Homeowner Rights And Associations

Your front-page article about homeowner associations (“The Power of Homeowner Associations--Democracy or Chaos?” Oct. 29) addresses a very real and growing threat to personal property rights and the individual’s right to privacy.

This growing threat is the result of the very expanding, widespread use of covenants, conditions and restrictions incorporated into grant deeds and the resultant homeowner associations created by the CC & Rs. These CC & Rs, written by lawyers for the benefit of lawyers and developers, have caused homeowner associations to become a way of life in California.

However, the rise of homeowner associations and their absolute powers can be a very real threat to one’s personal freedom, which appears to be currently unguarded by California law and totally outside the interests and priorities of elected officials. CC & Rs and homeowner associations are no doubt here to stay, and they serve a very useful and necessary purpose in many respects.

But new legislation is required to protect individuals from the “tyranny of the majority” with respect to their fundamental rights concerning their homes and privacy in those developments covered by CC & Rs and homeowner associations.

The individual homeowner is virtually powerless to correct the situation, since he is forced to accept the CC & Rs if he desires to purchase the home of his choice. And once purchased, he is legally bound to abide by CC & Rs, since they are incorporated into the grant deed.

Members of the state Legislature and Congress I have contacted have shown little interest in this area. Do we have to resort to the initiative process (again) to correct this situation in the absence of any leadership by our elected officials?

MAURICE R. DAHN

Laguna Hills