Tag Archives: HOA corruption

The Las Vegas HOA Corruption Investigation Gets More Complicated

No Comments

Federal investigators trying to squeeze the corruption out of Las Vegas Homeowners Associations are just dying (or at least their clients are). How can you run an investigation when your chief witnesses keep ending up drowning in bathtubs, hanging from barn rafters.

Suddenly, swindlers who agreed to rat out fellow conspirators are getting nervous. They’re telling their own attorneys to walk back previous confessions.

But a wilder thing happens when civil lawyers try to bully their way into the feds’ investigation. They start filing civil lawsuits against the chief witnesses in the federal investigation. Those witnesses realize for the first time they’ll be tied up in the courts for years. Offers from the feds to “protect” their witnesses start ringing hollow. And witnesses start acting like rats on the Titanic.

So much corruption. And any ability for the feds to prosecute Organized Crime in the HOA system, begins to fade. It just fades away.

All that work, and entire investigations can just turn to…dust.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Trayvon and Zimmerman: Some Reporters “Get It”

No Comments

Not many reporters understand how dangerous Homeowner Associations are. It took the death of Trayvon Martin, but Mary Shanklin of the Orlando Sentinel showed she “gets it.”

Her story of March 29, 2012 is about the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida. That’s where Trayvon Martin died, allegedly at the hands of HOA crime-watch captain George Zimmerman.

Understand that this blogger has absolutely no opinion about who’s guilty or innocent in Trayvon’s death. But I do have some observations based on forty years of experience covering the courts.

Lawyers are schooling around this case like sharks on a whale carcass. Lawsuits are going to be filed by both Trayvon Martin’s family and by George Zimmerman. Whichever lawyer gets involved in the case will become a millionaire whether he wins or loses. And who are the ones who’ll have to come up with all those millions? The 200 townhome owners at The Retreat at Twin Lakes.

They all bought homes at The Retreat, thinking they were buying their way into a bit of financial safety. Many of them are elderly and they figured this Homeowner’s Association would protect their retirement savings forever. Well, welcome to the American System of Civil Justice.

Each and every one of these homeowners signed documents that essentially pooled all of their equity, all of their retirement savings into a common pot. They may even have bought insurance to indemnify their HOA against frivolous lawsuits. But all those insurance policies have limits, and this is one limit that’s going to be exceeded by millions of dollars.

It doesn’t matter who wins or loses the various lawsuits. The finances of these HOA members are going to be shredded. By joining an HOA, each of these homeowners created a “deep pocket,” and deep pockets are like rotting meat. They attract flies.

No homeowner can move out of this nightmare. These HOA members have handcuffed themselves together forever. It’ll take two or three years. But check back with me to see if my prediction comes true.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

One of the Heroes in the Fight

No Comments

CalHomeLaw.org is one of the heroes in the heroes in fight against abuse by Homeowners Associations. It costs a few bucks to join, but the average member will be paid back many times in advice and information. It’s designed for California residents but every homeowner in the country can profit from their wisdom and research.

Anyway, in their 2/25/12 email, CalHomeLaw notes how debt collectors cut their own throats in a meeting of the California Legislature. The Radcliffs were an elderly disabled couple in Calaveras County. For some reason, the couple overlooked a $120 annual assessment. The debt collector, Coast Assessment Collection, claimed the couple had been legally served with papers. During questioning, the company admitted that it had stapled the notice of foreclosure to a tree on the far side of the Radcliff’s property.

Angry senators then introduced SB137, a bill to clean up predatory collection practices. The new law demands that notices of foreclosure be physically put into the hands of those targeted for foreclosure. You can’t mail it, you can’t toss it on the porch, it has to be in the homeowner’s hands.

Also, the HOA initiating the foreclosure has to follow a number of other new procedures to make sure that homes aren’t whipped away from the owners. Dispute resolution is mandated.

Still, CalHomeLaw notes that many HOA debt collectors continue the old practices and haven’t improved their behavior.

Ah. Almost forgot to tell you. (dang my fading memory!) Most of the HOA debt collectors are law firms or subdivisions of law firms. (How could I forget that?)

CalHomeLaw.org has the whole sordid story posted.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Nancy Quon Didn’t Commit Suicide

No Comments

Use your heads, folks. Of course the coroner will rule suicide, That’s a given. But across this world hundreds and hundreds of millions of people take a bath with a glass, or even a bottle of wine, and they don’t end up dead. How come only Nancy Quon has a glass of wine and dies in a bathtub?

Sure, she was under stress. She was about to testify that up to 120 others in the legal, political and Homeowner Association industry were just as dirty as she was. Nancy Quon, all by herself, crashed the dreams of millions of homeowners in Nevada. But she had the ego to think she could skate from under all those federal charges. A woman with that kind of arrogance doesn’t kill herself. She believes in herself right to the very bitter end.

The coroner will rule suicide because he really has no other choice. Suicide is the easy answer. Suicide is the only answer. But when you hear that conclusion it will be a bald-faced lie.

Let’s look at the facts: at least 120 people wanted Nancy Quon dead. They hated her. Their life savings were stolen by her. Every hope and dream they ever had were robbed from them and they hated her with a passion.

And yes, there was even a previous murder attempt by one of her partners. His thumb-sucking amateur attempt went wrong for a hundred different reasons, but Nancy Quon’s days were numbered. Too many people, big and small, knew about her to ever let her get near a witness stand. That could never ever happen.

The Feds knew what she had. She’s been talking to them for months, mostly trying to talk herself out of a prison cell. But she’s been talking, naming names, places, dates, and if they ever got her onto a witness stand the entire state of Nevada would collapse. Her theft of a couple hundred million dollars pales in comparison to what others have stolen.

I’m just a grizzled old reporter, one who’s watched this scene play out in a hundred courtrooms over a forty year career. I’ve watched it happen in a dozen different ways. But just remember my words. Nancy Quon did not commit suicide.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Midwest Residents Latest to be Hit by Embezzlers

No Comments

People in Kansas and Missouri Homeowner Associations must have wondered why they weren’t being hit by embezzlers. Were they just more honest, maybe luckier? Maybe people in the Midwest just respect each other a little more?

But then, maybe not. The feds in Las Vegas have learned how the corrupt HOA system is bleeding dollars away from homeowners across the nation. Now U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips theft has released info that should shock a lot more homeowners.

She has arrested the owner of a Kansas City business for stealing more than 750,000 dollars of money from his neighbors. And he has pleaded guilty. Dozens of homeowners associations were hit while 53 year old Dale Palmar of Kansas City, Missouri just raked it in.

I’ve argued at length that wherever you look in this country, you’ll see the signs; homeowners being excessively fined for minor infractions, insurance money that’s supposedly paid, but just doesn’t quite lead to the expected repairs.

The message is crystal clear: the HOA movement is one of the most corrupt institutions this country has ever witnessed. The loss of money through the HOA system is massive and almost unprecedented. When you sign those CC&Rs just remember you’re putting your retirement savings, your equity into the hands of all your neighbors.

Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)