Tag Archives: Federal investigators

Now, South Carolina

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Slowly, but surely state legislators are hearing from bullied homeowners that the national HOA scam is ruining lives. And more news agencies are doing stories on out-of-control boards. The story linked below is from South Carolina which has a growing number of homeowner complaints.

Legislators tell themselves, “Of course, we can pass some laws.” Only problem is they can’t. The U.S. Constitution guarantees the ‘right to contract.’ And you certainly can sign a contract to give up your constitutional rights. That’s the rub. Florida’s Deborah Goonan has it right when she says at least we can license HOA management companies. That’s a good start. But it won’t end the nightmare of board members who feel entitled and empowered to throw their weight around.

Still, the more people who complain to legislators, the better. Ultimately, though, the solution has to come from the courts.

(link to homeowner complaints in South Carolina)

 

 

To Counter-Act C.A.I. Disinformation

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The Community Associations Institute (CAI) is famous for testifying before state legislatures that it represents all homeowners living in HOAs. Absolute nonsense. In the beginning it probably did. But in the early 1990s a conscious decision was made to turn the organization into a referral group, sending high-dollar referrals in HOA disputes to its member lawyers, property managers and contractors. Under its phony non-profit shield it sent out surveys on how satisfied Americans were with their Homeowners Associations.

Whoa! Any legitimate, honest survey of homeowners living under the HOA yoke should have told a far different story. Finally, some in the anti-HOA movement are releasing studies which appear to be far more legitimate than the pablum being spread by the CAI. It’s hard to get legislators to pay attention to what they see as a non-issue. But surveys like the one linked below tell a more interesting story about homeowner dissatisfaction and abuse.

(link online survey of homeowners, real estate professionals and homeowner associations)

Also, housing consumer advocate Deborah Goonan was interviewed about this story today by Shu Bartholomew, host of OnTheCommons.net. It really is worth listening to.

 

 

Victories Are Rare!

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It’s not often when a beleaguered homeowner gets a chance to beat up a bullying Homeowners Association, but I do love to see it happen.

I remember my own battles with a Homeowners Association in Morrison, Colorado. My wife had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She had no visible symptoms whatsoever, but the president of the HOA said he would not allow ANY accommodations for a disability. He told us, “well, you’ll just have to move downtown.” I was blown away at his bluntness. But this HOA president, Hatch Wroton, told me, “You know, in a restaurant people just kind of lose their appetite around gimps. They don’t want to see them.”

That was my new awakening that HOAs were too exclusive for blacks, gays, Jews and ‘gimps’ like my wife. Wroton was the former Martin Marietta scientist who designed some of the spacecraft which were destined to land on Mars. But this neighborhood will never escape from the legacy of this anti-Semitic, anti-homosexual, anti-Negro board and its president. There are others to take their place, of course, and the hatred will wax and wane.

But the message is that the extreme bigotry of my HOA is NOT unique. It goes on everywhere.

The story linked below is about a disabled Marine pilot from California who was also treated horribly. They wouldn’t give him access to the community swimming pool. It apparently made the other residents uncomfortable. Never mind that the federal government found their actions illegal. There’s a settlement. The HOA insurance company will pay the elderly couple a hundred thousand bucks if they just take their disabled, disfigured military hero to some other neighborhood.

Photographed in July 2013, Cynthia Campbell kisses her husband, Allen Campbell, to calm him down after he talked about his complaint with their homeowners association. The retired South Natomas couple have settled the case for a six-figure sum – provided they move out after they accused their homeowners association of denying Allen Campbell, a disabled former Marine pilot, access to the community pool.

(link to story on disabled Marine)

 

Another Take On Ahmed

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All of a sudden, the boy arrested and kicked out of school for bringing a homemade clock to school is generating wild comments from columnists on both sides of the political aisle. “Racism!” yell some. “He deserved it!” yell others.

I’m among those who are appalled that this youngster was treated so harshly. And even though I was actually one of the reporters who covered the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado, I still think reactionary politicians are trying to create a national police state starting with our schools. Heck, when I was growing up we didn’t even get an annual school visit from Officer Friendly. Today, there are cops at every school doorway and inspections of every lunch box before kids can get to class. What gives? Is our society really so violent that we have be such knee-jerk fear-mongers?

It got me thinking: How quickly is school violence growing in our country? I thought readers of this blog might be interested if I could show a graph of how rapidly school violence is escalating. That’s what Wiki is for, isn’t it?

Well, I guess I was surprised. I actually found a pretty thorough list of school shootings dating all the way back to the 1700s! Keep in mind that there are currently 100,000 public schools in this country. Look at the number of school shootings and ask yourself, “Is it possible that this country is massively overreacting to the raging torrent of over-hyped headlines?

(link to list of school shootings in America)

You be the judge.

 

Failed Condos: Tax Burdens, Social Problems

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guest blog by Deborah Goonan

For many months I have been following multiple news reports involving Blossom Park Condominium in Orlando, Florida. Blossom Park is a former motel that had been converted to condos about a decade ago. Its units were sold at “affordable” prices, most of them promptly leased to tenants. When the recession hit, so did mortgage defaults. Many owners stopped paying their condo assessments. The condo association couldn’t pay its water utility bills. Within a few years, the aging structure began to deteriorate. The stairways have been deemed unsafe by Orange County building inspectors. The building has been deemed hazardous. The pool has become a slimy green swamp.

For the past 4 or 5 years, no one has served on the Board, and the court had to appoint a receiver. The first receiver was later ousted and replaced by a second receiver. For several years, a criminal element has taken up residence in some of the units. Drug dealers prey upon the residents, mostly tenants, and now Blossom Park has become notorious as a site for drug overdoses. Several fatal shootings have occurred there as well.

Orange County has been trying to relocate residents for months. At this point, only about 40 remain, and half of those are reportedly squatters. Just take a look at the deplorable living conditions. The County has already poured millions of dollars into emergency services, crime control, relocation services, and social services.

But the social costs to condo owners, affected residents, and the surrounding communities are immeasurable.

What if you were one of the owners who bought into this condo conversion back in the early days, the very first person in your family to ever own a home, hoping this would be your small piece of the American Dream? And what if that dream became a nightmare, when you could no longer afford rising assessments? What if your home became worthless as your community started to crumble around you? What if you could not feel safe in your own home?

Imagine if you were a child forced to grow up in this environment, because your family had nowhere else to go. How would you feel? What would you do?

The sad fact is that Blossom Park is but one example of many failed condominium (and homeowners) associations. The housing concept that was supposed to improve upon financially impoverished cities – common ownership governed by private homeowners associations – has ultimately resulted in the lowest home ownership rate since the 1960s.

(link to home ownership in lowest level since 1960s)

(11 heroin overdoses at Blossom Park Condos)

(55 arrests since heroin overdoses near Blossom Park)