Trisha's house of 18 years was sold to a stranger for $4.95
Trisha Quigley watched as a stranger bought her home of 18 years on the steps of a courthouse for less than the cost of a cup of coffee.
Quigley was foreclosed on after she missed two homeowner association payments of $US800 ($AU1220).
“It went for $3.25,” she told America’s Channel 2 Action News, based in Atlanta, Georgia. That amounts of $AU4.95.
The Atlanta resident paid more than $US10,000 ($AU15,200) to try to try to square the ledger her homeowner’s association (HOA) but the late fees and lawyer fees kept mounting.
The more Quigley contested the bill, the more the HOA added administrative costs to the balance. Eventually, she crumbled under the weight of the debt and HOA foreclosed on her, selling the property in front of the local courthouse, she said the local TV station’s special report.
Homeowner associations are common in the US, especially in brand new estates and suburbs. They enforce rules that residents in a community must live by and management of laws including subdivision and zoning, and beautification matters such as modifications to homes.
There are more than 370,000 HOAs in the US, affecting more than than 40 million households. Everyone from owner occupiers to landlords and renters fall under them.
A HOA can even fine homeowner for failing to maintain a garden. That is what happened to James McAdoo, whose only method of preventing the HOA from drawing fines and late fees from his salary was to file for bankruptcy.
By that point, he owed $US36,000 ($AU54,858).
The problem that started it all? Weeds in his front yard.
In the US, 84 per cent of new homes built in 2022 are managed by HOAs, according to data reported by CNBC. In some districts, it is local government requirement that newly-constructed homes are subject to a HOA.
Local governments are able to handball responsibilities for homes which they would normally take care of through taxes to the HOA.
Another Atlanta homeowner, Juliet Gram, amassed a crippling HOA debt of $US250,000 ($AU380,963), she told the network.
“You broke us,” she said. “I can’t imagine the mafia being any worse than what my experience was with this.”
State senators in Georgia are introducing bills to try to reduce the power HOAs have to foreclose on homes.
Senator Matt Brass told Channel 2 Action News that foreclosures of this nature robbed families of generational wealth established through property ownership.
“To have some outside group come and take that away, to me is un-American and we are not going to stand for it in this state,” he said.
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