Best Explanation of how HOAs violate the Constitution
Best Explanation so far about how HOA Laws violate the Washington State Constitution
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Specifically, it states:
This amendment, ratified in 1868, aimed to protect individual rights and ensure equal treatment under the law.
If the government makes laws that allow non-government entities to violate your constitutional rights, isn’t that the same as the government violating your constitutional rights?
HOA Board can accuse you of violating a covenant. You can appeal. Then the same Board members are the judges that you appeal to. Then they can, with no evidence find you guilty. Then they can fine you. Yes, you can take that to court, but HOAs are given the power to fine you without due process, you have already been convicted and fined.
So first, there is no due process, because you have already been tried convicted and fined by an HOA, which is not a municipality and does not have the oversight of other public governing bodies.
CIVIL RIGHTS LIABILITY UNDER 42 U.S.C. § 1983 demands that the government protects United States Citizens from anyone who breaks Due Process and our Civil Rights.
Second, HOAs have special privileges (they are given municipal powers) generally reserved for municipalities.
In Ocean Park, in Pacific County, there is an HOA called Surfside HOA. Pacific County has put the covenants of Surfside directly into the Pacific County Ordinance but has not put the covenants of other HOAs and COAs in the County Ordinances, thus giving special privileges to Surfside. I am not aware of any other situation like that in the State of Washington. On top of that, the County allows Surfside to change their covenants, without changing the covenants that are copied into the Ordinances, thus creating a conflict between the covenants and the ordinances. Although I have brought this to the attention of the County Commissioners and the Director of the DCD, no changes have been made.
Yet the Washington Constitution says:
Article I Section 12 SPECIAL PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES PROHIBITED. No law shall be passed granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens, or corporations.
Could Microsoft put a clause in their work agreement that stated that if you work for Microsoft that Microsoft can tell you what color your house can be, what color your indoor window curtains can be, when you have to replace your water heater and how long your grass can be? Could a Chinese company operating here in Washington include in their contract that all people that worked for them had to paint their homes to look like the Chinese flag? I don’t think that either would fly, yet HOAs have that power. Does the State or the US Government have the power to tell a citizen that they can’t paint their house blue? And yet HOAs have that power.
Third:
Article I Section 7 INVASION OF PRIVATE AFFAIRS OR HOME PROHIBITED. No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.
As members of an HOA, we have no privacy and no sanctuary. HOAs force members to sign agreements that allow them access to trespass on the member’s property, and enter their home or condominium to inspect. In some cases homeowners are required to modify the interior or items in the interior of their homes, owned by the member to meet the whims of the HOA. The COA/HOA boards refuse to do their duties, violate the constitutional rights of the members and trespassing laws, and the attorneys and property managers allow and encourage the harassment of the homeowners.
Fourth, the Covenants of an HOA can be more restrictive than the County Ordinances. So for example, again in Surfside in Pacific County, the Pacific County Ordinances say that each property can have one RV on it at all times, but the Surfside Covenants don’t allow RVs to be on an RV property throughout the winter except for a certain number of days. So the Covenants actually contradict and override the County Ordinances.
The State Firewise program says topping trees causes a fire hazard, yet, the Surfside Covenants REQUIRE the topping of trees to create views for a small number of residents that control the Board.
Washington State law does not support the topping of trees for views, yet the Surfside Covenants override the State Firewise program and the State laws thus damaging the property values and safety of about 1400 properties and costing 2800 properties the cost of enforcing the covenant for the “view benefits” of about 340 properties.
I am not an attorney but it does seem that the HOA laws do violate the Washington State Constitution