Sun City Was Never Designed To BE 55+
Only or
10 Strikes why senior only communities
are a very bad idea
When Sun City, a non-gated
community, was planned and built by Del Web, it was designed to be an adult
only community of age 18+. It remained
so until “PROJECT 55” began around 2007 when Jean Roberge falsely filed a
document with the country recorder claiming that members of SCCA received and voted
on a ballot that members never received. While the SCCA Board claim that never
happened, they have never produced the ballot they claim the members received
after repeated requests. If the above
statement is false, then let them prove by producing the ballot the ballot.
Yes, idea of 55+ communities
has become very popular in the last twenty five or so years. The senior only
community brochures are gorgeous. The
life style the brochures present is retirement paradise. The developers paid $100,000 plus to sell a
dream. The brochures have been
psychologically designed to convince younger seniors their community offers a
way of life they always desired but couldn’t afford. The developers, at long last, created a life
style that offers everything from security gates, swimming, golf, club houses
for avid bridge and other board game players, arts & crafts, boating, horse
back riding, minimum property up keep because the association does it all for
an affordable price. They promise a home owners association (HOA) run by the titleholders.
Best of all is no little noisy skate
boarding, basket ball bouncing brats will be seen or heard in this utopia! Peace and quiet from the obnoxious noise of
children! Free at last! Free at last. Who wouldn’t want to live in paradise?
The brand new developments are
seductively gorgeous from the outside. Seniors
are anxious to buy believing they will get all that paradise offers and a big
appreciation on their investment, too. The
younger seniors are and still full of
vitality at the time they choose to buy into the community. They whole
heartedly believe living in a deed restricted community will keep their
property values up because the restrictions (aka CC&R’s) will keep their
neighbors under control. What they don’t
realize is it is they who will be kept under control. After a few years they
are miserable with the perpetual meetings, cronyism, conflicts, and letters
notifying them of trivial violations.
About 10% of titleholders
living in any senior community think they are great. The rest regret having
ever moved into an age restricted HOA.
Deed restricted senior
communities are a net made of thousands of laws that diminish property owner’s
Constitutional and legal rights. The thousands of laws are interpreted in an
arbitrary manner by capricious HOA Boards, management companies, their attorneys,
arbitrators and judges. HOA’s, legally
have their hands on titleholders’ pocket books and property. The way it exists
today, titleholders have very little to almost no judicial recourse in the
event of a dispute between members and the association. In the event of a
conflict between a resident and the association, the dream turns into a nightmare.
The challenging member is in serious danger of
non-judicial foreclosure. That is just
one of the reason deed restricted titles are inferior. Take a look at the hard
reality.
Strike One
Most
people retire on a fixed income that fails to increase as rapidly as the cost
of living. No matter how reasonable the
monthly HOA dues are in the beginning, eventually it comes to a time they have
to be raised. They can be raised as much
as 20% per year every year. It doesn’t
take too many years before the dues become exorbitant. Refusal or failure to
pay these dues (no matter what the reason) will result in fines. The fine will
be converted into liens which will lead to non judicial foreclosure upon a
resident’s property. Even if the property is owned free and clear by the titleholder,
if the dues remain unpaid, titleholders can be foreclosed upon. Fines for
failure to pay dues are not the only fines that can be imposed. If the Board
accuses a titleholder of failure to comply with one of the endless petty rules,
whether or not it is so, the titleholder can be fined! Illness or financial hardship is no excuse. Failure to pay monthly dues or fines will
ultimately lead to foreclosure. By
excessive fining of seniors temporarily living in assisted living facilities,
they have legal cause for non judicial foreclosure upon the luckless
senior. How safe is senior’s investment?
The power of non judicial foreclosure
also exists in non senior deed restricted communities. The difference is the titleholder’s are much
younger, income is usually not fixed and the property isn’t going to be their
last.
Strike
Two
Deed
restricted titles are inferior to all other titles.
“. . .it is not an “investment” in the financial sense, because it is not
under the homeowner’s full control. . .
When you purchase in a common interest development you
are banking on only one thing: marketability. . .” Villa Appalling,by Donie
Vanitzian
When real estate markets go
side ways, the first communities to suffer major depreciation are deed
restricted senior communities. The last places for them to appreciate when the
market returns in favor of sellers are deed restricted communities. They are a
double whammy.
a.
Deed restricted
communities are less desirable and harder to market because of the excessive
rules and the monthly HOA dues.
b.
It is more
difficult to obtain loans because lenders want to access HOA Board minutes to
assess the competency of the Board
c.
The buyers’
market for senior housing is reduced by 60% or more
This means if a senior has to
sell his home because he needs to go to an assisted living home, chances are it
will sit vacant for a very long time. If
there is a mortgage on it, he may have trouble paying it, the HOA dues and the
assisted living costs. Renting the unit would be the next best solution. However, many of the communities have rental
restrictions. That could make it impossible to rent the unit in hard times.
That will definitely lead to non judicial foreclosure.
Strike Three
Senior only communities are magnets
to predators!
Senior communities have
become the dumping ground of convicted pedophiles. This is an automatic creation of a criminal
society.
Senior communities are
visible crime targets and are among the most vulnerable in our population are
the elderly. 55+ only communities concentrate a large population of elderly in
one location. The crudest thief knows
how easy it is to break and enter a senior’s home. Some of them do it in broad
day light with the senior home. One
thief detains the elder at the front door while the other breaks in the back! Senior only communities have become a Mecca to the barracudas
and sharks who know precisely how to survive and profit off helpless, needy
seniors. Where there is a senior only
community, there is a swarm of flim/flam people, con artists, back stabbers,
and cork twisters who can fleece a senior so smoothly, the person doesn’t even
recognize he/she has been robbed.
These vultures become self
appointed care givers, pretend to be relatives, marry seniors, or simply pose
as well intentioned do-gooders who ultimately get their hands on senior’s money
and property. They use many tricks. They find seniors who have no known
relatives or near by friends. Senior
communities are plagued with these bottom feeders lurking in the shadows. Gates don’t stop thieves or scoundrels who
prey upon the elderly. Thieves have no problem getting past gates. Often, it is
the elderly who unwittingly invite them in.
Among this collection of ill intentioned smiling faces are HOA members and
even some board members.
Strike
Four
Seniors
suffer the loss of privacy rights. All
privacy is gone once a buyer has taken possession of property in a senior
community. The HOA has the legal right
under the Unruh Act to demand private information. The titleholder must agree to show proof of
age to the HOA Association prior to occupancy and every two years there after.
The right to live and grow old was once sacred and private. Visitors and guests
were once no one’s business but the
titleholder. Titleholders are
required to give to the association the name and proof of age of a visitor who
stays longer than a month. Titleholder’s children or grandchildren are only
allowed to stay one month if they are younger than 55. A doctor’s note must be obtained and
presented to the association if a care giver younger than 55 is going to live
in the residence. Failure to comply will
result in fines which will turn into liens which can lead to non judicial
foreclosure upon the senior’s property.
Strike
Five
Retirement
communities interfere with the rights of families of helping their children in
times of emergency or crisis. Living in
a 55+ only community restricts titleholders from allowing their children or
grandchildren to live with them for longer than periods of one month should an
emergency or crisis arise in the lives of their children. In a case in one community, the
grandchildren’s parents were killed in a car crash, the grandparents were not
be permitted to let the grandchildren live with them. The HOA forced them to
sell.
d.
In today’s tough
economic times seniors’ children may suffer serious economic set backs, and may
need to move in with their families for awhile. If their children are under age
55, the HOA will forbid it claiming it is a violation on the Unruh Act
e.
The family will
be forced to sell or move out if it wants to raise its own grandchildren due to
unexpected tragedy
Strike
Six
As people in retirement
communities age their interest in voting wanes.
The majority of first buyers
in newly built senior communities are in their mid fifties to early sixties.
They still feel as if they can conquer the world and have time for a swim or
game of golf. They are planning this
purchase to be until death do them part.
This means in twenty five years from the time the community is totally
sold, the majority of the community population will be seventy five to eighty
years old. Aging doesn’t come alone.
“Health problems in older adults cause slower reaction time, reduced
vision and hearing, impaired body movement, and slower decision making. Health condition such as glaucoma, arthritis,
stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.. . .” California DMV Driver’s Hand Book
Because of this natural aging
process, seniors’ focus change from objective to subjective. At age 85 going on
90, they are now more concerned with living through another day with out pain,
or crisis. Will they get their meds in time or have enough money to pay for
them. Seniors become apathetic, lose interest in community activities. All the senior
clubs and activities have dwindled down.
Most of the clubs are lucky if 10% of the members participate. Consequently
the introduction of new ideas, understanding of current events, changing
systems, computers and new technology, staying informed and up to date is often
lost upon the majority senior population of the now very old community. Ultimately
it is very difficult for senior associations to even get a quorum for required voting.
The voters often don’t realize the
issues for which they are voting in favor are not in their best interest,
against their own rights, and often illegal.
When the majority of the
community’s population has become too old to understand, it is not very
difficult for a handful of younger and more alert senior members with hidden
agendas to grab power and control the rest of community. This is the perfect
blue print for power hungry, unethical people to create malevolent HOA Boards. Often
Boards and their property management companies are acting illegally and the
titleholders don’t even know it. Because
of the lack of any specified requirements to serve on the board, quite often
the board doesn’t even know when it is acting illegally.
Strike
Seven
Quite
often, the people who serve on the boards are unqualified and unscrupulous.
“When criminal liability is not charged against the “criminals” in an
association, then the titleholders become the Human Capital used to fund the
criminal activities and wrong doing.”
D. Vanitzian author of Villa Appalling, Destroying the Myth of
Affordable Living
Under
current legal system there are absolutely no criteria or qualifications for
people to serve on HOA Boards. This
means any one who is popular enough with the association members can be and
usually is elected to the Board. Many of those who serve on these boards never
even graduated high school. Since the
average titleholder has no past experience in serving on the Board, this means
the average HOA Board has no experience.
This is where it gets frightening.
The inexperienced board has its iron clad grip on the titleholders’
money!
“Titleholders fund the excesses of errant boards and
their errant third party vendors and agents because the California laws have no meaningful incentive
for deference of such crimes when they occur in residential common interest
development.” D. Vanitzian (author of Villa Appalling,
Destroying the Myth of Affordable Living )
Strike
Eight
Board
members receive benefits at the price of the titleholders. Many buyers of deed
restricted properties don’t understand the negative affects of HOA boards. They like the idea of an association
governing the community in which they plan to live. They mistakenly believe it
controls their neighbors and thus keeps up property values.
Another myth some
titleholders believe is because the Board members are all volunteers they
receive no remuneration or reward, they are above reproach. Any titleholder who
believes that needs to take a second look to understand why people so
selflessly volunteer.
“What of the board director who does not
receive a "financial benefit" for his services on the board?
There are also non-economic benefits for being a director. In one such
situation a board director was known to "get off" by signing his name
as the association's C.E.O. This allowed him to represent himself to the
outside world as a "somebody" where he would have otherwise been a
"nobody." Playing C.E.O. and receiving the non-economic
benefits of "recognition" accolades, plaques, applause, and the like,
are no different than the $15.00 haircut. Why? Because they deprive
the titleholders of full advantage of the corporate protocol at the expense of
an inept board director who has nothing better to do than waste his position on
the board and misuse authority => for no other reason than "he
can." [FN1] The same can be said for the board director who is a "yes
man" to a management company or association advisors. Actions like
these should be considered a WASTE of corporate assets--the assets being
valuable time lost that cannot be regained at any cost due to the connivance
individuals merely sitting on the board of directors because it makes him/them
feel important or boosts their collective egos. Doing "nothing"
but sucking up to vendors is also costly and it is a breach of the board's
fiduciary duty to every owner who has an interest in property and whose assets
are at risk in that development. [FN1]
Board directors are supposed to be
independent thinking decision makers. Playing "follow the
leader" is a breach of duty, especially when the "leader" is a
board director beholden to a vendor with a contract at that association.
It is also a breach of duty to "follow" third party vendors AS IF they
are leaders, and to do the same with management companies, their personnel,
association advisors, or managers in general places the association and all its
titleholders at risk. The board's duty is to supervise and oversee every such
entity without fail and to NOT follow them to the grave or jail, whichever the
case may be. Yet at the same time, every board of directors are vested
with the authority to, in a sense, criminalize and punish the behavior and
actions of their neighbors who own property and reside under the same corporate
umbrella that the board director controls.” [FN1] Donie Vanitzian, author of Villa Appalling,
Destroying the Myth of Affordable Living
Strike Nine
Opposing
information about vital HOA issues is never available. Titleholders need as much
information as possible to remain informed and make objective choices and
decisions. Pro and con facts are vital in decision making. The unwritten HOA
rule is the only information titleholders receive about their HOA is from the
Board or its property management company.
Such information is biased and incomplete. There is no opposing information to show
consequences, possible liabilities, negative affects upon the titleholder, or
any other price it may cost the titleholder.
This limits the members’ ability to vote objectively.
In spite of flagrant wrong
doings by association boards, the local news papers have an indifferent
attitude towards titleholders’ problems and either refuse to do stories about
them or write stories in favor of the boards.
They never take on the belly of the issues straight forward.
Strike Ten
It is psychologically unhealthy for elderly people to
see only elderly people. Senior only
communities segregate elders from the main stream of life. They isolate them
and minimize their sense of value to their community. There is little for them to do in the running
of their communities. The property
management company and the board retain all the control. It’s indirectly
telling senior titleholders they are no longer needed. So they can be put to pasture. It is well known that the majority of people
die within six months to a year of retirement because their sense of value in
life been lost.
Any health care person
trained to work with the elderly will admit the worst experience for a healthy
senior is to remain in the constant company of other seniors. The continued sight of only other elderly
people is a mirror of their own aging and an unconscious reminder death is
near. The unconscious thought of near
future death reduces the enthusiasm for the quality of life. Often elderly
people have difficulty getting along with one another. They can’t stand the site of other aging
people.
It is unsafe to only have
elderly neighbors. Senior only
communities are unhealthy communities. Neighbors need to look out for one
another. Often seniors become
isolated. If a senior has a fall or is
in need of assistance, chances are neither neighbor will hear nor be aware of
the problem. If they are, they might be unable to help. Either neighbor is
approximately the same age and is also suffering with his/her own health
problems. If an occasional favor or errand is needed like picking something up
at the store, bringing in the newspaper, or taking out the trash there is no
neighbor capable of doing so. They either
never talk to their neighbors or continuously fight with them. Often mean spirited titleholders use the board
as a whip against their neighbors continually reporting them for any and every
infraction of rules they can. Having to constantly deal with so called codes
compliance people destroys a seniors’ quiet enjoyment of his own home and
punishes the titleholder with excessive stress. This misery between neighbors
is miserable enough for non seniors. It
is pure hell for the elderly. They need to enjoy their spoonful of years.
These communities are the
bane of America
today! They have undermined the very foundation of American’s private property
rights and Constitutional rights. They have demeaned the elderly. Personally, I think every developer who builds
a senior community or any kind of deed restricted community should be tried for
treason. The Department of Real Estate has failed big time to properly protect
the consumer. The lawyers who have turned representing HOA’s and property
management companies into a major industry should be disbarred. The Judges who
rule in favor of the HOA Boards against the home owner, need to go back to
school and studies the Constitution and Ethics then tried for treason.
This article is based upon ten years of experience and
research the governing laws of deed restricted communities, the problems,
issues of other deed restricted communities,
living, and being a titleholder for over ten years in two 55+ HOA communities. If you want more information and are
connected to the inter net the following web sites have abundant information
about horrors of deed restricted communities; AHRC.com, Cotobuzz.com, and
Spa-shout.org. Two of the best written books on this subject are Villa
Appalling, Destroying the Myth of Affordable Living and California Common Interest Development—Home
Owner’s Guide by Donie Vanitzian
By Therese Daniels © April 19, 2008
