effects all branches of the military.

There are at least 100 recent pending cases where a service member's rights may have been violated under the SCRA.

"Their number one focus needs to be on the mission, and if their focus is elsewhere at home with ongoing court proceedings, with family issues, or mortgage issues or other issues, then it's going to take away from their readiness and their ability to put everything they have towards the mission," Kuroda said.

The Clauers say it's well known in the neighborhood that Michael is in the Army Reserve.

Select Management, the company that manages the HOA, said it was not aware of Clauer's military status. The Clauers are suing the HOA for violating the SCRA.

But on an even simpler level, their lawyer wonders what happened to the concept of being neighborly.

"The least that would be done is a neighbor would come knock on your door or pick up the phone and call you, ask you if everything is okay," said Barber Hail, Clauer's attorney. "It's not like the bank is taking the house; these are your neighbors."

The Clauers' HOA says homeowners are free to call them, but they do not call or visit homeowners when there's a problem. They're only required to send certified letter.

Service member or not, the Clauers say a neighbor deserves more than that.

"If somebody told me that this could happen I wouldn't believe it," Capt. Clauer said. "I would say, 'That's just ridiculous. You can't do that.'"
I know you'd probably need to find out at some point that your HOA has the authority to do this, but all the same: in what fucked-up universe can your own neighbours sit around while a house you own fully is sold off for a fraction of its value, especially over only $800 in missed payments? Furthermore, while you're in Iraq?

Basically, FUCK HOME OWNERS' ASSOCIATIONS

Cojafoji
May 18th, 2010, 04:56 PM
Fucking disgusting. I have so many problems with HOA's. They tell you how to live, where to live, and when to live. You purchase a house, but you have stipulations, and membership fees? Fuck that. If I want to watch porn on a 65" HD LCD television, whilst it's facing the window, I should be able to! They even go after people who fly american flags.

Fuck HOA. I hope that guy fucking slaughters every member of that HOA.

Dwood
May 18th, 2010, 05:13 PM
What does that HOA do with that much in dues anyways?

mech
May 18th, 2010, 06:16 PM
They roll around in it. The assholes here don't do shit to the maintain the neighborhood, yet they demand a 200 dollar annual fee. They even cut winter snow plowing, so I don't know what the fuck the money is going to.

rossmum
May 18th, 2010, 06:21 PM
See I live in a country where basically nobody gives a fuck. The council do a shitfuck horrible job of maintaining the roads and keeping grass and trees on council land trimmed, and homeowners do whatever the fuck they like. Have something against lawnmowers? Grow a full-blown jungle. Want to fill your property with busted cars? Go for your life. Unless it's actually a risk to public health, nobody cares.

Bodzilla
May 18th, 2010, 09:39 PM
New housing estates arnt like that Ross.

my dads got a place in brisbane that he owns and theres all these maintenance fees and bullshit that he HAS to pay even though they've never done anything, ever.
Just where ya live mate. Makes be fucking pissed off though.

Cojafoji
May 18th, 2010, 10:20 PM
most people say: "how do they do that if they own the property"

it's a contractual stipulation of the original sale, and all further sales.

never buy a home in a development.

rossmum
May 19th, 2010, 02:57 AM
I have a burning hatred for developers in general let alone areas where you can get Your Designer Home (tm) built so close to your neighbours that you can reach out of a window and touch the side of their house. There is so much bullshit associated with those here (even down to which ISP serves them - Telstra "Smart Communities" are starting to pop up where you absolutely MUST have an extortionately-priced and horribly low-capped connection with Telstra, and you absolutely cannot go to another ISP under any circumstances) that I would sooner live in an absolute shitfight of a fibro shack before moving into one of those places. I never saw the appeal of paying through the nose for a cookie-cutter house in suburbia versus buying a cheap place in the city where when you own it, you own it. Fuck housing estates.

Also, what with me living on the coast, it also means 90% of these places are literally built on swampland. Shit most houses here are, but at least mine's on a hill.

sleepy1212
May 19th, 2010, 07:49 AM
Here's more success from a HOA : http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-veteran-flagpole,0,2550197.story

I used to live in FL and there's a community called Bluewater Bay. Me and this other guy were doing home improvement type stuff, odd construction - home repair jobs and we showed up for a job in Bluewater. We lost the job that day because his work truck was considered ugly by the HOA. It would have taken us a day we showed up in the morning and got booted before lunch and not by the homeowner lol.

E: fucking glad i live in the country now

rossmum
May 19th, 2010, 07:58 AM
people who honestly see any benefit at all in things like this are by definition horrible selfish fucks

Cojafoji
May 19th, 2010, 02:46 PM
I would literally kill myself rather than live in a prison like this.

http://i.imgur.com/3XK0Q.jpg

p0lar_bear
May 19th, 2010, 04:49 PM
HOAs: Good intentions, terrible execution.

It's like they're in the wrong places.

TeeKup
May 19th, 2010, 04:59 PM
I would literally kill myself rather than live in a prison like this.

http://i.imgur.com/3XK0Q.jpg

Is that America? Or Communist Russia? I can't tell.

Dwood
May 19th, 2010, 05:18 PM
Both.

rossmum
May 19th, 2010, 05:59 PM
America. The USSR went the England way of doing things and put up tower blocks. They aren't exactly great but fuck, at least nobody sperged out if anyone within dared to be different.

e/ also I love how these people are such control freaks that they even decide the design and colour of your letterbox. Christ, who would see this as any sort of good thing?

Warsaw
May 20th, 2010, 10:07 PM
America's "pocket communism." That would be the post-World War II "Levitt Town".