The article linked below is stunning! Although this embezzler is not connected with an HOA, just consider this: if an undetected embezzler can steal $50 million from a small town, how much could an HOA management company steal from the 20 or 30 HOAs it oversees?
Unbelievable and stunning! Fifty million dollars! Watch your HOA like a hawk!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/prosecutor-embezzlement-plea-warning-17721685
There’s a pretty good column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle about how the financial meltdown has impacted condo owners. Foreclosures and walkaways hammered the budgets of HOAs, not just in Atlanta, but all over the country. This columnist claims the market has turned around.
But wait! Wait! Financial news on the international and national scale is not good. In fact it’s somewhat bleak. The next decade could be a financial home wrecker. Pray for the best, plan for the worst.
Still, the column linked below is worth reading
For some odd reason, Homeowners Associations hate solar panels. The hate the idea of solar energy. They hate people who don’t hate solar energy and they’re willing to sue into oblivion any homeowner who dares put solar panels on his house.
In Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed an act permitting solar panels anywhere in the state. But the Azalea Gardens Homeowners Association in Shreveport apparently feels the law doesn’t affect them. They may be right, since they’re considered a private non-profit corporation. HOAs traditionally think that they’re above the law.
In any event, the link below from KTBS TV tells the story and shows video of the TV station being thrown out of the HOA meeting, even though it was an invited guest of homeowner Brian Salvatore.
http://www.ktbs.com/news/Man-Catches-Heat-Over-Solar-Panels/-/144844/17322526/-/dqcmx9z/-/index.html
The Bank of America lawsuit against dozens of Nevada Homeowners Associations chugs onward. Earlier this Fall, B of A filed a federal lawsuit claiming that HOAs were illegally charging excessive collection fees and arbitrary fines against homeowners who committed minor infractions of HOA rules and covenants.
In one such case, a family in North Las Vegas moved out of their home and attempted to short sell it through the Bank of America. But the HOA in question decided the home in question had too many pine needles and weeds on the property, and they filed a lien against the home. Although the initial fine was only a few hundred dollars, the HOA dramatically escalated its fines and costs to more than $16,500. That made the home virtually unsaleable.
In another case (reported by Darcy Spears, KTNV-TV in Las Vegas), homeowner Char Vanderveen had her home seized by the Mountain’s Edge Homeowners Association. The HOA sold her $700,000 home for $7000, less than one percent of its true value.
There are hundreds, if not thousands or even tens of thousands of similar cases.
Bank of America says that kind of thing is happening all over Nevada and they want a federal judge to intervene. Any kind of major judgment against Nevada HOAs could cost them millions of dollars. HOA board members and their attorneys are now whining that if they lose the case, the costs will have to be assessed against all other homeowners.
To refer back to the headline of this story, would you buy a home in an HOA that’s potentially facing multi-million dollar judgments, legal fees and huge special assessments against all homeowners? Wouldn’t you be stupid to do so?
This blogger has repeatedly said that embezzling in American HOAs is almost universal. There are no controls, and where there are no controls human beings universally drop to their lowest ethical level. Another example popped up in Davenport, Florida.
HOA president David Meadows has been arrested for allegedly stealing a half million dollars from his Homeowners Association. One resident, Danielle Groth, says it’s routine for her HOA to charge $100 a day for such things as cigarette butts on the ground to kids’ toys in the yard or the wrong style of window blinds.
The Florida State Attorney Generals office says a lot of that money ended up in David Meadows pocket.
The Bimini Bay Homeowners Association. Such a lovely place to live!
