It’s not often that the lowly homeowner has much of a chance of getting a fair hearing in court. The vast majority of all rulings are against the homeowner and in favor of the private non-profit corporation. And many’s the judge who’s told a miserable homeowner that he or she should have read his covenants before signing the real estate documents.
Last week’s ruling, though, by the Supreme Court of Virginia was a clarion call to the National Homeowners Association Movement that it can’t stomp on the homeowner’s Constitutional rights forever. Basically the court ruled that the Shadowood Condominium complex in Reston, Virginia cannot assess fines against residents because there was no such permission granted in the development’s master deed. Bam! Pow!
Our buddy from Las Vegas sends us the latest news link (at bottom of this page). The Federal Prosecutor there will soon be indicting its last round of HOA scammers.
These are the guys, you may recall, who ran phony HOA board elections, got the fake board officers to start diverting millions of bucks worth of homeowners’ dues into the pockets of corrupt Nevada lawyers, police officials and building contractors. More than two dozen pleaded guilty; the feds say they may indict a dozen more before ending its racketeering investigation. It’s one of the most massive public corruption cases in the history of the FBI.
Since I’ve covered chicken wars in the past, I figured I’d link the latest pertinent news story. One of my neighbors has a chicken coop. Never in a million years would I complain. But I have to confess to having accepted some eggs in the past.
I’ve gotten some emails from Maryland asking the impact of the proposed state proposal to change the status of the Columbia Association (an HOA) into a ‘newly created’ nonprofit community services corporation, whatever that is. Any help on understanding this issue would be hugely appreciated. A public answer here, or private (NeighborsAtWar@hotmail. com), and I will be eternally grateful.
More and more Homeowners Associations around the country are actually demanding and getting police powers. Most homeowners are standing idly by and letting it happen.
In Illinois, in Colorado, in Florida and elsewhere HOA boards are purchasing traffic radar equipment and handing out speeding tickets. Fines against speeding homeowners can run anywhere from 50 to 3500 dollars! All by itself, that’s an outrage. But like gasoline thrown on a campfire, HOAs are actually fining homeowners when their guests are caught speeding!
As crazy as it seems, a case bubbling through the court system in Illinois has actually made it to that state’s supreme court.
