Protecting our Rights
Skip Weiler, 2004 President
In college I learned property owners have a “bundle of rights.” Every day, every year, a piece of this bundle of property rights is spirited away.
The government, environmental groups, neighborhood associations and individuals are all seeking to reduce property owner’s rights. They are trying to control what property owners can and cannot do with their properties. Government agencies are attempting to stop or restrict development under the pretense of the public good using the environment, lack of infrastructure, economic conditions, school incapacity, or other reasons to restrict our property rights.
Although I strongly support preserving the environment, historic preservation and other reasonable protections, the trend of society limiting individual rights has been carried too far.
In some of our communities, area associations have become so controlling as to determining the type of window that must be installed in a house, not to mention all other aspects of a house exterior elevation. One such Columbus suburb just passed legislation requiring windows on all four sides of the second floor of new houses.
Communities have tried an assortment of restrictions on property owners such as reducing (and even disallowing) the size of “for sale” signs that are permitted to be placed in front of a house, requiring point of inspection permits prior to sale (or rental), stopping development because of proximity to a river even when no adverse drainage will occur, preventing owners from annexing to municipalities, and creating park districts or open space rendering minimal agricultural values.
The sad truth is the list could go on to fill all the pages of this magazine.
However, the news is not all bad. REALTORS® are using their significant influence to protect property rights. We have over 972,000 members nationally, over 31,000 in Ohio, and over 6,300 in the Columbus Board. We can and have united to protect and preserve our property rights.
While REALTORS® are working for a common good, we must become even more vigilant and more proactive. Each of us must continue to support CORPAC as well as being involved in local, state and national politics.
When REALTORS® get a “call to action” we must get involved. Do not sit by and hope things will work out by themselves or that others will take care of our industry. It is up to each one of us. Get involved, protect our rights!
Eliminating the downpayment
Three of our Ohio Congressmen - Pat Tiberi, Bob Ney and Mike Oxley – were involved in introducing legislation to eliminate the down payment required on FHA mortgages. Hat’s off to Pat, Bob and Mike for their dedication to increasing homeownership opportunities in Ohio! [Read more]
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