Ah, Barbara Holland, how we love thee! Ms. Holland, who writes a column in the real estate section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, complains about a recent guest blog that lists some of the complaints against her: One is that she gets paid for writing her newspaper column which is massively biased in favor of Homeowners Associations.
My colleagues and I have posed this question on several occasions in HOA discussion forums frequented by Community Associations Institute (CAI) members – mostly community managers and attorneys, with an occasional Board member.
Of course, the knee-jerk HOA industry reply is “NOOOOO!” The standard mantra is that HOAs do not want or need more government control. Why would Association members want some bureaucrats in far-off Washington DC telling communities how they ought to govern themselves? They reason that members of HOAs are quite capable of choosing their own destinies, within their own “form of democracy.”
This is an update to an earlier blog about the Plantation Resort 2 in Frisco, Texas. The PR2 HOA is filing a lawsuit against City House, to block use of a home they recently purchased and renovated for use as transitional living for homeless youths.
The local CBS affiliate has been covering the story, and the link to their video is below.
Another isolated incident?
It seems like there are several reports of HOA theft and embezzlement each week. Sometimes it’s a rogue Board member writing checks to herself or buying himself a new car. But sometimes it’s the Community Association Manager skimming funds, as in this case in Georgia. Atlanta, Dunwoody, and Chamblee police departments are currently investigating up to twelve HOAs where Michael Sisson was hired to manage the communities’ operations and finances.
Yes, up to one dozen.
We did a blog here a month or two ago about the president/treasurer of a Fort Lauderdale HOA. Seems the neighbors are irked that this guy has written tens of thousands of of dollars worth of ‘salary’ checks to himself. Then he got pretty cocky and used money from the neighborhood budget to buy himself a new car.
Well, police have finally seen fit to arrest the guy on a second class misdemeanor. A couple of observations, here. The most this guy can get is a 30 day jail term and six months probation. That’s not bad work at all, if you can find it.
