Do HOAs ever find true justice when they’re ripped off by property managers? Well, not often. But once in a blue moon a crooked HOA manager is held to account. Well, kind of.
A couple of property managers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were caught with their hands in several HOA cookie jars under their control. Over a two year period they stole more than a hundred thousand bucks.
“No contest! No contest at all!” Judges love to hear those words. It means they can dispose of a case quickly, make the bad guys promise to pay back a few bucks, and not have to bother about putting the bad guys behind bars.
This is a preview of
HOA Justice Is Rare, But Sometimes Happens
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Read the full post (170 words, estimated 41 secs reading time)
Have you noticed over the past couple of years how more and more news media outlets are doing HOA stories? It’s a trend that will continue growing as HOA boards and management companies become more abusive. In fact, when the HOA bubble bursts in the coming housing collapse, HOA homeowners are going to be screaming about their vanishing home equity. They can’t complain that we didn’t try to warn them.
The NBC affiliate in Atlanta is the latest station to become a little more aggressive. Here’s the link to their story.
(link to 11Alive story in Atlanta)
This is a preview of
Another News Station ‘Gets It’ About HOAs
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Read the full post (158 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)
I did a post on this sometime back, but a friend last night urged me to watch this documentary again and then blog about it. So here goes:
The Condo Game is a fabulous documentary about the condo market in Toronto and how unscrupulous developers are ‘scrupling’ the rest of us with their crookedness and irresponsible building practices. And Canadians are just as dumb as Americans as they purchase in these high-rise hellholes. HOAs on steroids and tens of thousands of people are beginning to see how badly they’ve been ripped off.
It’s fantastic news when an HOA board member is convicted of embezzling from all her neighbors. It’s horrible when the judge decides that probation is adequate punishment. Homeowners Associations are mini-governments that should theoretically be governed by the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, board members should be treated and considered as politicians. And an embezzling board member should be treated as a corrupt politician.
There’s a pretty good handful of politicians who’ve been sent to prison for corruption. Think ABSCAM if anybody remembers that one.
guest blog, permission by Donie Vanitzian (LA Times Columnist)
QUESTION: For more than two years, I’ve experienced nothing but problems with my homeowner association board and management. They are uncooperative and obstructive. After eliminating all my administrative remedies, I now believe the only way to fix these serious problems is to sue them.
I’ve interviewed three attorneys, but each is requiring a retainer of at least $20,000. Realizing I don’t have enough money to sue the board and the association, I asked each attorney to take the case on a contingency basis. No attorney would agree to that.
