At some point in 2023, Vista Palms HOA went from HOA Board-occupied-by-residents-in-control to property management-controlled. Seemingly, after our original HOA president moved, everything went to hell. I don’t know why we hired a property management group, namely Unique Property Services, Inc. But I do know that property management groups allow HOA Board members to act like they are not responsible for the bad things that happen as a result of “the property manager’s decisions”.
Let me say it again: Once you become a target, you will always be a target. There is no clean slate. Even if you win a lawsuit against someone in which it is decided by the court that the opposing party is in the wrong, nothing will ever be the same. It is like being in a relationship where your partner engages in sexual infidelity: No matter how much you forgive and no matter if the cheater says they are going to turn their life around, you, the aggrieved party, will never forget. This inability to forget will guide your future actions. As more time passes, the more invested you become and the harder it is to break it off. The more self-talk you must engage in. The more rationalizing you will do. And the cheater knows this and it will surely guide their future actions, but not in your favor.
When you have no money, sometimes it just means you have some money but it is not enough. My Homeowners Association is still relentlessly pursuing me while I am trying to survive. The HOA terror has me in a constant state of stress. Stress activates my illness. And that illness landed me in the hospital at 3 am on a Saturday because I wasn’t sure if I was going to die or if I was just going to go ahead and walk in front of the next car in the dark on highway 301*.
I have been slowly acclimating myself to the idea of leaving Florida. What once existed either is no longer here and/or what I once considered valuable is no longer so. What ruined it for me? My Homeowners Association—The Vista Palms Community Association located in Wimauma, Florida which borders the senior citizen area of Sun City Center, all located in Hillsborough County outside of the greater city of Tampa.
I have previously recounted on this site that I got a consultation from an attorney about my HOA terrorizing me. As a recap, that attorney advised me to move. They said the real fight was to get someone to investigate the racket that is being run by Homeowners Associations in Florida. They aren’t lying.
All the research that I have done on Homeowners Associations state that HOAs tend to change the rules in the middle of the game. HOAs will make up new rules because they run unchecked. Look no further than the current state of affairs in U.S. politics to understand that rules are for poor people who lack power. The HOA is taking your money and they will use your money against you because they have been given the power to do so.
My neighborhood is stank. When I say “stank” in this context, I’m not referring to the HOA Board, the HOA Property Manager, or the neighbors. Yes, my HOA-governed neighborhood’s HOA, including the property manager, are stank. And surely some people believe that their neighbors are stank (stank in this context means attitude). But I am talking about odor in the neighborhood. It smells bad, intermittently.
When your Homeowners Association reigns their terror upon you, maintaining employment may become [more] difficult. Once your HOA chooses you, you become a never ending target for various community violations (the same violations you see throughout the neighborhood so you know you’re not alone in that aspect). Email threats. Attorney threats through the mail. Then, judicial threats. All of these wreak havoc on the stability you once had. And losing your job is the last thing you need when most of your problems are monetary. Poverty is punishing…and so is your HOA.
Previously, I asked if homeowners do research about HOAs before they move into an HOA community. This research is going to be difficult because there is no database for HOA complaints. And there should be at least one, especially for Florida.
You move into your new house. You buy some new things that better suit your space. This means some of your old stuff must go. Houses in Florida do not seem to have storage areas or enough closets, so it’s time for a garage sale. But wait! You cannot do that.
