Tag Archives: Foreclosures

HOAs Demand Police Power!

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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.

Homeowner Ken Poris lives in the Lake Holiday Property Owners Association. Four years ago he was issued a ticket for going 34 in a 25, and he’s been fighting it ever since. He wasn’t pulled over by the cops. He was pulled over by the HOA’s private security guard. The guard even confiscated Polis’s driver’s license. The Lake Holiday HOA claims it has an unrestricted right to fine homeowners, EVEN IF THE HOMEOWNER HIMSELF WAS NOT IN THE CAR!

This private security guard’s radar was not even licensed as required by federal law.

Something has gone seriously awry in the American Homeowners Association Movement. If you, Dear Reader, are not screaming from the rooftops about this fraud, this complete collapse of Constitutional rights, then you will mightily deserve the society you get!

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/39/3956.asp

 

Good Lawyers? God Forbid!

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It’s not often that I post blogs from lawyers or law firms in the HOA industry. But when one of them truly ‘gets it’, they deserve praise. Jean Winters, an attorney who frequently blogs and answers questions in Florida’s Sun Central, occasionally shows a spark of brilliance. I’d be dishonest if I didn’t pass such material along.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/condoblog/2012/11/thanksgiving-a-time-of-reflecting-on-how-to-create-harmony-in-your-community.html

 

Sign The Petition, Dummy!

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LOL! Forgive me, but I’m corrupt enough to use any kind of inflammatory headline to get you to read deeper. And no, of course you are not dummies…UNLESS you refuse to consider signing the petition to the White House composed by George Staropoli, a man who is a giant in the world of HOA reason and Constitutionalism.

The left is all abuzz about a few on the right who are proposing seceeding from the Republic because of the results of the last election. First, those well-meaning people have an absolute right to propose secession to express their opinion. Second, secession won’t work, that’s what national elections are all about. If you don’t like it, vote for someone new in the next election. Just change it.

But the third point is a whopper! And it took someone of Staropoli’s clear-headed thinking to come up with it.

Homeowners Associations, as private non-profit corporations, preside over traditional neighborhoods, acting exactly like traditional governments. They impose taxes, create laws that govern private behavior, exert police power or police-like power, levy fines, and often seize and auction the homes of tragic ‘miscreants’ who don’t understand the de-fact powers possessed by Homeowners Associations.

Folks, whether you accept it or not, Homeowners Associations have already seceeded from the Union. That’s right! They constitute a parallel government that often operates outside the confines of traditional Constitutionally controlled government. And that’s scary.

Across the country there are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of cases where HOAs have taken thuggish legal action against homeowners for no other reason than they are black, oriental, hispanic, gay, single, female or handicapped. Federal discrimination laws be damned!

So, to bring this full circle: George Staropoli is circulating a petition to the White House to try to show the growing movement of homeowners who’ve educated themselves and become concerned about this “Shadow Government.” It is definitely a matter of concern. 20% of our populace now lives in neighborhoods where a member cannot rely on traditional Constitutional protections.

So, Dummy! Click on the link below, and SIGN THE PETITION!

http://pvtgov.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/white-house-petititon-to-defend-us-citizenship-of-people-in-hoas/

 

 

 

Ten Million Dollar Kick In The Teeth!

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The HOA world is buzzing about a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed against the Henderson, Nevada Police Department. It’s a lawsuit that could throw a massive punch in the face of the American HOA movement, especially those which use coersive tactics to intimidate HOA critics.

This really is a wild case. Two elderly residents of Sun City Anthem HOA in Nevada, tried to warn other homeowners that the board was illegally stashing millions of dollars of excess dues instead of returning them to residents. Any organization that doesn’t report such excess collections can face heavy IRS fines.

The board refused to pay attention to the complainants, so the two ‘agitators’ reported the apparent tax fraud to the Henderson Police Department. Keep in mind that a Federal Grand Jury was already prosecuting massive fraud among Nevada Homeowners Associations.

According to the mens’ lawsuit, the Sun City Anthem HOA filed a complaint with Henderson P.D. accusing the two men of filing a false police report. The cops then busted the two men, stripped them, handcuffed the two men to a vertical bar in the city jail, and left them for four hours. The men, one of them a retired Air Force officer, were appropriately outraged.

Their outrage grew as the IRS agreed that the HOA was indeed operating illegally and levied some heavy fines.

Now Col. Robert Frank (ret’d) and Tim Stebbins are suing the City of Henderson for false arrest, false imprisonment and a number of other allegations. The reverberations from this lawsuit could be massive; and massively fun to watch.

Can’t you feel the squirming among HOA board members everywhere?

Future HOA Hero

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I’ve said it before and will say it again. One of the upcoming heroes of the fight against rogue HOAs is Rodney Gray, from Texas. He’s now got a rough cut of his upcoming documentary, “The HOAx.” It’s wonderfully filmed and edited, and Rodney is an expert movie maker. He’s got an update on the documentary, and I’ve linked his site below.

http://thehoaxfilm.com/2012/11/07/how-production-of-the-hoax-began-in-my-own-neighborhood/