Tag Archives: HOA corruption

Everybody Loves A Party!

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Some fascinating posters are going around the Internet right now. Remember CAI? The Community Associations Institute? These are the good folks who run America’s managed neighborhoods, handing out excessive fines for minor violations, and hiring lawyers to file liens and lawsuits to take away your homes. They’re the ones who have predatory tow trucks cruising your streets and towing away cars that don’t belong there, like those of friends and relatives. These are the folks who are now doing mandatory DNA cheek swabs on the neighborhood pets, so fines can be handed for each unscooped poop. They are faux governments that have more power than traditional governments. And they don’t recognize such niceties as the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

Oh, and they’re also the ones who madly lobby the Legislatures to make sure Homeowners can never reclaim the Consitutional rights they’ve lost to the modern HOA Movement. And these folks make an amazing amount of money….ALL OF IT from you!

When you have that kind of money, what do you do with it?

Just scroll down and see how appropriate the upcoming Arizona party season seems.

Remember just a few months back when the TSA got hammered for spending taxpayers’ money in this same way?

Ah, but Congress has government oversight over the TSA. Congress has no such oversight over Homeowners Associations.

Go figure.

Don’t Like The Blogger? Sue His Butt!

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They’re often called SLAPP lawsuits, a frivolous suit filed just to shut up an annoying critic. The acronym stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” SLAPPS were sometimes used by major companies to hush up environmentalists. Sometimes it was used the other way around. The bottom line was that lawyers were hired to cause the other side great expense and great anxiety, nothing more, nothing less.

SLAPP lawsuits have made their way into the world of Homeowners Associations, too. If you don’t like the neighborhood critic, just hammer him with a SLAPP lawsuit. But there’s a troubling little annoyance called ‘The First Amendment’, and a troubling little Supreme Court decision called ‘New York Times vs. Sullivan’ that essentially says if you’re a public figure you’ll get nailed if you try to jam up the Free Speech rights of the neighborhood critic. A public figure has to be able to prove ‘actual malice’ in a lawsuit against someone who’s just expressing an honest opinion about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s more complex, of course, but I go into the subject in detail in my new book, “Neighbors At War!”

But the commentary linked below shows that it can be very expensive for an HOA board member to use neighborhood monies to fund a lawsuit against the local loudmouth. Nobody wins in these idiotic SLAPP lawsuits. Everybody loses, that is, with the exception of the lawyers who file and defend such lawsuits. They always make money. That’s why there are so many lawyer jokes in the public discourse.

The wisest words in the story linked below: Get over it. Move on.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/technology/florida-homeowners-association-sues-resident-critical-blog-comments-seeks-identity

Hoo Boy! Let The Lawsuits Begin!

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It’s hard to sue the government. In fact, the federal government actually has to give an injured party permission to sue. Some states have imposed a maximum limit on how much an injured litigant can win in a lawsuit against the state. Colorado, for example, passed a law saying no prevailing party can win more than $250,000 in damages.

Well, that’s changing in the most unexpected ways.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that as tax revenue dries up, and police layoffs occur, wealthier neighborhoods are hiring private security companies to replace the lost police officers.

Whammo! Bammo! Here’s a tort lawyer’s wet dream! Private communities (read Homeowners Associations) are private non-profit corporations. And they do not have government immunity from lawsuits. The run-of-the-mill HOA can be successfully sued for millions and millions and millions of dollars.

Just think, twenty-four hours ago, we read that Trayvon Martin’s parents won an out-of-court settlement from the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association of more than a million dollars. The future for tort lawyers and their clients against Homeowners Associations is golden. Let the lawsuits fly.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0405/As-cities-lay-off-police-frustrated-neighborhoods-turn-to-private-cops?nav=87-frontpage-entryInsideMonitor

It’s spreading! There are more Trayvon Martin type confrontations/lawsuits in the works. This doesn’t amount to dipping your toe in the outhouse sludge. It’s a headlong dive! Hold your breath, Sucker!

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Houston-neighborhood-turns-to-private-security-firm-for-protection–201168841.html

We the People, Screw the People

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Across this grand country of ours, people are waking up to the massive corruption scheme known as the Homeowners Association Movement. This cash cow has transferred billions of dollars from the assets of homeowners into the pockets of the tort industry. No lawyer can afford NOT to represent Homeowners Associations against individual homeowners. And lots of HOA board officials get slipped cash for going along with the program.

Is this writer really serious? Isn’t he a little off his rocker? Organized crime? Didn’t we all think all members of the Mafia were either dead or in prison?

Well, RICO statutes (racketeering) were certainly aimed at the Mafia. But RICO laws were also aimed at any and all white collar crime that crossed state borders and was therefore subject to federal law. It’s under these very statutes that FBI agents raided scores of Homeowners Associations in Nevada, and under these statutes that the U.S. Attorney was able to indict at least forty lawyers, police officials, HOA board officials, political figures, management company executives and others in the last four year’s worth of Federal Grand Jury investigations.

I started this blog off by talking about how people are waking up. Well, so is the massive tort industry. It’s working madly to smash down any legislation aimed at stopping the organized and profitable abuse of homeowners. The latest proposed HOA tort reform is in North Carolina. But it appears from the article linked below that yet another attempt to restore the Bill of Rights to homeowners is being sucked down the tube.

Do you feel ill, yet? You should.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130326/ARTICLES/130329770/1177

Dumb and Dumber on Marco Island, Florida

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Homeowners in the South Seas Condominium on Marco Island, Florida, may soon have to pay a hefty special assessment because of a particularly boneheaded decision by their HOA.

The Feds have consistently said that service dogs are covered under the ADA. An HOA doesn’t get to claim they are pets, if the dog is actually performing services for a disabled person. But this particular HOA obviously doesn’t ‘get it.’ They will.

The South Seas Condominium has been harassing 56 year old resident Larry McKay over his 80-pound boxer. In 2008, McKay contracted MRSA, a usually fatal staph infection that’s hit a number of people in the Southeast. McKay is confined to a wheelchair, and he says the service dog does a number of things for him, such as turning on the lights, and helping him get out of bed.

McKay’s dog helps him with other activities like getting on and off airplanes. The airlines recognize it’s a service dog. This HOA board is apparently too stupid to do the same.

In other parts of the country, such as California, Homeower Associations have been hit with huge fines by the ADA because they insist that all service dogs are merely ‘pets,’ prohibited by the HOA.

McKay has lots of supporters in his condominium. Doesn’t matter. When the FDA slams this condo with a massive fine, each and every condo owner is going to have to fork up some bucks to pay for the idiotic decisions by their HOA board.

A dumb waste of other peoples’ money. But it’s typical. So typical.

By Ward Lucas, author of Neigbors At War! The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/19728171/man-in-dispute-with-hoa-over-service-dog?clienttype=printable

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