Tag Archives: corruption

Loretta Lock Finally Admits She’s A Thief

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Charleston Harbor HOA in Kansas City North, Missouri has been the latest victim of over a $100,000 embezzlement!

On August 19, 1938 a thief by the name of Loretta Lock was born. She sells real estate and advertises how honest she is! And her performance in the courtroom would have you thinking she’s a little old church lady who laid down her knitting needles and forgot her hearing aids in a rush to stand before the judge and plead guilty to stealing from two hundred of her neighbors! Annually, they each pay dues of $400. So her stint as the board treasurer and neighborhood thief required some very careful transacting.

You see, Loretta loves to gamble! Not with her money, but with her neighbors’ money. At times she used the HOA ATM card at the casino. Other times she just wrote herself checks.

Here’s a little twist to the story. Her husband is an attorney. So sometimes she wrote him checks, too, for his fabulous legal advice! Don’t you just love this story?

How did she get caught? Well, you’ll read about that in the attached article. But those of us who’ve been around this HOA embezzlement game table for a while know she could have pulled this off without ever being busted. Let’s just say she’s a very dumb criminal.

The Charleston Harbor board president, Chaz Wood is very smart. He wasted no time getting the police involved when the bank mentioned a $50,000 deposit that was made the day before he arrived with another board member to become signors on the HOA account. Red-headed Loretta had been stalling about turning over the financial records. Imagine that!

The board made a fatal error. Claiming they wanted to “save money,” they decided to forego the annual audits that are required by the CC&Rs. Never pass on doing the annual audits. That is precisely why my HOA, to this day has ten million dollars unaccounted for! No audits is a “Welcome To Steal Here” sign!

This case was being kept very quiet until an anonymous tipster spilled a few beans. From there, reporter Judy Thomas was like a bird dog on a pheasant hunt! And everybody knows I despise liars and thieves! We were off and racing to the Clay County courthouse and it’s a long way from Overland Park! Many thanks to the person who took a stand and made the call that changed it all.

Loretta Lock has gotten her fair share of continuances on this case. But we are committed to going back on October 21, 2016 to see if the judge is going to throw the book at her or let her walk with some probation restitution. Either way, I feel justice was served today when Judy Thomas exposed this despicable fraud of a woman in The Kansas City Star. I adore the homeowner who walked up to Judy and said, “Keep it above the fold!”

Many thanks to Judy Thomas for continuing to help us educate homeowners on the risks of buying into an HOA!

(link to Loretta Lock story in Kansas City Star)

 

Organized Crime? You Betcha!

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Organized crime is endemic in the HOA industry, absolutely woven throughout the faulty fabric of the whole structure of Homeowners Associations. Racism, bribery, blackmail, criminal harassment, theft, extortion, embezzlement, phony liens and foreclosures.

If you go back through five years worth of blog posts on NeighborsAtWar.com you’ll see hundreds, even thousands of posts and links to stories of criminal activity in Homeowners Associations in virtually every state in America. Board members, treasurers, management companies, HOA lawyers, even the federal racketeering convictions of 43 HOA officials in Nevada. It’s a vast criminal empire that only recently is beginning to attract attention from the nation’s news media. So this next paragraph and the associated link shouldn’t surprise you much.

Sperlonga LLC, a data collection firm, has now made a deal with Equifax to begin adding HOA dues and payment history to the credit records of homeowners. Your late HOA payments, whether real or phony, will now have the same weight on your credit report as bank loans and auto payments. Welcome to the future, Bunky!

(link to press release by Sperlonga Data)

 

 

Goonan on HOTMA

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One of the most articulate and intellectual bloggers in the homeowners rights movement is Deborah Goonan. A critically important recent column of hers is one that’ll be overlooked by most of us, the so-called Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act. It would force the FHA to ease regulations on mortgage financing for those buying condominiums. On the surface it sounds like a great thing, lowering down payments, reducing the mandated number of owner-occupied units.

But beware! We don’t know what the exact timing is, but there’s a mortgage/credit bubble headed our way that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park. Not a single banking expert is predicting otherwise. All it takes is for one branch to break and the whole tree will fall. Many expect the troubled Deutsche Bank to be the first to fall. Others think the controversial Presidential election cycle could be the trigger.

Regardless of your political persuasion, this is a dangerous time for homeowners, investors and virtually anyone trying to support a family. This bill had unanimous support in the Congress and Senate. But read Deborah’s column. Make your friends read it. And hold your breath because things are going to get interesting.

(link to Independent American Communities column on HOTMA) 

 

Judy Thomas On The Commons

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Most people in our network already frequently check into Shu Bartholomew’s incredible weekly radio show, On The Commons. Everybody who’s anybody in the homeowners rights movement has been interviewed by Shu at least once. But this weekend’s show had a ‘first-timer.’ And what a first-timer it was!

The guest was Judy Thomas, the reporter behind the huge HOA investigative series in last week’s Kansas City Star. Judy says she’s gotten responses from all over the country. Strange, because so many other major newspapers have turned down stories about the HOA mess because they assume it’s a non-issue.  It’s getting more and more difficult for professional lobbyists like the Community Associations Institute (CAI) to pretend that almost all homeowners are happy with their HOA. It’s obvious that millions, even tens of millions of homeowners have been burned by the national HOA scam.

Definitely listen to how this Kansas reporter uncovered the truth about HOAs.

(link to OnTheCommons.net)

 

Seeing Through The Excuses In South Carolina

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

Communication and documentation. Key words in the business world.

Here’s a case of a contractor who sold windows to the HOA. He became ill and unable to perform as promised. He also stopped communicating. Why didn’t he call the contact person and explain he was ill and would be back on the job? Why did he spend the money that was supposed to pay for the windows? Why didn’t he refund the money immediately and apologize for not being able to fulfill the agreement?

As I see it, the HOA paid too much money up front. Why didn’t she get a surety bond to guarantee the work would be done? Why didn’t she require the money be put in an escrow account and withdrawn as needed to pay for the windows and then the labor? Did she talk to other customers of this company? If not, she should have. Did she do an internet search for lawsuits, past and pending?

The loss could have been much greater. Hopefully, the windows will arrive and the contractor will get them installed and all will be well. But if they aren’t this HOA will be in court trying to recover its money and the cost of litigation will more than likely exceed the recovery.

Another lesson learned about board members who lack the experience of negotiating contracts and operating on trust instead of logic. Amateurs managing an HOA? Always a formula for disaster. We’ve seen it happen all across America. And there are times when the best of people with massive business knowledge still get taken.

Who ever thought the HOA concept would ever work must have been out of their minds!

(link to story about HOA mistake)