Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson says a woman slowly drives by his Placer County home about once a week and takes pictures.
She’s not an angry constituent or a stalker. He said she’s a representative from his homeowners’ association gathering evidence to make sure the exterior of Patterson’s home complies with its strict rules.
“I’ve been getting letters for, you know, ‘Oh, your (landscaping) bark isn’t deep enough,’ ” he said. “Now it’s my son’s basketball hoop.”
The “sheer harassment” from his HOA is why he said he has a large black flag in his legislative office. It reads: “Defund the HOA.”
So it didn’t take a lot of arm twisting from Patterson’s Republican colleague, Carl DeMaio, to persuade Patterson to present DeMaio’s Assembly Bill 21. The proposed new law would force California’s estimated 50,000 private homeowners’ associations to behave more like local governments when it comes to open records and public meetings. The bill failed to advance from its first committee hearing last week.
HOAs collect monthly fees from homeowners for services such as maintaining clubhouses and pools, security, plowing snow, landscaping, road repairs and other shared amenities. They often set neighborhood rules to ensure properties are maintained and don’t become unsightly.
Many people who live in HOA-governed communities have no complaints, appreciate that they help share the cost and believe that standard rules about home appearance prevent eyesores.
But the associations themselves can sometimes devolve into bitter feuds between neighbors, featuring accusations of cronyism and ruthless enforcement of petty violations of an HOA’s rules. Multiple popular social media accounts and message boards are devoted to…
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