Tag Archives: HOA Abuse

Oh! My Goodness…Imagine THIS Happening In A Condo Association

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
My title might have been the reaction back in the 1960’s.  Since then HOAs and COAs have come a long way in the development of dishonest business practices, deception, and embezzlement.
 
$81K was all they could charge the COA treasurer, Kostantina Gardner with stealing.  But they are sure it’s more than that.  Folks, I promise you it’s more…probably a whole lot more!
 
If not for the water bills being $55K in arrears this might have gone on for another twenty years. Clifford Albertson has been the board president since dirt was invented and he trusted this well-liked treasurer.  
 
I have some questions for Clifford: 
 
1) How did she get an ATM card on the BonAire Condominium One Complex bank account?  
This should have been established long ago that no one could walk in and acquire an ATM card!
 
2) Why was the board not reviewing the water bills? 
 
(a) And the other utility bills? 
 
(b) And most of all the bank statements?!?!?
 
 
Folks, we must change the way we think!  
 
We lock the car door when we get out.  We bolt the house shut, turn on the alarm, and illuminate the exterior.  We take steps to avoid being caught up in identity theft.  We teach our children about “stranger danger.”  We place lanyards on the elderly for a medical alert. We dance in circles and jump up and down warning our daughters about “date rape” drugs.  We cross the street and walk faster with our pepper spray ready when we see a teenager in a “hoodie.”
 
Yes, we do it ALL to protect ourselves YET we totally trust the people we should be the most suspicious of….the HOA board and the property managers!  STOP IT!  Stop trusting these people. They know you trust them by not paying attention and never asking any questions.  Stop giving them the freedom to steal, deceive, lie, and destroy your bank account and property values!
 
Think about it…If just one member of this condo association had asked to see the water bill or the bank statement this thief could have been caught long ago!  
 
Remember: the word TRUST and HOAs or COAs or property managers should never be used in the same sentence! 
 

 

Can They Really Do That?

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Can an HOA which dissolved itself really come back to life and start liening homes?

Can an HOA refuse to disclose its budget to homeowners?

Sadly, we get questions like these all the time. And the answer: An HOA can do whatever the heck it wants, whenever the heck it wants and there’s very little you as a homeowner can do about it.

Sure, you’ll read lots of ‘pablum’ like in the story linked below on how homeowners can ‘reclaim’ their neighborhoods. But it’s mostly junk information. The bottom line is that if you, as a homeowner can get screwed you probably will get screwed. Get used to it. It’s a fact of life. Of course there are laws on the books all over the country. There are laws against infidelity, too. But when’s the last time you saw anyone criminally prosecuted for it?

There really is an answer for homeowners who want their boards to follow the law. Create mandatory criminal penalties for board members or HOA managers who break the law. Throw them in jail. After all, these board members ran for office promising to be honest. Just like a Congressman who breaks the public trust, nothing will ever, ever change until we start filling our jails with public officials who refused to honor the public trust.

Jail!

Nothing else will work.

(link to nonsense article about getting HOAs to obey the law)

http://newstimes.augusta.com/news/2014-06-01/ivy-falls-home-owners-divided-over-revived-association

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helping Candidates Helps to Educate

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

You may remember my blog on May 10, 2014 about helping political candidates with their campaigns.

The time of year for that massive undertaking has arrived. I was happy to offer my help when I saw one of our Kansas legislators walking door to door on the campaign trail.

This resulted in a very interested call from Astrid. To protect her I will not be using her real name. Astrid was asking for my help to call registered voters to get their agreement for the candidate to place the campaign signs on wire hangers in their yards. The big issue of course: HOAs! We discussed the laws in Kansas about the signs and I gave her the state statute numbers. And then I asked the BIG question!

Yes, Astrid lives in a HOA with her politician husband and she has another family member, an attorney, who also lives in an HOA. We spent about a half hour talking about HOAs, property managers, the CAI, Ward’s book, Evan McKenzie’s books, George Staropoli’s books, and Shu Bartholomew’s radio show. Astrid was shocked. She had no idea of the real truth about her HOA. But she did tell me they had recently gotten their board president booted. She had to rally the neighbors to get him voted out, but she got the job done! <applause>

I expressed to Astrid that I feel Realtors should be required to disclose information about the HOAs or condo associations BEFORE they even show the client the property. Using the example of when you go to the hospital to have surgery. The check-in representative asks if you know you are there to have your right kidney removed and you confirm. The prep nurse asks if you are there to have your right kidney removed, and the surgical nurse, and finally the doctor asks the same question. Before the mask is placed over your nose to send you into a deep sleep you are rest-assured that everybody knows you are not there for an appendectomy! Astrid said, “I know you are right because I did have my right kidney removed and they even marked my body with a pen!”

Okay, so you’ve got the idea that the medical field is making every effort to avoid a malpractice lawsuit. I think the home selling and buying, HOA, and Condo industry should follow the same policies! Astrid said, but nobody would buy then. EXACTLY, Astrid is 100% correct! If buyers knew the truth about HOAs and COAs they would not buy into these nightmares with massive risks for losing their life savings and homes.

If the American Medical Association is supporting these step by step confirmations before surgery, why isn’t the CAI and the Board of Realtors Association doing the same for the housing industry? Therein lies the 40 Billion dollar question for one and the “how would we make a living” for the latter.

We are now more than ever, demanding transparency, integrity, and hopefully the following of our US Constitution from our legislators. We’ve had enough and the polls are starting to show it. Shouldn’t we be demanding the same from those who are selling us the biggest investment of our lifetime?

If we’re able to say, no my appendix is fine, I’m here for my right kidney to be removed. Shouldn’t we also be able to say, NO to an HOA or condo association before we’re shown the property? Why do we have to be subjected to the sales pitch about the beauty of living in the HOA community if we are informed of the truth in advance that we are signing away our US Constitutional Rights, becoming business partners with all of our neighbors in a non-profit corporation, and the HOA has the legal right to assess us to the point our bank accounts could be drained down to pennies.

Don’t we have a RIGHT TO KNOW this before we’re sitting at the table signing our signature on legally binding documents? And the moving van is loaded with all of our possessions because we’ve sold our HOA-FREE property to somebody smarter than we are! I say, yes we do have that right and that needs to be the message we are sending to our legislators along with our fight to end the days of abusive HOAs.

Gotta go, time to hit the campaign trail!

More Collapse Gar-bage’

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In keeping with our theme of the past few nights (the predicted financial collapse of the HOA neighborhood as we know it) here’s another fascinating perspective. This one comes from the gurus at the IMF, that bastion of financial ethics that seems to rule the world and tell us when and where and by how much our currencies will collapse.

Please keep in mind I’m not an economist. My degree was in Political Science, which is kind of a safe haven major when you’re flunking college economics. But I still find the IMF predictions as reported in the Financial Times fascinating.

(Yah, yah, yah, I’ll quit taking yours if you quit taking mine. But here’s the obligatory Financial Times disclaimer:) 

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91bf83de-f17f-11e3-a2da-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz34NGZQbmt

IMF sounds global housing alarm

By Robin Harding in Washington

The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday, as it published new data showing house prices are well above their historical average in many countries.

The warning from the IMF shows how an acceleration in global house prices from already high levels has emerged as one of the major threats to economic stability, with countries making limited progress in keeping them under control.

Min Zhu, the IMF’s deputy managing director, said the tools for containing housing booms were “still being developed” but that “this should not be an excuse for inaction”.

House prices “remain well above the historical averages for a majority of countries” in relation to incomes and rents, Mr Zhu said in a speech to the Bundesbank last week, which was only released on Wednesday because it clashed with a European Central Bank announcement.

In the wake of the global recession central bankers have cut interest rates to record lows, pushing house prices to a level that the IMF regards as a significant risk to economies as diverse as Hong Kong and Israel.

In Canada, for example, house prices are 33 per cent above their long-run average in relation to incomes and 87 per cent above their long-run average compared with rents. The figures for the UK are 27 per cent relative to incomes and 38 per cent relative to rents.

The IMF’s new global house price index shows a fresh acceleration, with prices up by 3.1 per cent on a year ago. House prices are rising fastest in emerging markets, with prices up more than 10 per cent on a year ago in the Philippines, 9 per cent in China and 7 per cent in Brazil.

“In some cases house prices are recovering from a sharp correction during the Great Recession,” Mr Zhu said. “In other cases, house prices have continued an upward march with only a bit of moderation during the Great Recession.”

Mr Zhu said that even though the tools for controlling house prices were new, countries must start using them immediately. He pointed to options including limits on mortgage lending relative to house values and incomes; higher capital requirements for banks making risky loans; and stamp duties to damp foreign demand for investment properties. (exactly what Neighbors At War has been predicting!)

“We need to move from ‘benign neglect’ to an ‘all of the above’ approach when it comes to policy choices,” said Mr Zhu, adding that policy makers could combat the shortcomings of different approaches with “the interlocking use of multiple tools”.

In the US, house prices are rising fast but not overvalued, coming in at 13.4 per cent below their long-run average relative to incomes, and 2.6 per cent above their long-run average relative to rents, according to the IMF’s numbers.

The world’s cheapest housing market is Japan, where housing is 41 per cent below its long-run average relative to incomes and 38 per cent relative to rents. Germany and Estonia also appear cheap, with prices in both more than 10 per cent below their long-run average compared with incomes and rents.

(NAW editor’s note: Robin Harding’s story is a good one and has fascinating charts and further implications which the IMF says prove the worldwide housing collapse is coming. It certainly is worth subscribing to.)

 

 

This Collapse Ain’t So Funny

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Last night’s blog referred you to a comedic look at those predicting a financial and housing tsunami, but this link isn’t comedic and it isn’t satirical. I suppose I don’t mind spreading the word about interesting and pertinent books, since many of my blog readers have supported my own HOA book. But this guy should really be taken seriously.

James Rickards’ new book looks at the approaching financial calamity and explains that there’s really no safe harbor for any of us. An avalanche is triggered by a single snowflake. A world financial collapse is triggered by some no-name company that goes broke at precisely the wrong time.

As an extreme HOA pessimist and critic I would never urge people to dump their HOA homes. But if I honestly believed that the pending financial collapse will claim HOA residents among its first victims, I would be remiss in not alerting you to look for safe harbor.

(link to financial collapse)

http://etfdailynews.com/2014/05/27/james-rickards-financial-collapse-and-massive-shortages-in-gold-coming/