The Kansas City Star continues to be the premier newspaper providing in-depth news coverage of the national HOA abuse scandal. In this category, at least, the Star is acting like a national newspaper, not a City newspaper. People in all fifty states and Canada are following the expose’ by reporter Judy Thomas and her team. Finally, some true muckraking by a journalist who has the guts to stand up to this massive and corrupt lobby.
She was a 17 year old lifeguard at the Heritage Point HOA swimming pool. She was found in the water by another employee, but he could not jump in and try to save her because the water was electrified.
My heart is broken for her parents, family, and friends who will say a final good-bye to Rachel in the coming days. There will always be the unanswered questions. One will be “why” did this young woman’s life end so soon?
Yup! After a long struggle our friend in Las Vegas, Jonathan Friedrich, has won his lawsuit against a Homeowners Association that tried to claim Jonathan was a member and not only demanded he pay dues, they tried to foreclose on his house.
KTNV’s Darcy Spears has now done a story on Jonathan’s victory. And now Rancho Bel Air is now officially in the Nevada HOA Hall of Shame.
(link to story on Friedrich on KTNV)
I’m not sure how successful this class-action lawsuit will be, but it sure looks interesting. Home and condo owners in Hawaii have long been tortured by abusive HOA boards which have discovered the extreme profitability of seizing and auctioning off homes with no independent court oversight. It’s guaranteed full-time employment for lawyers, and guaranteed future abuse of homeowners, many of them elderly.
(link to story about wrongful foreclosure claims)
I’m not much of a fan of the Huffington Post, but they’re the latest media outlet to try to warn prospective homeowners about the dictatorial power of HOAs. They don’t go deep enough, but at least they touch on a number of the kinds of abuses that all homeowners should be thoroughly educated about.
The main message they don’t hit hard enough is NEVER BUY INTO AN HOA!!! They also don’t warn you how much your property values can collapse in a poorly run association. Ah, well, I guess that’s what the rest of us are for.
