I’ve only met her once during a brief luncheon in Denver, but Molly Dunn is one of a growing number of brave people trying to stand up for the rights of homeowners across America.
She testified before the Massachusetts Legislature to try to plead for more help for homeowners who run afoul of their HOAs. She worked with the staff of Massachusetts Senator Dan Wolf. Wolf has been trying to put some teeth into the law that supposedly requires HOA boards and management companies to let homeowners see the books. But many HOA boards and management companies are very reluctant to do so. A possible reason, Molly says, “is that homeowners might recognize inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the records.”
This one happened right under my nose here in the Denver area. The Denver vicinity, as some of you know, is home to one of the biggest HOA embezzling cases in the country. A management company stole homeowners blind in a largely minority community. But these homeowners were smart enough to catch this jerk. The bitterness, though, never really goes away.
Now there’s another incident, this one in the same part of town. David W. Martin, PMG Enterprises Inc., has had to surrender his state license to manage Homeowners Associations. He may be the first to do so under Colorado’s new licensing law. The law isn’t perfect. It has very few teeth and some appointed state officials who are really out of their league.
On this blog we talk a lot about bad management companies. Tonight, I want to talk about a great one! Mine.
I’ve worked with Dave Watts of ForRentByOwner for nearly 17 years. It’s been a relationship that hasn’t had single hitch in all those years. He’s great, his employees are great. The reason I bring this up is that just yesterday I voiced a promo that he’s entering into a bank contest. It’s cute.
Barry Levinson, a disbarred attorney who was one of the top figures in the massive Las Vegas HOA scam, has died while in federal custody. Now his lawyer is planning to sue the prison system for medical negligence.
The federal HOA investigation was the first of its kind in the country. Forty-two people were convicted, but most were given very light sentences. Officially, about 20 million dollars was stolen from residents in Las Vegas HOAs. But because of the collapse in value of all Las Vegas real estate the impact of the HOA scam rises well above 100 million in losses.
It’s one step at a time, but every milometer of achievements is worth its weight in gold.
In Arizona, one lawyer is trying to get Homeowner Associations to work with homeowners to end the nightmare of lawn Nazis and bully boards. The link below should be an easy way to spend a couple of minutes.
